A local auto reprair shop is making Theresa Scavo’s Spidey sense tingle!
LS Auto Clinic on Avenue Z says that its efforts to renew a lapsed variance is just an attempt to get right with the city — but the Community Board 15 Chairwoman suspects that the owners might want to open up a new gas station on the triangular spot bordered by Avenue Z, E. 21st Street and Jerome Avenue.
“I’m only going by the paper work,” Scavo said. “It says they seek a variance to re-establish a service station with accessory uses.”
To thwart that from happening, Scavo says that she’ll summon the CB15 zoning committee back from summer vacation to give proper oversight to what she fears could be a bid by the repair shop to become a full-service gas station — something the shop’s current owner denies.
“Without [a zoning committee meeting], they can bypass us and go straight to the Board of Standards and Appeals,” Scavo said.
According to attorney Erick Palatnik, LS Auto Clinic needs a renewed variance simply to keep operating as an auto repair shop. The clinic’s last variance expired in 2003.
But renewing it might not be a slam-dunk this time around because LS Auto Clinic has broken promises to keep cars off the sidewalk and clean up graffiti, Scavo said.
Plus, there’s a BP service station one block away at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Avenue Z, as well as a Getty station at Ocean Avenue and Gravesend Neck Road.
The Board of Standards and Appeals will ultimately decide if the car repair shop gets the renewed variance -— but that approval will be a bit tougher if the community board rejects the zoning change.