By Matthew McGevna
The building stoppage goes into effect immediately.
Prior to the meeting, Town Supervisor Kate Murray issued a statement supporting the moratorium, vowing to keep residents who she says are living ³the suburban dream² from suffering the ³urban nightmare.²
Specifically, the moratorium is a response to what many civic leaders say is the overdevelopment of their neighborhoods. Residents say that for years they have been watching developers and construction companies subdivide plots to build more than one home, or win variances to build massive homes on small lots.
With the moratorium, town officials hope to buy time so they can study the unincorporated portions of Hempstead and find ways to upgrade and tighten its zoning codes. The town has hired Frederick P. Clark Associates, a planning consulting practice, to conduct the study. Officials say they will look into increasing the distance a home must be set back from the property lines, and further restricting building heights to prevent the construction of homes many call ³McMansions.²
Currently, town code allows houses to be no taller than 30 feet, although many residents who attended the meeting say they¹ve seen houses built on their blocks that blatantly violate the 30-foot restriction. ³If those houses are less than 30 feet, then I¹m one foot tall,² said one.
Before voting to approve the building stoppage, the board agreed to amend the length of the moratorium from ³no less than six months² to ³no more than six months,² a distinction that drew at least some sighs of relief from builders. Under the former phrasing of the law, the moratorium would span the entire spring and summer. Typically, these seasons are the busiest for contractors. Board members believe that Frederick P. Clark Associates could and should conduct the study much faster, and submit its findings as early as late May. While the amendment is somewhat encouraging, however, the moratorium was still met with opposition from contractors.
³Not only would you put me and my family out of business, but everybody involved in the construction industry,² said James Bianco, a builder from Franklin Square.
³The construction business creates jobs, increases the tax base and has a trickle-down effect on business owners,² said Richard Bivone of East Meadow, who represented the Nassau County Chamber of Commerce. ³The answer is not a moratorium. The answer is to update the zoning ordinances.²
³To have a six-month moratorium ties up their job, but it doesn¹t stop their mortgage payments, or their electric bills from coming in,² said William Cohn, a real estate attorney who specializes in zoning ordinances.
But supporters of the moratorium say that economics shouldn¹t be the only reason to oppose it. ³Money makes the world go round, but so does the air we breathe and the water we drink,² said Cay Fatima, an activist from the Lakeview section of West Hempstead.
Other supporters agreed, and suggested that the town use the six months to consider a tree ordinance. Current restrictions in the town code state that permit applications must include the size and species of existing trees on the property in the interest of preservation. The Boarding Zone of Appeals is supposed to weigh a number of factors before granting permission to remove trees, including the necessity to take a tree down. Opponents of the moratorium say the current code is enough, and one Franklin Square builder said, ³Trees stood where your houses are now built. Move upstate if you want to see trees.² Half the audience applauded. For the record, the town attorney, Joseph Ra, said the study will consider a stricter tree ordinance during the moratorium.
The measure does not affect commercial building, or contractors who were granted permits or won variances before April 17. It also does not affect residents of incorporated villages, which are governed by their own zoning boards.
In a conference call, Deputy Town Attorney Charles Kovit said that neither he nor Ra is worried about builders ignoring the moratorium and working without permits. Ra added that the town works generally on the basis of residents¹ complaints, but that if a builder were to construct a home without a permit, he wouldn¹t be granted the certificate of occupancy needed to sell the house.
Many who attended the board meeting expressed their frustration not only with the town¹s zoning ordinances, but with the Board of Zoning Appeals, which they claim is simply rubber stamping variance approvals. But the town attorneys explained that the BZA considers appeals only on the basis of state law, and operates independently of town code. They admitted that state law is often too broad in its language, and provides a lot of wiggle room for applicants to maneuver around town codes.
For example, state law says that the BZA must consider the benefit of a variance ³as weighed against the detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood,² and ³whether an undesirable change will be produced in the character of the neighborhood to nearby properties...² But those definitions can often be argued on their merits, and critics say this pits neighbor against neighbor by forcing residents to show up at a board meeting and publicly complain. Ra said that revision of the zoning codes would restrict the wiggle room state law provides.
³We¹re looking to make it harder for an applicant to challenge a denial and easier for the BZA to uphold a building department ruling,² Ra said. ³This helps with the McMansion problem, because you¹re not going to have a guy claim that this is not hurting the character of the community.²
Frederick P. Clark Associates has been prompted to move quickly, and has gone to work immediately on the zoning code study. If the town board adopts the study¹s findings, Ra said, the moratorium could be lifted as early as June.
Comments about this story? Mal-wheditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
