The East Williston Village Board conducted continuations of two public hearings at Monday night’s meeting, but still reached no resolution on reducing fees to residents for razing garages or parking restrictions aimed at preventing commuters from leaving their cars on Atlanta Street.
The village board was unable to agree on the conditions in which the fee for removing attached garages would be reduced from $2,000 to $200 or $300.
The board considered reducing the fee only when the attached garage removed was replaced by another garage.
But East Williston building inspector Robert Compagna suggested that the board not require the replacement of the garage
“I don’t think it should be tied to replacing it,” Compagna said. He also said attached and detached garages should be covered and that removal of the structures “doesn’t necessarily have to be based on safety.”
“We can’t justify $2,000 for what should be two hours of a building inspector’s time,” Compagna said. He said the current fee was approximately 10 times the fee other communities in the area impose.
Village of East Williston Trustee Michael Braito said the existing statute dated back to 2007, during a phase when developers were seeking to create space to build new homes. He said he didn’t want to encourage homeowners to impulsively remove garages.
“Properties having garages add to the character of a neighborhood,” he said. “We’re trying to look at every aspect of this.”
On restricted parking along Atlanta Avenue, Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner said comments from residents at last month’s hearing suggested they wanted to maintain two-hour parking signs at one end of Atlanta – enforceable for a distance of 200 feet – with no signs at the other end of the street.
“The history here is that the signs were put up so commuters wouldn’t take up all the spaces on the street,” Braito said.
Residents complained during last month’s hearing that the inconsistency in the sign restrictions made some residents on the block liable to have their cars ticketed. Signs at one end of the street had been removed at some point under circumstances village officials can’t explain.
But one resident at Monday night’s meeting objected to putting up more signs to enforce restrictions along the entire street.
“If you’re going to put up the signs, then you have to give people the opportunity to rethink it,” resident Constantine Bertolli said.
One visibly exasperated Atlanta Avenue resident said, “Just give us two or three choices, let us vote on it and you can ratify our choice.”
Tanner said he thought the board should invite Atlanta Street residents to a second roundtable discussion of the issue.
“Obviously, there’s a difference of opinion on what the residents on Atlanta want,” Tanner said.
In other developments:
• Ray Gaudio, East Williston’s liaison to the town and village committee on airplane safety and noise abatement, said Federal Aviation Authority officials would present a solution to the increased frequency of commercial airliners using two landing strips at JFK Airport at a meeting on Oct. 24. The apparent overuse of those runways has resulted in low-flying aircraft creating excessive noise in East Williston and neighboring communities. The committee will meet next Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence High School auditorium at 2 Reilly Rd. in Cedarhurst.
• The East Williston Historical Committee will be conducting a walking tour of the village starting at Village Hall on Nov. 19. Compagna will be the guide for the tour, which will terminate at the Community Church of East Williston. Pre-registration is required for the tour.
• A Veteran’s Day observance will be held on the East Williston Village Green at 11:15 a.m. on Nov. 11.
• Tanner said residents filed complaints recently about garbage pickup in the village, including a truck leaking hydraulic fluid and garbage cans not replaced in their original locations at residents’ homes. Representatives of Dejana Industries, the company that handles trash pick-ups in the village, said the hydraulic leak on the truck – caused by a faulty rubber seal – had been repaired. They said other complaints would be addressed by the company.
