The proposal to redevelop the historic house at 24 South Park Ave. has been withdrawn.
The building’s owner, Joseph DiFigueroa, made the decision to revise the plans. This was confirmed by William Bonesso, the zoning and land use attorney with the firm Forchelli, Deegan and Terrana Law representing the owner.
“The proposal was withdrawn at the present time, while the applicant is just looking at any changes that he may or may not want to make,” Bonesso said. “He’s considering changes to the proposal.”
Bonesso further clarified that the owner still has plans for the property.
“He still does intend to develop the property,” Bonesso said. “Once he decides what plan he’s going to go with, what the development will be, he will refile with the building department, and then the process will start again.”
Members of the Rockville Centre Civic Association, who have been fighting against the redevelopment of the historic home, expressed their opinions on the proposal being withdrawn.
“Right now, they withdrew the proposal,” Howard Kamph, member of the RVC Civic Association, said. “That doesn’t end it at all. They’ve got to go back to the drawing board and give you another proposal. We might have won the battle but we didn’t win the war, yet.”
Another member of RVC’s Civic Association is Meghan Kerns, who voiced the concerns that the association had with the last proposal.
“We were very concerned about saving that historic home, and the impacts of traffic to the residential buildings in the area,” Kerns said, “as well as to the small businesses in the area, as well as the ability for people to park and shop in the downtown, as well as drive down Park Avenue, which is one of the major roadways in Rockville Center.”
The original proposal involved redeveloping the property into a three-story, mixed-use building, featuring a restaurant on the ground floor, medical offices on the second and third floors, and a rooftop dining area. The proposed development required 56 parking spaces, as it was classified as a medical building, along with a 10-foot setback from the road.
Kamph emphasized that the association would like to preserve the building as a “historical place.”
“We’d like to get that building reserved as a historical place,” Kamph said. “Let’s start looking into something like that for the Rockville Center, where we have no historical buildings at all, which we could maybe save buildings from being demolished, making that into a nice store or a coffee house or something.”
Kamph shared that the Civic Association still intends to fight against the new proposal.
“I got like 400 signatures against this proposal that they had,” he said. “We’ll see what they’re going to do and what our strategy would be.”
The association will hold a public meeting on April 8 at 8 p.m. at the Rockville Centre Library to discuss their next steps in opposing the redevelopment of the historic building, along with conducting their board of elections meeting. For more information, contact RVC.Civic@gmail.com.
