By:Angela Marshall
Greenfield-s decision to leave the board on which he has served for 16 years came in the wake of pressure from Nassau County officials concerned about his serving on both the Rockville Centre Zoning Board and the Nassau County Planning Commission. During his tenure on the county Planning Commission, Greenfield has recused himself from all Rockville Centre cases that were also scheduled to be heard before the Rockville Centre Zoning Board.
It was an agonizing decision to pick between the county and the village, Greenfield said in his Lynbrook insurance office, NGL, last Friday. But he maintained that this is not the end of his service to the village. I-ll be back, he said.
After Greenfield read his letter of resignation Wednesday, the small audience stood up and applauded the gregarious chairman.
You-ve done a great job, Mayor Eugene Murray said to Greenfield. The mayor plans to appoint Zoning Board member Kevin Akner to succeed Greenfield as chairman and alternate Mel Friedman to fill the vacant seat.
Zoning Board member Ray Ventura later said that although he was surprised by the announcement, it wasn-t unexpected, because he predicted Greenfield would move on to bigger and better things. He called Greenfield intelligent and ambitious. I think the Zoning Board will miss him, Ventura said. He knows every conceivable law.
James Rochford, longtime attorney for the Zoning Board, said he has served with four chairs over the years, and Greenfield was the best, most involved and most compassionate of them all.
The Zoning Board hasn-t been without its controversies during Greenfield-s tenure. In October 1998, he was not re-appointed to the board after helping to approve parking variances for the Maple Pointe assisted-living facility over the protests of two major village civic associations. Six months later, Murray re-appointed Greenfield and made him chairman once again.
I am forever grateful and thankful for the confidence Mayor Murray has shown in me and my leadership on the Zoning Board, Greenfield said.
Greenfield was appointed to the village Board of Trustees in 1987 but failed to be elected in his own right the next year. Then-Trustee Peter Brady refused to allow Greenfield to drop out of service to the village and said he had a job for him on the Zoning Board.
Greenfield accepted, and said he based his dealings with applicants on experiences he had facing the Lynbrook Zoning Board over his business. I knew how terrible I was treated in Lynbrook, he said, and therefore he believes in what he calls the three C-s compassion, conciliation and communication.
He said it is important for neighbors to get together early in the process to discuss proposed changes, and has sent a letter suggesting this along with every variance application. He said that once a hearing begins, people have often made up their minds even though they may not know all the facts. Many times over the years, he has sent both sides out into the hall to talk. Above all, I make sure people feel they have a fair hearing, both applicant and opposition, he said. I pride myself on it.
Greenfield said he doesn-t regret the Maple Pointe decision. He estimates that he has heard between 800 and 900 cases, and said In all my years I can only think of one case I regret ... One bad case isn-t bad.
He refused to say which home was involved, but explained that the biggest problem in that case was that neighbors didn-t get involved. Greenfield said that the insights neighbors offer are often invaluable. Without that insight, he said, the board failed to pick up on flaws in the proposed development.
He called the Mercy Medical Center expansion case, which began in the early 1990s and went on for years, attracting more than 850 opponents at its height, his biggest case. I-ll always remember the first witness, he said. It was a nun, and Greenfield apologized for having to swear her in even though she was a member of the clergy, while lawyers are exempt from being sworn in. That comment produced a chuckle and helped break down what he called a supercharged situation. He often used levity to take the edge off over the years.
Greenfield has also served on the village Planning Board, and has been attending school board meetings for 36 years. He said he first went to a school board meeting to fulfill an assignment for a high school social studies class when he was 15 and has been going ever since. When I-m paying the bill, I like to have an opinion, he said.
As for leaving village service to help out at the county level, Greenfield said, I-ve retired a few times. I-ll be back.
