By JUDY RATTNER
The settlement was announced at a special Board of Trustees meeting on June 24. Chase had sought damages that it alleged resulted from its being denied an application to build a luxury condominium complex on the former Darby Drugs/Signature Place site on Banks Avenue. The suit was one of two pending against Rockville Centre in connection with development at the site.
Under the terms of the agreement, reached just days before jury selection was set to begin for a trial in U.S. District Court in Islip, the village admitted no wrongdoing and will pay the New Jersey-based developer $455,544 of the $1.15 million. The village's insurance carrier, RSUI Group Inc. of Atlanta, will pick up the remaining $694,456.
"It's a difficult situation," said Mayor Mary Bossart. "The lawsuit needed to be settled. No one could be happy about the amount of money, time or disharmony that the lawsuit has produced in the community."
The settlement ends years of litigation and legal appeals that consistently went against the village as it fought to prevent developments proposed for the site. In July 2006, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Bruce D. Alpert ruled that Chase's project, a 349-unit condominium complex called Signature Place, complied with the village's zoning code. Alpert's ruling criticized village officials for what he called an intentional delay of the project in an attempt to change code requirements and deny Chase permission to build.
In the fall of 2007, the village failed in two appeals of Alpert's decision in New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division, and in the meantime, Virginia-based AvalonBay Communities purchased the site from Chase Partners, planning to build apartments instead of condominiums. In March of 2008, the village's final effort to prevent the site's development was rejected by the state's Court of Appeals.
The now-vacant 7.1-acre corporate campus at 80-100 Banks Ave. is a brownfield that is undergoing environmental remediation, at a cost of at least $10 million, financed by tax incentives from a brownfield cleanup fund. The excavation work was complicated in April when chemicals used in dry-cleaning and to clean industrial machinery were detected in the soil clay layer, a barrier initially thought to have kept pollutants well away from ground water. In the wake of that discovery, the environmental consulting firm working for AvalonBay is now awaiting approvals from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the village for a plan to remove the contaminated soil and water from the area and return treated water to Mill River.
There is also controversy over AvalonBay's application for tax incentives for the development from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency, a request vehemently opposed by village officials and residents, who spoke against it at a packed public hearing on March 13 at the Rockville Centre Public Library. If the tax abatement is granted, AvalonBay's mortgage recording, sales and property taxes would be reduced for up to 15 years. During that time the developer would make payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, which are discounted from standard tax rates.
The village faces an additional lawsuit from Darby Drugs, the Banks Avenue site's original owner. That claim, also for $25 million, is still pending in federal court. The last activity in that suit was a motion by the village to dismiss it, but the motion was put on hold pending the outcome of the Chase suit.
Alex Costello contributed to this story. Comments about it? RVCeditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 208.
