By TIFFANY RAZZANO
The moratorium would have put a hold on multi-family development in the commercial and business districts, as well as new single- or two-family homes and subdivisions of residential property anywhere in the village.
The legislation was written by Trustee Jeanne Mulry in October and debated at two public hearings in January, but board members were unable to agree on a final version. Both variations that were voted down on Monday were crafted in recent weeks.
One version, Bill 14C-2006, featured amendments, written by Deputy Mayor Wayne Lipton, to the original legislation. Lipton added a grandfather clause to allow anyone who had filed an application for a building permit to continue the process of obtaining one. This version also delineated scenarios for hardship exemptions, which, at the discretion of the board, could be granted to developers facing financial hardship because of the moratorium.
Meanwhile, Bill 14D-2006, written by Mulry, fine-tuned the original legislation after Lipton recently pointed out that its wording actually permitted multi-family development in commercial districts as long as that development took place on the property of a knockdown and was no larger than the original footprint.
Because the Nassau County Planning Commission opposed the original bill, in order for either version to pass the board needed to approve it with a super majority of at least four votes. While Lipton and Mayor Eugene Murray supported Bill 14C, Mulry's version had the support of Trustees Andrew Karamouzis and Suzanne Sullivan. The two sides were unable to come to an agreement, and neither version of the bill received a super majority vote.
Both Lipton and Mulry believed there were problems with each other's version of the legislation. Mulry said that a grandfather clause would allow projects to "sneak in," and that delineating specific scenarios for hardships would leave the village vulnerable to litigation if a developer felt he met the hardship requirements.
Lipton, on the other hand, felt that a grandfather clause would ensure fairness for residents who were in the middle of the application process, and who might sue the village if the moratorium cut them off at that point. Lipton said he was more than willing to compromise on the hardship clause, as it was Murray who insisted on defining what a hardship could be.
"Now we're back to square one," Murray said, after the bills were voted down.
Comments about this story? TRazzano@liher-ald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
