City Council President Patrick Keefe will be going to bat for his neighborhood when he brings his concerns about a curb-cut to a Public Works Sub-Committee meeting Monday.
It is not so much the curb-cut itself that is rankling Keefe and neighbors in Ward 4, but the process by which it was allowed.
“I was really disappointed by the process by which the curb-cut was granted,†said Keefe. “That gave the investor in a very small property the ability to expand their house to a two-family. It made the neighborhood very upset. There was no ability to have neighborhood input on the expansion of the home. Basically the investor was able to circumvent the rules of our city.â€
Keefe explained that the reason there are curbs on neighborhood streets is to protect residents when they’re walking on the sidewalks. “For the most part, the city has done a good job in not randomly granting curbs cuts to everyone, but at times what people (property investors) are trying to do is expand their off-street parking so they can expand their home from a one-family to a two-family, or a two-family to a three-family.â€
