Residents of Welwyn Road who live in the vicinity of the post office near the strip mall have most recently been plagued with too many quality-of-life issues. Traffic, parking problems, noise, and constant bus traffic all day long have made it very difficult to continue to live here. And take a look at the condition of Welwyn Road between the station and the post office. It looks worse than in any inner-city neighborhood, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Are we, on Welwyn Road, the stepchildren of the Village of Great Neck Plaza?
I was pleased to read Anna Kaplan’s letter of Dec. 14. Her letter cited neighborhood residents’ concerns that the proposed development of Yeshiva Beth Eliyahu would “seriously undermine the quality of life in their residential neighborhoods.” How fortunate for the area residents that Mrs. Kaplan is working to “ensure that the character and integrity of the residential community is properly considered…”.
Dan Glaun’s recent article, “Mexican restaurant faces opposition from neighbors” deals with the same subject. A Mexican restaurant wants to open in the former site of Carousel, located on the bottom floor of the Wychwood luxury coop building.
According to Glaun’s article, Wychwood residents “condemned the project, citing potential problems with noise, traffic and quality of life.” Glaun stated that “resident Mark Bomser warned that traffic and loitering could quickly become unacceptable to residents and expressed concerns that a new restaurant could(…)end up venting odors into the coop’s private garden.”
After an impasse between a multitude of neighborhood residents and the prospective restaurateur, Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender acknowleged, “It’s maybe not the right spot. We’re going to have an inherent problem from day one.”
The Wychwood is one of the largest buildings in the Village of Great Neck Plaza.
Regarding the opening of a restaurant in the building, our mayor was faced with many residents who were concerned about their quality of life. Even though this town is filled with vacant commercial space, it wouldn’t look good for our mayor to allow a business that might negatively impact the quality of many people’s lives. She would be criticized by too many people, and, after all, she has obligations to do right by her constituents.
We who live in the apartments on Welwyn Road in the vicinity of the post office are not so fortunate. I live in the small garden apartment opposite the post office. Over seven years ago, Mayor Celender approved a conditional use contract for Tulip Bar and Grill, located at 4 Welwyn Road and adjacent to my building, to run a Turkish restaurant with a Saturday night nightclub component that remained open until 2 am and offered music and entertainment.
Nightclub patrons partied every Saturday night for four or five hours, drinking heavily, congregating on the street, making excessive noise, blasting loud music from their car radios, fighting, and depriving us of our night’s sleep every Saturday night. On Sunday mornings we were faced with trash and vomit all over the grounds surrounding Tulip. None of the nightclub patrons were Great Neck residents.
Two and a half years ago, Tulip was taken over by Sandeep Mehan. He added an Indian menu to the existing one, but kept the nightclub component. The nightclub remained open until 2 a.m. or later. Mehan even went as far as turning off the front lights at his mandated 2 a.m. closing time while allowing nightclub patrons to remain inside for another hour or two. (This information is a matter of public record, corroborated village trustees, village surveillance and residents, and can be read in the transcripts of the village meetings.)
After many complaints, the village set back Tulip’s closing time to 1 a.m., citing multiple violations of its conditional-use contract. However, Mehan came before the village implying that the village was putting him out of business, saying that he needed the extra time to do business in this poor economy.
Not wanting to be responsible for putting a business out of business, village officials immediately rewarded him for his bad behavior by extending his closing time to 1:30 a.m. They continued to allow his after-hours nightclub to run, disregarding the constant violations of Tulip’s mandated closing time and a variety other provisions set forth in Tulip’s conditional-use permit.
The detrimental effects to neighborhood residents went unheeded. What the village officials didn’t consider was that they would not have been responsible for putting Tulip out of business; by his own actions, Mehan’s consistent flouting of his conditional-use contract should have been the decisive factor.
Seven months ago, due to a storm, Tulip Bar and Grill suffered physical damage that caused it to be closed for structural repairs. Now they are going to reopen momentarily. During the period of Tulip’s tenure, my husband and I were deprived of our sleep every Saturday night, which took a serious toll on our health.
In the seven months that Tulip was closed, in which we were “allowed” to have a full night’s sleep every night of the week, our excessively high blood pressure, as well as other stress-related conditions coming from sleep deprivation, have alleviated.
There are only 12 apartments in my building. All the apartments that face north or west overlook either Welwyn Road or the driveway adjacent to Tulip Bar and Grill. (Unfortunately for me, my apartment has both north and west exposures, so we feel the brunt of the disturbances.)
Unlike the situation in the Wychwood where there was a multitude of complainants, there were not enough residents in my small building to make enough noise for the mayor to feel any obligation to do right by such a small number. Although turnover in my building has been very small in past years, over the past two years, six apartments (of 12 in the building) have been sold, several below market value, many because of the lack of quality of life and the disregard of the village officials to consider us.
One of my neighbors had to spend thousands of dollars to install soundproof windows so she wouldn’t be forced out of her home.
When Tulip reopens, will we once again need to face declining health? Should there be a Saturday night nightclub adjacent to a residential building? Should catered parties with music and increased traffic and noise be allowed at other times?
I do think that our mayor should not be duplicitous, and give the same consideration to a small group as a large one. It is her responsibility to ensure us that our quality of life and health will not be impacted.
Thank you again, Anna Kaplan, for your concern for the residents of your 4th District. I also live in the 4th District and would welcome your help should we need it.
Muriel Pfeifer,
Village of Great Neck Plaza
