Staten Island business owner ordered to remove ‘disgraceful’ containers

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A Mariners Harbor man was finally able to do something about a long-standing eyesore after reaching out to Advance/SILive.com earlier this year.

Howard Gutter, 70, had tried to get his neighbor, A&J Tires at 2246 Forest Avenue, to remove shipping containers stacked three stories high, but to no avail.

Gutter contacted Advance/SILive.com in February to complain that the containers blocked the view from his rear window and negatively impacted his quality of life.

A building department spokesperson said earlier this week that the city began enforcing the code in May and that the owners were in the process of removing the containers. A manager at the store confirmed this, and a visit on June 14 showed that some of the containers had been removed, but others were still there.

“Thank God I caught you and other guys who got this guy to move (the containers),” Gutter said. “If he can move the rest of the containers and it’s not an eyesore to someone looking out the window, that’s fine. I’m not going to bother anymore.”

The portion of the property where the containers are located faces Wemple Street across from the backyard of Gutter’s Spartan Avenue home. He moved there in 2010 after a fire killed two of his sons, Seandale and Sha-Ron Gutter, and destroyed the family home on Jewett Avenue.

Gutter, a retired employee of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), said he spent months trying to get government officials to act before turning to the media.

An inspector from the city’s construction department visited the site in August and filed a complaint against the owners, accusing them of working without a permit, partly because of the 33 cargo containers stacked up to three stories high.

However, a telephone hearing by the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) in January found that the property’s current owners, 2246 Forest Ave. LLC, were not responsible for the containers because they were already there prior to their purchase in February 2022.

In his ruling, Administrative Law Judge Akinwale Akinrefon sided with the owners’ lawyer, citing the property’s title deed dated 2022 and two affidavits in which unidentified people said the containers were there before the current owners purchased them.

“I find that the defendant (owner) purchased the subject property on February 28, 2022 in the same condition as found by the inspector on August 23, 2023,” Akinrefon wrote in his decision.

Gutter said that doesn’t make sense since he didn’t start complaining about the shipping containers until 2022, when owners started stacking them. Records from the city’s 311 system support his statement.

Prior to July 2023, there were no 311 complaints regarding shipping containers at the site, and at least four more complaints have been filed since then.

Additionally, a July 2022 view of the property available via Google Earth shows containers at that location, albeit in a different part of the site. Gutter also shared photos from July of last year showing a crane transporting the containers to their current location.

According to Akinrefon’s decision, the city’s attorney relied largely on the Building Department inspector’s allegations at the OATH hearing and did not rebut the owners’ claim that a pre-existing condition existed.

After further hearings, the city finally took action and will monitor the site until the ownership structure complies with existing regulations, a spokesman for the building authority said.

Borough President Vito Fossella and members of his staff played a key role in urging the city to take action against the illegal containers.

“All Mr. Gutter wanted was to enjoy his yard and the view, and unfortunately that was taken away from him,” he said. “We were more than happy to help. Anytime we can help a Staten Island resident with a quality of life issue – that’s what we’re here for. We thank Frank Fontana and our partners at the Building Department’s Padlock Unit for working with us to help this man.”