FOREST HILLS—Developer Fred Starikov of City Realty Group presented plans to turn 38-42 Hyde Park Ave., at the intersection with Weld Hill Street, into a four-story, mixed-use building during a community meeting May 22.

Local residents voiced opposition to the fourth floor, which would need a variance as the area is zoned for three stories. And some attendees questioned the reputation of City Realty Group, including a displeased former tenant.

About 10 people attended the community meeting at 38-42 Hyde Park Ave., which is currently a one-story building that used to be the home of Yang’s Martial Arts Association. It has been vacant since that business moved to Roslindale in November 2012.

The proposal was scheduled to go before the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) June 3, but Starikov’s lawyer, George Morancy, said City Realty Group would ask for a deferral. He said that the company had been trying to have the City host a community meeting, but to no avail.

“We will work with you,” Morancy told the attendees. “There is no way this will go forward June 3.”

He said with the deferral, a hearing in front of the ZBA would probably be rescheduled for sometime in September. Morancy said that would give City Realty Group time to hold a community process and go before the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council’s Zoning Committee.

The proposal presented at the community meeting would demolish the existing structure and replace it with a four-story building. The first floor would have commercial space towards the front facing Hyde Park Avenue, while the back would have a seven-car garage with an exit on Weld Hill Street. The next three floors would house nine residential units.

“It is a shell of a building [right now] and we will do something nice with it so the area benefits,” said Starikov.

But local residents immediately objected to a variance allowing a fourth floor, saying to do so would set a precedent for other developers to follow.

“If we allow one, then it opens it to others,” said Michael Wheeler.

Tess Pope echoed Wheeler’s sentiment.

“I, and many other people, feel hostile to a fourth floor,” she said. Pope said later that if Starikov agreed to do only three floors, “you will not have a fight.”

Other attendees questioned City Realty Group’s reputation, citing poor Yelp reviews and noting that the company has owned 38-42 Hyde Park Ave. for a year, but did not remove snow during the past winter.

Starikov said that City Realty Group had a contract with a snow removal company that was paid and was unaware that snow was not removed at the property.

Starikov called the Yelp website an “online mafia” and said that many of the reviews were for the real estate agent business part of City Realty Group. He said City Realty Group used to have 60 brokers and now only has about a handful.

But Julia Ryan gave an in-person review of City Realty Group. She said when she was a tenant at its property at 3907 Washington St. in Roslindale, there were bedbugs and other sanitary problems and that the company tried to evict her.

Starikov responded that that property had a renovation done after City Realty Group acquired it from a bank and that Ryan was part of the first batch of new tenants at the building. He said that bedbugs are a sexually transmitted disease, but before he could continue, he was shouted down by chorus of “no” from the audience.

At that point, resident Eben Kunz interceded and said that whether “you are a dirtbag does not matter.” He said that Starikov could do anything “as-of-right,” meaning a proposal that did not need a variance, but noted that if he wanted to do the four-story building, he would need to garner the attendees’ support.