By Nick Buglione
Calling the plan a blatant act of profiteering, Yale Road residents maintain the two houses would look out of place among the smaller, spaced-out dwellings on the quiet Old Lindenmere neighborhood street.
Joseph Kralovich, president of the Old Lindenmere Civic Association, said, "Allowing this change will precipitate a series of disastrous consequences that will further compromise the character of our community at a time when everyone's attention is focused on preserving the quality of life we already have."
Joseph and Lisa Magnotta, owners of the 1728 Yale Road home, have applied for variances with the Hempstead Town Board of Zoning Appeals, which would allow them to divide their roughly 100-foot-wide property into separate parcels where two two-story houses could be built with detached garages. The current house would be demolished.
The board was to hold a hearing on Aug. 20, after press time, to vote on the variances. The Nassau County Planning Commission has already reviewed the case and recommended that the board vote down the plans. To nullify the planning commission's recommendation, the board must reach a majority plus one, meaning five of the seven members must vote in favor of the plan.
William Cohn, the lawyer representing the Magnottas, said the plan would not create a neighborhood eyesore and asserted that the family does not wish to build the houses for economic gain.
"My client is building the houses so his father-in-law will live in one house, and he and his wife will live in the other," Cohn said.
He also noted that he distributed a letter to area residents explaining the situation, but it's done little to allay their fears.
"It's the urbanization of suburbia," said Mary Elizabeth Ostermann, who has lived across the street from 1728 Yale Road since 1992. "This is exactly what we don't want around here."
Ostermann described the other houses on the block as mostly quaint, one-story homes with plenty of space between them.
"People live and die on this block," she said, adding that the Magnottas aren't now living in the 1728 Yale Road house, which she says has been vacant for months. "To mar it should not be allowed."
Other Merrick civic activists were not surprised to hear of the proposal and said that local property owners have subdivided their lots and built extra houses on them for years. With Merrick property at a premium, it's an easy way for a homeowner with enough property to earn a handsome payday, they said.
"Some of the conditions are pretty horrendous," said Barry Fox, president of the Merrick Park Home Owners Association for the past 25 years. "Not only will they divide it up into two lots, but they'll put them one behind the other."
Getting the Hempstead Town Board of Zoning Appeals to OK such a project is a politically charged process, he said. "The bottom line is if [the applicant] hires an influential lawyer with access to the town zoning board, these things happen," Fox said. "I've seen these things go on and on in Merrick, and they go on and on in every unincorporated community."
That's not to say fighting such proposals has been a lost cause for residents and civic leaders. "It's not impossible" to battle back, Fox said, but it does require hard work and cooperation within the community. "Our civic association has always won these cases when the community has been mobilized," he said.
Michele Walsh, president of the Central Merrick Homeowners Association, believes building two houses on a traditionally one-house lot can create a number of problems. In particular, it makes street parking scarce.
"When you subdivide a lot that's bigger and put two houses there, you're taking away parking spots," Walsh said, explaining that with the extra house come extra cars. "In the suburbs, people like to park in front of their own home."
Cohn, however, said building an extra house at 1728 Yale Road would not lead to a parking problem on the block. "We'll have as much parking as everybody else on the block has," he said. "We will meet any parking requirements."
