Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees voted Wednesday to be the lead agency on a proposed project 61-unit apartment complex at 15 Bond St.
“I hope to not do it in a piecemeal fashion where it’s tedious and difficult to track,” Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said.
Paul Bloom, attorney for Effie Namdar of 14 Park Place LLC, which is seeking to build the complex, said he hoped the board would declare itself lead agency so they could proceed with a State Environmental Quality Review Assessment, which would identify if the project would have any significant environmental impacts on the surrounding area.
Celender said the village hired the engineering firm VHB at their last meeting to oversee the SEQRA review..
She said the village sent out a letter to all agencies on June 8 that would be involved in considering the application for the project, such as the Nassau County Department of Public Works and the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District, saying the Plaza wanted to be the lead agency on the project.
All involved agencies had a month to reply to the letter, Celender said, and only two replied — the county DPW and the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District.
If an agency doesn’t respond, she said, it constitutes a “no” response to being lead agency.
Chris Prior, an attorney with Ackerman, Levine, Cullen, Brickman & Limmer who represents residents at four buildings surrounding 15 Bond St., wrote a letter to the board, saying the residents were opposed to the project on the grounds that it does not comply with the village code and it would not be fit with other buildings in the neighborhood.
Prior represents residents at Westminster Hall Apartments, located at 4 Maple Place, The Cartier Apartments, located a 21 Bond St, and the owners of 22 Park Place and 25 Park Place.
Bloom requested a series of variances for the project at a Village of Great Neck Plaza Board of Zoning and Appeals meeting in June.
The developers sought a height variance that would permit a four-story, 45-foot high building. Village zoning laws permit only three-story buildings that are 45 feet high, said Michael Sweeney, village commissioner of public services.
The developers also asked for a 13-foot-high room on top of the building that would be used as a recreation room. Bloom had said at the BZA meeting that many buildings surrounding 15 Bond St. are more than three stories high.
But Board of Zoning Appeals Chair Faith Cleary said at the same meeting that the existing buildings that exceed the current zoning code’s height requirements were constructed long ago.
Sweeney has said the developers are also seeking variances to permit patios attached to some of the apartments to encroach on what is designated as yard space, a 63,000-square-foot building on a 30,000-square-foot lot and an underground parking garage that would extend beyond the footprint of the building. Zoning for the land currently permits a 30,000-square-foot building on a 30,000-square-foot lot.
Bloom said previously that a variance would permit all cars owned by the building’s residents to be parked in a garage beneath the building.
Prior said in his letter that revisions to the plan have made it difficult for the residents to study the impact of the project.
His clients, he said, have retained Schneider Engineering traffic consultants and D&B Engineers and Architects to provide advice on environmental and structures issues that may impact property owners near the proposed project.
“We request that your board not consider the new plans at this evening’s meeting, and that the SEQRA process not commence until such basic items are available to the neighbors and their consultants,” Prior said in his letter. “Only at that time can the village, its consultant, the neighbors and their consultants have a reasonable opportunity to identify the environmental issues that warrant analysis under SEQRA.”
Trustees adjourned the public hearing on the application until their Aug. 5 meeting.
