Farmingdale Village officials are considering a potential zoning change that if approved would eliminate its existing Business DD zoning district.
“The uses of the DD [business zone] have become obsolete,” said Mayor Ralph Ekstrand. “It’s past its usefulness.”
Proposed changes come just days after the grand opening of the new Dollar Tree franchise at the Fulton Street Shopping Plaza along Rt. 24, which officials said is located in the Business DD zone.
Under current guidelines, retail businesses are not a permitted use in the DD business district and could not rebuild should more than 50 percent of the property be damaged by a fire or natural disaster, such as a Superstorm.
“If more than 50 percent is gone, you now have to conform to the new code,” Village Attorney Claudio Debellis explained.
However, while several businesses within the DD zone—including the ones at the Fulton Street Shopping Plaza—have been grandfathered into compliance, retail is not a permitted use, meaning if any business incurs more than 50 percent property damage, it would need to be rebuilt to comply with current zoning regulations.
Current DD zoning regulations limit the use of property to commercial or professional office buildings, medical centers, financial institutions, telephone or telegraph offices, a library, clubs, fraternity houses a lodge or community center. With the approval of a special use permit, it is also permissible to have a theater, hotel or automatic car wash in a Business DD zone. However, none of these uses include retail.
In order to bring the code up-to-snuff with the existing property uses, the village proposed expanding its Business D zone to encompass any property in the DD zone.
At a public hearing on Dec. 1, residents queried the board as to why the zoning issue was not addressed when the village first approved its Master Plan, a non-binding zoning use guidebook, back in 2011.
“We gleaned over it because we never thought it would be a site subject to change,” said Deputy Mayor Pat Christensen.
Christensen explained that initially the site of the Fulton Street Shopping Plaza was a King Kullen grocery store and eventually changed when Waldbaum’s stepped in. However, today about two-thirds of properties in the DD zone are retail, even though it is not a permitted use.
Officials now await the decision of the Nassau County Planning Commission to determine if it will be able to recodify the zoning regulations. The public hearing will resume at the next village meeting on Jan. 5, 2015.
