Over the past weekend another correspondent weighed in on the merits of the charitable organization, Boys Hope Girls Hope. At every turn individuals who had never heard of the group a short two months ago express the belief that BHGH will save the world one youth (or twenty) at a time, while members of Madge Hopes are labeled bigots and accused of hating kids.
While the correspondent is generally accurate in his statement, a couple of items require clarification. He states that what BHGH "would like to do is buy two lots along Madge Ave." Actually BHGH would purchase two properties consisting of three building lots for a total frontage on Madge Ave. of one hundred thirty-eight feet. The single lot was until one month ago a privately owned rental property. It is zoned single family residential. BHGH now has an option to purchase that property and has requested it be re-zoned to Planned Development, so it will match the zoning of the larger parcel which is also under option until June 30.
However, even with the additional re-zoned parcel, the organization will have only 76% of the acreage required by Brentwood ordinances, for a building of that size. Therefore, the group's application to the Planning and Zoning Board requests three variances and a conditional use permit. All of these requests demonstrate what Madge Hopes has been saying all along--the proposed project, for all of BHGH's good intentions, is absolutely too large for the site and out of scale with our neighborhood's existing residential properties.
When the frontage of the proposed BHGH site is combined with the existing frontage on Madge of the parking lot for Pasta House, nearly 40% of the length of the north side of Madge Ave. will be zoned NON-RESIDENTIAL. We find this result to be unacceptable for an established residential neighborhood, and hope that you and our elected officials do too.