The Village of Flower Hill Board of Trustees held a public hearing for changing the restaurant property at 1023 Northern Blvd., the Landmark Diner site, to retail use at a village board meeting last Monday evening.
The hearing was adjured to the village board’s March 7 meeting pending results from the village’s zoning board variance hearing on parking on Feb. 17, and a response from Nassau County Planning Commission, which the Village of Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Philips said has been sent over for approval.
Charles Panetta, a professional engineer and land surveyor from the Oyster Bay-based firm Bladykas & Panetta who was representing the owners of the property, reviewed the latest version of the proposal with the village board, which is a site plan approval for a two-story structure on the 29,504 square-foot property.
The most recent proposal is the two-story building with a footprint of 3,036 square feet, a total floor area of 6,072 square feet. The potential tenant is the furniture store Roche Bobois, which has an existing location in Manhasset.
“We have a perfectly good expectation that this is going to happen,” Panetta said. “One of the steps forward is for us to get an approval for some of the amenities in this building that they’re seeking to occupy.”
The application will require approvals by the village’s zoning board for a required five-foot buffer for the rear, side and front parking areas, as well as relocating the site further west of the existing diner location on the site.
Panetta pointed out that the footprint of the building will be less and the application complies with the village’s drainage rating. He also presented a rendering of the building; it is proposed as a modern glass and architectural panel building to reflect the furniture store’s aesthetic of high-end products.
Philips asked about the possibility of the proposal changing if Roche Bobois doesn’t move forward, which Panetta said it could change and regarded the application as being an improvement for the neighborhood.
Both Philips and Village Trustee Gary Lewandowski questioned the accuracy of the rendering, specifically about the lack of landscaping around the property, which Panetta said that architects purposely pull out trees from renderings for visibility of the building; however, additional landscaping can be added.
Philips said she was uncomfortable approving the application that evening without hearing what the zoning board had to say first.
“I am encouraging the application to get some landscaping developed, go to zoning, come back and we can move forward; I can’t imagine we’re not going to move forward,” Philips said. “As long as the procedures in the village are complied with, you have our support—it’s a win-win for us and the community.”
In other village news, the village board held two other public hearings—one on the inclusion of a definition for the word “demolition” in the village code, which was explained by village officials as an effort to eliminate any gray area in future matters, and the other on adding a $500 fee for changing an address within the village.
The local law was unanimously approved, and the definition will read “removal of a substructure of a building in excess of 51 percent above the first-floor deck or the first-floor slab.”
Village of Flower Hill Building Superintendent James Gilhooly said it is a safety matter as well, being that demolitions have specific requirements regarding asbestos, underground fuel tanks, a required pre-inspection for hazardous materials and for the safe disconnect of utility lines.
“It’s important that these processes take place before the actual demolition takes place,” Gilhooly said.
The village board first began discussing a proposal to have a definition for “demolition” two months ago, and drafted a law in January.
The fee for changing an address was proposed by Village Administrator Ronnie Shatzkamer and was unanimously approved
as well.
“There is quite a bit of paperwork involved in changing an address, and the board feels that an address change is necessitated not by circumstance,” Shatzkamer said. “In instances such as somebody subdividing a particular lot or demolishing a house, they will not be charged.”
Shatzkamer said that the village has had a number of people come to village hall asking for a change in address for the reasoning of a belief of certain numbers to be unlucky.
“In that event, the board felt that it is appropriate for residents to pay a fee to cover the costs involved,” Shatzkamer said.
