Village OKs Molloy/Mercy deal

Molloy College has crossed its final hurdle for more parking.

Molloy purchased 3.8 acres of land on its southwestern side from Mercy Medical Center, with the plan to turn the property into 381 parking spaces. Molloy has leased this property from Mercy since 2001.

The Rockville Centre Village Planning Board approved the changes to Molloy and Mercy Medical Center’s site plans at a May 12 meeting.

Before the approval, planning board alternate counsel Jack Matthews warned that Molloy has a restriction — any changes to the southern 100 feet of the property, west of the water tower, must go through the Village Board first because it borders a residential area. However, Molloy does not plan to develop that area, so that does not affect the college for now.

Molloy also received a variance from the village Board of Zoning Appeals on May 6, because the proposed parking spaces will be smaller than village code requires — 60 feet instead of 63 feet and 4 inches for two adjacent rows of parking, and 42 feet instead of 45 feet and 4 inches for one row of parking. The college has received this variance before in 2009 and 2013.

The Planning Board determined that the new parking would not have a significant negative effect on the environment at its April 21 meeting.

This purchase was part of phase two of Molloy’s master development plan. In Phase Three, Molloy will convert part of its existing parking lot — on the north side of the campus, adjacent to the Southern State parkway — into a parking garage. In the meantime, that parking lot will be reconstructed and rearranged to create 338 spaces.

Phase one of the college’s Master Plan, which was completed in 2011, involved the construction of a new residence hall, campus center and maintenance building. By the end of this development, Molloy will have 1,640 spaces total. Zoning laws require it to have 1631 spaces.