Opponents cheer court ruling upholding denial of scrap metal yard in Roosevelt

Residents and members of a business and community group in Roosevelt are happy that a local demolition debris carting business will not be allowed to bring a scrap metal yard into the area.

Nassau state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Palmieri's ruling upholding a July 16 decision by Hempstead Town's Zoning Board of Appeals denying NY Demo LLC's request to have the yard on Debevoise Avenue is more than two months old, but most people only learned of it this month.

"Our attorney notified us of the decision on March 19," David Nation, vice president of Parabit Systems Inc., a manufacturing firm next door to NY Demo, said Monday. His company is an intervenor-respondent in the case. "We're glad we joined in the fight to prevent this. From a neighborhood standpoint, opening up a scrap metal business would have been devastating . . . from the pollution and noise [and] from the truck traffic."

But Charles Levine, the owner of Demo, which has property on both sides of the street that is primarily used for truck storage, said he thought the denial was shortsighted.

"We were going to bring in up to a dozen new jobs for people in the community, where we would have been an asset," Levine said.

He blamed the zoning denial on Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, who opposed the application.

Goosby said Monday that she and many others opposed it "because it was wrong."

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"Their yard borders right at people's backyard," Goosby said. "A scrap metal facility doesn't belong in a neighborhood like that."

Mae Bennett, a resident on the block, agreed. "That's why I fought it so hard, getting petitions signed and all," she said.

Jacob Dixon, a member of the board of the Roosevelt Community Revitalization Group and an opponent of the proposed yard, said 250 people signed a petition against it. "I truly acknowledge that the Roosevelt people were heard," he said.