Board OKs Application For 6-Story Melville Building

The Town of Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals ha granted an application from LBA Melville Associates for several variances on a proposed office building to be built next to the Long Island Expressway in Melville.

The company was requesting a special use permit from the ZBA in order to demolish the existing building on the site and construct a new 84-foot six-story office building. They were also requesting variances on three of the four proposed loading zones on the site, requesting that they could build them all to be twelve feet high. (The law states that if they build one 12 feet high, the remaining zones have to be 14 feet in height.)

The 169-square-foot building will contain a restaurant on the first floor, which the applicants requested a separate special use permit for. The restaurant was designed in an effort to reduce traffic along Walt Whitman Road, keeping office workers from traveling off site in order to eat.

Several conditions were attached to the approval. One stated that the granting of the variances was subject to the approval of the Melville Board of Fire Commissioners, who sent a letter raising concerns about the safety of the building in an emergency . They were most concerned that they did not have the proper equipment in order to respond to an emergency at an 84-foot-high building. The zoning board put in the condition that the applicant will have to adhere to any requests made by the Fire Commissioners with regard to the safety of the building.

Also conditioned in the approval was that the applicant agree to a declaration of covenants of use of the property, meaning that they will only permit to construct uses deemed appropriate for the building and will agree not to construct any businesses not deemed necessary for the building. There was some preliminary discussion of this at the hearing, but the board agreed to allow the applicant time to determine what uses are applicable and which are not.

Several residents of the nearby Northgate community spoke at the hearing and expressed concerns with the project. They wondered why a project of such stature needed to be built, particularly since the reconstruction of Canon Inc.'s North American headquarters located across the street was just granted. They additionally wondered what a new development like the one proposed would do to traffic along Walt Whitman Road, which is a one-way street at the proposed location.

The applicants responded by saying that the new proposed building will remove FedEx and WLNY TV-55 as tenants, which will help to reduce traffic in and out of the area. Traffic expert Robert Eschbacher also said that the proposed restaurant will reduce traffic for people looking to eat at both the proposed office building and the nearby Canon building, although the board questioned the logistics of Canon employees crossing Walt Whitman Road on foot to reach the building.

It is unknown when construction will start on the project. Kathleen Deacon Dickson, who presented the proposal on behalf of LBA Melville, projected that the project would take eighteen months to build once construction began.

ZBA Application #20243

This application was filed on behalf of Frances Alaimo on behalf of the Palmieri family in regards to a property located at 11 4th Avenue, on the corner of 1st Street in East Northport. The application sought to amend a prior application approved in 1983 in order to maintain a two-family dwelling at the location. Specifically, they were seeking an area variance to maintain a front long-street side yard in order to legalize a garage on the premises located 20 feet from the street (it has to be 30 feet from the street line in order for the lot to be considered a two-family dwelling).

Testimony from John Breslin, who was speaking on behalf of the applicant, was followed by emotional testimony from 4th Avenue residents. They talked about how the house, as a two-family house, housed drug addicts and wreaked havoc on the families living in the neighborhood, as well as the house’s owner who recently passed away. They pleaded with the board to consider negating the lot’s status as a two-family dwelling if possible.

After the pleas from the 4th Avenue residents, the zoning board did some digging and determined that a covenant was proposed when the original application (ZBA #10884) was granted, suggesting that the two-family designation was a hardship designation and that it was designed to revert back into a single-family dwelling upon the owner’s death. This was contested by Breslin, who noted that the covenant was never filed and that the proposed variation was not drastic enough in order to change that designation. Ultimately, the board decided that the house was now a single-family dwelling, and adjourned the application so Breslin could re-evaluate the application accordingly.

ZBA Application #20030 and ZBA Application #20031

These two applications were filed by two separate companies on behalf of developer Peter Morris in regard to several lots along the north side of E 24 Street in Huntington Station. Three separate lots along the north side of the street, referred to as lots 004, 005, and 006, are owned by the developer. Construction on a home along lot 004 has already begun. This application sought to keep an existing single-family home on lot 006 in existence, as well as gain approval to construct a similar single-family home on lot 005 (49 E 24th Street).

It was mentioned by both Michael McCarthy, who spoke on behalf of the applicant, and Breslin, who spoke as a real estate expert, that the developer planned to move the lot line ten feet closer to lot 005 in order to create two lots that are 50 feet each in width. That plan still has to be approved by the planning board.

The plan came under criticism from local residents on E 24th Street, most notably from Brian Gerken, a resident at 57 E 24th Street. Gerken said that the single-family home at lot 006 was actually being used as a two-family accessory apartment. (When asked by board member Jeffrey Naness why the home was able to be used as such, Gerken, who displayed an extensive knowledge of construction practices, said that the way the floor plan is set up made it conducive to conversion.) Gerken said that building another single-family home at the adjoining lot not only raised concerns of a potential illegal two-family apartment, but also devalued the surrounding properties in the area. He suggested that the existing house on lot 006 be torn down and that lots 005 and 006 be combined into one single-family home consistent with the character of the neighborhood.

The accusation that the proposed single-family home could be converted into a two-family apartment particularly concerned board member Carol Gaughran, who championed several similar single-family homes around Huntington Station (which she referred to as “Gaughran specials”). In response, McCarthy told the board that Morris would be willing to sign a covenant stating that the new proposed home on lot 005 would be a single-family home.

The applications were tabled, at first to the end of the meeting, and then to next week.

ZBA Application #20242

This application was filed on behalf of Competition Realty in regards to their Mercedes dealership located at 1103 E Jericho Turnpike in Huntington. The dealership was seeking a special use permit, as well as depth extension and parking relief, in order to construct an addition to their existing dealership. The proposed upgrade will add 1,763 square feet in the front of the dealership as well as a minor addition to the rear, with part of that addition going toward a proposed mezzanine level. The height of the dealership would not be altered

McCarthy, speaking on behalf of the applicant, stated that 117 parking stalls on the premises were a sufficient number to maintain the dealership. He also noted that the dealership was willing to comply with a request from the nearby Stop N Shop to cut out a portion of the sidewalk near their property in order to make a street corner wider.

Wayne Muller, who spoke as a traffic expert, noted that the New York State Department of Transportation was requesting that the driveway to the dealership and to the adjacent closed-down Frank’s Nursery building be combined into one wide driveway. It was noted that the employees of the Mercedes dealership were using the parking lot of the abandoned Frank’s Nursery lot to park their cars, something that raised alarm with the zoning board, as it was unclear where those cars would go in the event that the Frank’s Nursery lot was developed in the future.

Most notably, Gaughran was concerned that the employees would park along nearby side streets if they could no longer use the lot. McCarthy said that the dealership was looking into acquiring an auxiliary lot if necessary. He mentioned that the dealership would be willing to leave the lot if it was deemed that their parking there was a problem.

The application, like Applications #20320 and #20321, was tabled until next week.

The Town of Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals meets once a week to review applications. Their next meeting is on May 5.