Zoning Board Issues Approvals

Notes from the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Thursday night.

Application 20151:

This application was filed by Joseph Negri  of 53 Tower St. in Huntington Station. Negri requested frontage variance on his residence in order to apply for an accessory apartment. The applicant had the minimum square feet  but was short on the width needed.

The Zoning Board of Appeals noted that an application to make part of the home into an apartment was denied in 2004. David Mirabella, the counsel representing Negri, said that the applicant was not aware of this at the time of purchase (last year) but he was aware that he was purchasing a one-family home when he purchased it.

There was concern from the ZBA that the applicant was considering using the garage as the apartment. Negri was called to speak on his own behalf and explained that the second floor of the house would be used as the apartment, while he would occupy the first floor. Negri estimated that the garage could hold four to five cars. He was reminded by the ZBA that only three cars could legally be stored in a garage in the Town of Huntington.

After Mirabella was through, Nicholas Wieland, a member of the Citizens for Code Enforcement in the Town of Huntington, came up to speak against the application. He reported that there were two electrical meters on the house and that the house needed to be reported to code enforcement. He provided a map to the ZBA with his findings.

The application was tabled until the end of the meeting, when it was granted with several conditions:  that the garage would never be used as an apartment,  that the garage could only hold a maximum of three cars, and that one of the meters on the house would be removed and the other made permanent.

Application 20139:

The application was presented at two separate times. The applicant was not represented at the meeting, and the case was dismissed.

Application 20052:

This application, on behalf of Frank Montero of Bay Shore, was submitted asking for relief for an accessory apartment on East 2nd Street, Huntington, but was changed at the hearing to ask for relief for the intrusion into the setback from the rear of the tenant's garage and also relief from the excessive footage for accessory structures. The goal of the applicant was to maintain a garage and a shed that was already constructed as part a single-family residence. 

Nolan Briggs, the counsel representing the applicant, wanted to legalize the garage as it was currently constructed. He said that the only thing unaccounted for in the square footage was an awning butting up against the property line.

The ZBA questioned the use of the garage, noting that it had many components of an apartment. Briggs noted that the garage included electrical service, a small bathroom, and heating, but noted that a bedroom was removed to get over a violation on the house (where there were found to be 13 bedrooms in a house with eight tenants).

The ZBA denied the application.

Application 20179:

This application was filed by CGI Baseball Inc., and its owner, Rob Steinert. The application was to request a special use permit to operate a baseball training facility at 175A E. 2nd St. in Huntington Station. (The facility is being moved from its current location at 732 Larkfield Road due to problems with plumbing and sprinklers.) They were also requesting a parking variance for room to park a trailer in the front of the building. There was no request for approval for food preparation, but there was a request for vending machines to be placed in the facility.

According to Robert J. Flynn, the attorney representing Steinert's company, the property is occupied mostly by manufacturing lots. This adds an additional benefit to the location of the facility, as these manufacturing businesses would leave by 4 p.m. on weekdays and no weekends. Steinert's facility requested hours from 3 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday.

Wayne Muller of RMS Engineering was consulted for an opinion as a traffic expert. He stated that it would be better if the trailers were parked in the rear of the building, between four Dumpster containers. He said  that this would have no impact on traffic in the area.

The application was granted, with several conditions. One was that the facility would have no video game room, another approved the hours of operation requested, and another prohibited on-site food preparation. The equipment trailer was also required to park in the rear of the facility, between the four storage containers.

Application 20153:

This application was filed by Future Realty Corp. of 2090 Jericho Turnpike. They requested a special use permit to legalize an extension to an existing building at 2090 Jericho Turnpike. The request was to construct an extension to the southwest corner of the building. According to real estate expert John Breslin, who was called to speak on behalf of the case, the extension would be used for whatever the applicant could find, noting that there was interest from an off-site catering company.

The application was granted as presented.

Application 20184:

This application was submitted by the company Luxury Cars of Huntington, located at 359 W. Jericho Tpke. in Huntington. They requested a special use permit to modify amended site plans and a prior special use permit in order to construct an on-site elevator, transformer, and modifications to the floor plans requiring parking relief.

According to attorney Joseph F. Buzzell, who was speaking on behalf of the company, the elevator’s purpose was to lower cars from the showroom into the basement once operating hours were completed. Part of the basement would have to be converted from storing company records to storing the cars. A motor for the elevator would be located in the north part of the building.

Counsel made it clear to the BZA that there would be no second showroom on the lower level, and that no work would be done on the vehicles in the basement.

The application was granted under the conditions that the basement was used for storing cars and records only. No customers would be allowed in the storage areas. The applicant was also prohibited from seeking a waiver of building code conditions.

Application 20138:

This application was filed by the architectural company Mark Anthony Associates on behalf of Francis and Shayne Puntolillo of 133 Ryder Ave. They asked to demolish an existing garage and replace it with a significantly bigger garage. No counsel was present; a representative from Mark Anthony Associates spoke on behalf of the Puntotillos, with Francis Puntolillo also in attendance. He was later asked to speak on his own behalf; he stated that he wanted to build the new garage in order to fit a Hummer in it.

Two problems arose with the application. One was that the new proposed garage, coupled with two sheds on the property (one of which was a cabana with an illegally constructed bathroom), would put the property more than one-third over the maximum square footage for storage. Additionally, the height of the garage was deemed to be excessive. Besides fitting the Hummer, the garage was going to be designed to fit a second story for additional storage area on the property. (Puntotillo noted that he needed the storage since he did not have a basement.)

The motion was granted with an amendment that required the height of the garage to be reduced by four feet.