By Angela Marshall
Earlier in the evening, Mayor Eugene Murray had read a statement saying that the superintendent of buildings had found that the residents involved were wrong when they claimed that the plans for the Signature Place apartments need a variance. The residents, Jeanne Farnan Mulry and Joseph Thrapp, had charged at the Dec. 3 Planning Board hearing that the Building Department had failed to send the developer to the right board for review. They said that a provision in the village code allowing projects with underground parking to exceed the 40 percent maximum lot coverage limit had been misapplied to the Signature Place project.
The development in question is a 349-unit apartment complex proposed for Banks Avenue north of the Sunrise Highway King Kullen grocery store. The developers, Chase Partners of New Jersey, have been presenting environmental and site-plan review cases before the village Planning Board for several months.
When it came time for residents to take to the microphone Monday night, Mulry told the mayor he had dropped the ball by not making the developer follow the letter of the law. The language of the code is very clear, she said. There is no wiggle room here, Mr. Mayor.
In his statement, the mayor had said that Building Department Superintendent Steve DeClue had conducted a second review of the plans for the proposed apartment complex and found them in full compliance with the Rockville Centre zoning code. DeClue wrote in a letter to the Planning Board that The proposed building area of 47.41 percent is compliant. This is achieved by providing additional parking within the building, which allows the building area to exceed 40 percent.
In making the decision, the Building Department relied on section 340-100 of the zoning code, which prohibits rooftop parking but allows increased lot coverage in exchange for underground parking within a building's perimeter.
But Mulry contends that the code specifically requires multifamily uses to comply with its Chart 6, which only allows for 40 percent lot coverage. She said the village's alleged failure to hold the developer to the law was an affront to all the law-abiding residents who appear before the village's Zoning Board of Appeals.
You're wrong, Murray told her, prompting Thrapp to jump to his feet and yell, She has the floor. As emotions escalated, the police commissioner strode to the front of the room and effectively shut down the conversation until tempers cooled. But that didn't end the discussion.
I did not drop the ball tonight, the mayor countered, saying that the board has not given the developer anything whatsoever and denying that the board has hidden anything from the public. You seem to forget that people didn't want Home Depot, he said.
Home Depot had presented plans to build a store on the proposed Signature Place site a few years ago, and residents heavily protested the idea. The village board enacted a moratorium on large buildings until it could complete some zoning changes, one of which involved allowing multifamily uses in the urban renewal light manufacturing zone where Signature Place is to be built.
Trustee Mary Bossart asked Mulry, Are [residents] interested in commercial development there or residential?
Bossart continued, saying that the village zoning code has many sections, and one can not be read without considering the others.
This project has now received two thorough reviews by the Building Department. We are completely confident that this is the correct application of our zoning code, said Village Administrator Ron Wasson in a press release.
Wasson also said that every project of the magnitude of the Signature Place apartment complex receives extensive, professional review not only by the Building Department, but also by the village engineer, the Electric Department, the Water Department and the Department of Public Works, all before the project is brought to the public during the site-plan hearings before the Planning Board.
There was no oversight, as has been alleged by some residents, Wasson said.
He added that, contrary to a recent newspaper headline, the project had not yet received any approvals from the Village of Rockville Centre. All that has happened is that the superintendent of the Building Department has determined that this project does not need a variance from the Zoning Board, he said.
