By Paul J. Condra
One of several residential businesses that occupy the large homes on Hempstead Avenue, the empty clinic stands as a desolate reminder of how outdated and ambiguous village codes failed when an ambitious entrepreneur tested the slack in the law.
The zoning laws were old, and they weren't clear in delineating what physicians were allowed to do in their house, said 53-year-old owner Dr. George Blatti, who moved to Lynbrook from Minnesota in 1979. The result was a litigious battle that lasted years, ultimately dashing Blatti's hopes and prompting him to move to Malverne.
When Blatti left, it was a real loss to the village, said Lynbrook building superintendent Lou Bello. He was considered one of the best practitioners in the village.
Now village officials are trying to correct the problem and amend the arbitrary residential-business code that allowed the clinic to go up in the first place. They hope the new rules will prevent another disaster like the Blatti building.
The primary focus of the new amendment, discussed at a Village board meeting last week, is to ensure that home-businesses are secondary to the residence. The present code doesn't do enough to enforce that concept, village officials said, and technically allows people like Blatti to give their homes over entirely to business.
He wanted to build a medical building, Bello said. And under the code, this was permitted to be done.
The Blatti building'
In 1989, Blatti wanted to open a medical office building that fit the role of the family home doctor while addressing the changing needs of medical physicians.
Blatti argued those changes necessitated larger accommodations. The idea of the home-office where a single person could carry out all the tasks of running a doctor's office was being transformed by new technology, he said. Today's doctors need a support staff assistants and secretaries if they were to fill the role the one-house operations used to.
My practice is not the practice of 1965, he said. It's really complicated to do a good job when you need all of these other things.
He settled on 93 Hempstead Ave., a residential lot on a multi-zoned street. Blatti said he planned for his medical clinic to have enough space for 10 doctors.
I couldn't find commercial space, he said, adding he didn't think a doctor's office on Hempstead's mosaic mix of commercial and residential lots would be a problem, as there are several home businesses near the lot he chose. But in order to make his residential business legal, the doctor planned to live in a house on the same lot.
I wanted something that would fit in on the street, Blatti said of his medical building. He didn't want a cinder-block square, but something attractive with a small parking lot behind it.
The clinic he built looks like just another large house on the street. It has wood siding, shutters on the windows and a front lawn. Viewed from the back, it begins to take on the air of a professional building, with a front waiting room, a wheelchair ramp and a parking lot.
But the project was not a smooth operation.
Months into construction, for example, village officials issued a stop-work order when inspectors found what they thought was evidence Blatti was building outside the original agreement. Indeed, there appeared to be a difference between what Blatti thought he could build, and what the village assumed he would build.
Officials questioned the doctor's placement of water pipes in many of the second-floor rooms, and wondered if the floor would be devoted to business. Village officials said they had thought Blatti would only be opening the lower floor to offices, which was loosely outlined in the building code.
When that happened, neighbors who also wanted to stop construction on the medical building intervened as concerned parties.
Blatti said neighbors argued there would be 24-hour medical activity at the clinic, with ambulances coming and going in the night. They also wondered if some of Blatti's high-tech radiology equipment would be dangerous to neighbors who lived there.
Finally, in the fall of 1992, Blatti finished his medical building. But it never quite lived up to its potential. With a damaged reputation and neighbors divided over the building, he could never get it off the ground the way he wanted to.
It blew up in my face, he said. After the lawsuits and the dust had settled, everybody thought it was a failure.
Blatti insists part of the problem is that people in the area aren't used to the concept of a modest neighborhood medical clinic, something he said is very common in Minnesota.
I think people didn't understand it, he said.
But many also agree such problems could have been avoided if the village code had been more specific about what type of businesses people were allowed to have on lots zoned for residential use.
All of this happened because there were no defined restrictions [in the code], Bello said.
Village Attorney Peter Ledwith said the original rules were probably written over 70 years ago. Then, a plan like Blatti's was unheard of in Lynbrook. In addition, Ledwith said other home businesses in Lynbrook have raised the eyebrows of village planners, such as a home Amway salesperson and a telemarketing office. Though residents aren't complaining, Ledwith said a reevaluation of the code is needed in the interests of good government.
The new regulations
The amendment proposed last week is the culmination of a study that was started in 1999 at the urging of Bello who has been complaining about the code for years.
Village officials said they had to weigh two factors in drawing up the new laws. First, how to plan for the future in a way that protects the residents and the character of their neighborhoods; and second, how to be fair to the home-businesses that already exist.
I think for the residents in the community ... we need to make sure a neighbor doesn't open another Blatti building, Bello said.
The proposed amendment allows up to 500 square feet of a home to be used for business reasons. Also, new businesses can only exist in homes with frontal access to a county or state road. Businesses are not allowed to have employees or clients coming to the home. And, of course, the sign is limited in size.
All existing businesses, whether or not they meet the amended rules, will be grandfathered indefinitely, even to new homeowners. The only way those businesses will lose the right to operate is if they shut down.
The rules for people with a home office won't change.
Still, some in the village think the new law is too restrictive.
I think it's saying to professionals such as myself who wish to live in Lynbrook, Sorry, look someplace else,' said Bruce Lean, a CPA who works from his home on 78 Dayton Ave. Lean's business will be grandfathered. However, if Lean wants to move into another house on a Village street and open his business, under the new code he would be breaking the law.
The way this law is written bothers me significantly, Lean said. For example, Lean said, even a person wishing to give piano lessons or tutor students would suddenly be breaking the law.
But village officials said Lean is nit-picking. A piano teacher could apply for a variance and so could a masseuse or another business person who has light clients visiting their home.
Lean doesn't like the idea of letting the government decide who gets such a variance.
I want it to be written properly so problems don't come up in the future, he said.
That is essentially what village planners are trying to do, acknowledging it's a sensitive issue that affects many people's livelihood.
No matter what you do, you're going to hurt somebody, Bello said.
The village will hold another public hearing about the new business code on Jan. 28.
