After a heated but successful effort by a Mamaroneck Village neighborhood to win noise restrictions for a popular bar and restaurant, the owner has requested those restrictions be lifted.

Molly Spillane’s will once again meet its neighbors at a Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) public hearing July 22. (Agenda)

In a letter to the ZBA, Molly Spillane’s owner Mike Hynes says he is being singled out, writing, “I (have) had to continue to suffer financial consequences, one person in two years, as every other restaurant could operate under no restrictions.”

But in a letter to the ZBA, a group of residents organized by Kate Priest in 2009 writes, “Molly Spillane’s has had more noise, fights and complaints with repeated police calls and police hours required to respond to these calls than any other business in the Village.”

The full text of the letter  is below.

The ZBA meeting will be held on Wed., July 22 at 7:30pm at Village Hall, 169 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Mamaroneck

To: The Mamaroneck Zoning Board of Appeals

Fr:  Mamaroneck Residents

Re: Molly Spillane’s Special Permit Renewal

Dt: July 15, 2015

 

We are writing to you again as residents of Mamaroneck who has been directly affected by the noise issues generated by Molly Spillane’s since 2009.

As people who live in or near a mixed use commercial and residential area of Mamaroneck, it is understandable that there will be some noise. The C-2 zone on Mamaroneck Ave. has historically been a mixed use zone combining commercial, retail and residential in close proximity. Every other business, except for Molly Spillane’s, seems to not have a problem complying with what the Village noise code requires to maintain a harmonious balance between the rights of businesses and the rights of private citizens to quality of life, quiet and rest.

In his 6/4/15 letter to the ZBA, Mike Hynes asks repeatedly why Molly Spillane’s is being singled out for noise reducing restrictions and having to apply yearly for a special permit. The answer is SIMPLE: Molly Spillane’s has had more noise, fights and complaints with repeated police calls and police hours required to respond to these calls than any other business in the Village. Yet Mr. Hynes has the audacity to demand that the restrictions which the neighborhood has worked for years to put in place, be lifted. We cannot summarily turn a blind eye to the hundreds of complaints and go back in time to 2008.

Since the noise restrictions passed last year, the problem has improved a great deal for Village residents and their families.  It is difficult to understand why Mr Hynes would want to go back to having no restrictions whatsoever when last year, at the permit meeting, he heard such a large number of area residents voicing their concerns. A petition signed by 183 adults with 144 children living in the neighborhood was submitted to the ZBA asking that the board finally do something constructive about the ongoing noise and disturbance caused by Molly Spillane’s. Thankfully, more restrictions were put in place that have helped alleviate but not completely solve the problem as evidenced by the list of complaints from the past 12 months attached to the special permit application

We as a group would also like to point out that we have very strong relationships with the other businesses in the area, such as Bar’lees, Little Kitchen, The Red Plum and the luncheonette.  These local establishments have earned our patronage through their mutual respect and understanding that local residents are the backbone of any business’s success.  Perhaps Molly’s may want to look at its ongoing disregard and lack of cooperation with its neighbors as the reason for them losing business, instead of demanding for a handful of people (most of whom do not live here) to be allowed to disturb the peace on a patio at 2am on a Wednesday.

We also understand that Molly’s pays local taxes.  We as residents also pay local taxes.  Many of us have worked extremely hard and continue to do so, to be able to afford to live in an area like Mamaroneck.  People continue to move here because of the quality of life in the Village.  If Molly’s is allowed to operate their business to continue to create disturbances whether inside or out at any hour, carte blanche, the subsequent media coverage and ongoing public outcry will hardly endear Mamaroneck to someone who is considering a move to our Village.

The residents of the neighborhood should not have to take up this fight again that has taken so much time, energy and effort since 2009. We are emphatically asking that the ZBA do the right thing and renew Molly Spillane’s special permit with the noise reduction restrictions left in place that we all worked so hard to implement for the sake of our legal right to peace, quiet and a healthy quality of life in our homes.

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