Rockville Centre village board passes new building codes

Angry village homeowners gathered at the village board meeting on March 1, and during the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, several voiced frustration over the new building codes for homeowners in the Residential ‘A’ District.

“I just don’t think it’s right,” village resident Patrick O’Brien told the board. “You’re putting a stranglehold on many people looking to do improvements on their houses.” O’Brien spoke about how the new building restrictions would force more homeowners to go for variances, and he recommended that trustees establish a “reasonable” grace period for submitting home-improvement applications before the new legislation takes effect.

“A grace period seems logical,” said John Bender, a village resident who has been renovating his home over the last 12 months. “Or I will lose the house, the contractors and the architect.”

Despite the pleas from the public, Mayor Mary Bossart and the board of trustees approved the legislation that was submitted for new building heights, setbacks and lot coverage. The laws, based on a planning board study conducted last year, are intended to reduce the bulkiness of homes in the village. They went into effect for Residential ‘A’ buildings on March 4.

For a detailed list of the new building code changes, visit www.rvcny.us, and click on the Agendas and Reports>Bills & Laws link at the top. The new codes have been posted on the Rockville Centre website since December.

“We post the information about the meetings,” Oppenheimer said. “We publicize them in the Herald, we put them on the website, we post them on the front of the building … We endeavor to tell everybody we can, in as many ways as we can.”

Comments about this story? TSteinert@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.