Metro

Bronx family livid after developer builds apartment 12 inches from their home

BATTLE OF INCHES: Fernando and Patty Justiniano are incensed a developer is building a structure just 12 inches from their Bronx home. (Robert Kalfus)

This is bordering on insane.

A new apartment building is being constructed just 12 inches from a family’s home in The Bronx, and the house’s owners are fuming mad.

“This is what I get to see. Nice,” scoffed Fernando Justiniano, 49, yesterday as he drew open his dining-room curtains to reveal the “monstrosity’’ of gray cinder blocks a foot from his home at 3525 Bruckner Blvd.

Justiniano and his wife, Patty, 44, said that when they bought the Pelham Bay home for $200,000 about 13 years ago, it overlooked another residence with a pristine yard.

“It’s preposterous. The fact that [the developer] can build that close — I don’t understand,” Patty said.

But the new property is compliant with zoning district R7-1 regulations, which do not require side yards, allowing the developer to build right up to property lines, according to city documents.

The new building’s 14 rental units, which sit on a 50-by-100-foot lot, will be completed in June.

“Everything is legal. I’m doing everything by the plans,” said developer Anton Tinaj.

But it’s still too close for comfort for the Justinianos.

“He should have been required to have three feet of side yard,” Patty said.

The Justinianos, who have a 12-year-old daughter, said they fear their property value will plummet because they may be forced to close up 10 windows, including one in the master bedroom

“What’s the point of [the windows] if it’s pitch black?” Patty said. “We’re not going to get what we would’ve gotten a year ago.”

A Department of Buildings representative said that the Justinianos can file a zoning challenge to have the city audit the building but that the construction is within legal limits.

Patty lamented that the complex is so close that it will prevent her and her husband from making repairs to first- and second-story gutters that nearly touch the cinder-block wall.

“I have siding on the second level. How do I repair that? Who do I put in there, a 5-year-old?” she said. “If [Tinaj’s] structure [catches] fire, where do you think it’s gonna go?”

The Justinianos’ home is one just a few single-family dwellings on a stretch of Bruckner Boulevard lined with multistory apartment buildings.

To Patty, the new building is jut another eyesore on the block.

“Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should,” she said. “It doesn’t blend in at all with the area.

“Even if he moved over a foot, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”