I have been substantially misquoted in your article on 417 Circle Ave. What I said was that Amy Perry had wanted to do a high quality architectural restoration and that she had to reduce the quality of some of the material used in order to bring the rebuilding in under the 50 percent level. There is no implication “that the quality of the construction may not be good.”
This is just one more indication of the problems with the Forest Park zoning code; as long as the property owner can restore it to code, they can do so but there is no allowance for the owner to upgrade the quality of the repairs.
I feel that it would be in the best interest of the village to get the highest quality that a property owner can afford. If it can be shown that a structure can be returned to code compliance for less than 50 percent, they should be allowed to upgrade the repairs as long as there is no expansion of the nonconforming use under the current code.
Richard Scafidi, zoning board of appeals
Forest Park
Editor’s note: The Review inaccurately paraphrased Richard Scafidi’s comments in its May 23 story, and we regret the error. In part, the sentence should have read that “the quality of the construction may not be as good.”
