By:Chris Munzing
A public garage is prohibited in a Business B zone, which the station, on West Beech Street between Virginia Avenue and Vermont Street, lies in. The new law will prohibit immediate expansion by service station owner John Marsala and his 3-Karat Realty because the service station is considered both a public garage and a "non-conforming use," according to Corporation Counsel Charles Theofan.
Theofan said that even though the service station is in a Business B zone, it would be allowed to continue in its present capacity. Theofan added that should Marsala want to expand the service station, he would have to go back to the Zoning Board for a variance.
Theofan said that public garages had always been prohibited in a Business B zone, but the law lacked any definition of what a public garage was. Theofan said that by defining a public garage, it closes a gap in the law.
The changed ordinance defines a public garage as "a building for the maintenance, caring for or repairing of automobiles or motor vehicles, general repair service and auto body work as well as a building for use as a gasoline filling station."
Marsala's attorney, Daniel S. Komansky, addressed the council on Tuesday, saying that he believed the decision was made selectively, to prohibit his client from being able to expand and to force him to go back to the Zoning Board.
A few weeks ago, Komansky said that the expansion of the service station was imminent, after a decision by the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division reversed a Nassau County Supreme Court decision to prohibit construction.
The service station had applied to expand the building in the spring of 2001, but the Zoning Board of Appeals denied those plans. They were again presented to the city in January 2002, after it was determined that the original decision was improper, and this time a variance was granted for the expansion.
That was when neighbors of the garage, including Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford (R-Long Beach), spoke up about the planned expansion and filed a lawsuit against Marsala, 3-Karat Realty and the zoning board. The proposed construction included a second floor of offices for an Internet mail-order business.
The plaintiffs filed an Article 78, which allows people to appeal a zoning board decision to Nassau County officials. County courts sided with the plaintiffs.
