The Village of Flower Hill held their regular monthly meeting on June 4. Local Law 12 of 2018, “Regulation of Lighting,” concerning exterior lighting and illumination was passed. The board discussed two more local laws including an amendment to “Building Construction” and an amendment to “Exhibitions and Shows” that was adjourned to July 2.
Local Law 12 describes the orientation and placement of light sources, stating that “all exterior light sources shall be placed so as not to…interfere with the use or enjoyment of property…inhabitants adjacent to such premises” and should be “shielded and directed away from adjacent properties.” The law also explains that exterior lighting should not be placed in a way that the light source sheds “light directly upon any public street or property other than the property on which it is located” or in a location where it can cause “interference with the vision of motorists.”
The local law that amended “Building Construction” added that “every major or minor construction permit, plumbing or demolition permit expires one year after issuance, unless there is sufficient reason to extend as determined by the discretion of the building superintendent.” The local law was adjourned until the July 2 board meeting.
Also adjourned was the amendment to “Exhibitions and Shows” which was discussed at last month’s public hearing. After the public hearing and a meeting with Bob Young, owner of the property on Sunnyvale Road that sets up a Christmas display in memory of his daughter, the board made a few changes to the proposed law.
“One is that the proposed law had considered that there would be a permit request,” said village attorney Jefferey Blinkoff. “The change here would be that there would be a form designed to make it easy for any applicant to have something to work off of in submitting their application to the board. The second is there was concern expressed about how to set the fees. Is $100 a day a lot? Where do we come up with that? The proposal here would be to modify that so the fees would be determined either by resolution of the board or as separate in the code so as each application comes in, it can be considered under the facts the board is dealing with.”
Other changes included increasing the deposit to be submitted with the application and applied to the costs for which the applicant is liable, from $350-$500 and limitation on the time the exhibition must be taken down.
During public comment, Young questioned, “If you determine that a traffic study is warranted, you can hire a consultant for $15,000 and say here’s a bill for the traffic study, is that correct?”
“The law does allow that if the village does need to reach out to a consultant because an exhibition is going to create a certain amount of traffic, that in the village’s mind, the board’s mind, could create a danger or cause harm to an individual, that the village could hire a consultant for that purpose,” explained Blinkoff. “Depending on the cost, if the village deems it appropriate, that would be billed.”
Young explained that he sent a plan for his 2018 Christmas exhibition to the board to review and further expressed his objections to the law.
The 2018 Road Project was discussed.
The update on the Port Washington Boulevard Project, village clerk Ronnie Shatzkamer explained that village architect looked through a plan sent by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and sent back the village’s comments on the reconfiguration.
“One of the big highlights that we all agree on is that there should be some pedestrian/bicycle path as part of that project,” said Shatzkamer. “So we got an acknowledgment of his comments back from the DOT in April telling us that if we want a bike path we should apply for transportation alternative funds, which we can’t because we don’t own the property, and they asked us if we had a master plan for a bike path, so I came up with a very brief document and I reached out to the DOT and I copied like every elected official, a couple of people who would be partners in this kind of project by phone and by email and I have not yet received a response from anybody. We’re working on it.”
