The Village of Roslyn’s board of trustees held a public hearing Tuesday regarding a proposed addition of a stand-alone car wash to the rear of the Rallye Motors Mercedes-Benz dealership located at 1600 Northern Boulevard, but deferred on a decision until its meeting next month.
Rallye Motors, represented at the meeting by Andrea Tsoukalas of Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Terrana, LLP, is proposing the rezoning of the property, which is split into commercial and residential zones, to avoid needing a variance to build the 2,400 square-foot car wash at the dealership’s rear.
Tsoukalas said the dealership received a variance in 1984 allowing dealership property in a residential zone for the addition of parking spaces. He said the proposed car wash would remove three spaces
“It’s better for water circulation…it’s better for the environment, it just makes more sense,” Tsoukalas said. “You can do more cars and it’s more efficient.”
Village of Roslyn building inspector Wade Curry had previously issued a notice of disapproval for the project.
Trustee Sarah Oral expressed concerns that future building projects could affect the rights of homeowners who live near the dealership in an area zoned residential.
“A parking structure [could] be built as of right once it’s on the commercial property,” Oral said. “That would affect the homeowners who live to the west and we would not be able to limit, let’s say a three-story parking garage.”
Carrie O’Farrell, a planner from Nelson, Pope and Voorhis representing Rallye Motors, said the dealership is willing to agree to restrict future expansion of the commercial property with the exception of parking.
“They want to use that for parking,” O’Farrell said. “They don’t want to preclude in the future the ability to use that if needed as a structure for parking.”
O’Farrell added that the dealership is not proposing a parking structure because it currently stores cars off-site, and the possibility of a parking structure is “just theoretical right now.”
Durkin responded, “This just looks like a twofer. It’s amazing how quickly theoretical becomes practical around here.”
