Angry words, threats fly following Board of Adjustment ruling

Animosity over the outcome of a request for variance at Monday night’s Board of Adjustment boiled over after the meeting, according to a participant.

Scott Perry, a neighbor who spoke against the variance request, told In Fact Daily about the altercation in an email, concluding “I filed a complaint with City Hall security over an act of intimidation on city property.”

In the email, Perry explained that after waiting 20 minutes following the case to leave, he noticed property owner Michael Kleinman and his representative, Phil Moncada, talking by the elevators in the parking garage.

“From Mr. Kleinman comes a steady stream of threatening and intimidating language called across the open garage as I walk away silently from them to the security gate area. This went on for several minutes as I made my way around to the lower deck where my car actually was,” said Perry in his email.

Kleinman was visibly and audibly upset following the second denial of a variance that would allow him to build a 12-foot fence surrounding his property, six feet taller than normally allowed.

Perry, a neighbor of Kleinman, not only opposed the variance but also reiterated concerns about what was going on at the property.

“This is an attempt by Planet K properties, with the much larger goal to turn this into some kind of quasi-legal music venue on the river, that the neighborhood association is concerned about,” said Perry.

Perry also read into the record a statement by Daniel Llanes, chair of the River Bluff Neighborhood Association, who claimed that the property owners had been “hostile and physically threatening” in the past.

“This guy is so full of s***. I hope he comes out here. I’d like nothing better than to strangle him,” Kleinman told In Fact Daily, when he was asked about the allegations.

“I have parties there, I’ve had parties there. There are no shows there. We have a show when we do our fireworks, and I invite my friends to come over,” said Kleinman.

“There was a show put on by my son, who was running his business in front, the One World Kitchen, yeah. There was a show put on by him. My son can use my property every once and a while if he wants,” said Kleinman. “He’s my son.”

Kleinman currently has a permit pending to construct decks on the property, but told In Fact Daily that they were for residential use.

“We have filed for residential development. That’s real clear. That’s what we’re doing. Do you know what? If we decide in 10 years, 20 years, or two years to go for a change, do you know something? Then there is a process that we will go through. But right now, we’re going through the process of residential—fixing my house and I resent this, and no offense, your questions alluding to the fact that we are not doing exactly what we say we’re doing,” said Kleinman.

Moncada told In Fact Daily that the property had been improved since Kleinman purchased it.

“This man has done more to clean up this lot, and this site, than all these Johnny-come-lately guys that are showing up here,” said Moncada, who told In Fact Daily that he had called 311 on Perry that day, due to a hay bale fence on his property that does not allow for proper drainage.

Perry told In Fact Daily that they were mistaken, and the fence in question was not on his property.

Kleinman could not be reached for comment on Tuesday regarding the allegations about intimidation in the parking garage.