Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees have cleared the way for a proposed 61-unit apartment complex at 15 Bond St. after they decided last Wednesday that the building’s construction would not have an environmental impact on the community.
Plaza trustees voted at last Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting to make a “conditioned negative declaration” for the state environmental impact report required for the construction of a new building.
Village Attorney Richard Gabriele said the determination was made with the conditions that the building could not include a fifth floor for a recreational room and that the building could not exceed 45 feet tall, which is the maximum allowed by village code.
“If certain conditions are adhered to, then the board does not see any significant adverse environmental impacts from the project,” Gabriele said.
In July, the board voted to become the lead agency on the project to handle the State Environmental Quality Review Assessment, which would identify if the project would have any significant environmental impact on the surrounding area.
The engineering firm VHB was hired by the village to oversee the assessment.
Attorney Chris Prior, who represents residents from the four buildings surrounding the proposed dwelling, said the residents still had concerns that VHB’s final report made no mention of monitoring wells that two of the surrounding buildings had installed to monitor underground water levels to ensure the proposed building could sufficiently retain stormwater runoff, preventing damage to any surrounding buildings.
“The position of the neighbors has been that a positive declaration would be appropriate and I suppose the primary reason for that was the concern about the underground stream,” Prior said. “That is something we do feel would be appropriate.”
As well as water drainage issues, residents of the four surrounding buildings — Westminster Hall Apartments, located at 4 Maple Place, the Cartier Apartments, located at 21 Bond St., 22 Park Place and 25 Park Place — have voiced concerns at past meetings about the applicant’s zoning variance requests.
Paul Bloom, attorney for Effie Namdar of 14 Park Place LLC, which is seeking to build the complex, has appeared at past village Board of Zoning Appeals meetings seeking 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.
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 a previous zoning board meeting that many buildings surrounding 15 Bond St. are more than three stories high.
Wednesday’s conditioned negative determination did not come without a bit of controversy.
Trustees Pamela Marksheid and Gerald Schneiderman first abstained from the vote, citing concerns with details of the building’s construction and traffic patterns.
Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said she wanted all board members in agreement on the determination.
“We need to make sure everybody’s comfortable with it, everybody understands the consequences,” Celender said. “I personally feel that it is not appropriate to abstain on a matter of this importance.”
She said that construction and traffic concerns would be considered when the application gets to the point where the board will vote on a permit of compliance and site plan review for the development.
“We haven’t even seen a site plan that would conform to this yet, so all those details will get worked out,” Celender said. “We’re not at that stage of approving a building, this is for a SEQRA determination so that it can move forward. We don’t even know if the various variances that are being requested will be granted by the board.”
Both Marksheid and Schneiderman then rescinded their abstentions and voted in favor of the conditioned negative declaration.
Celender said the decision was just an “initial determination” and that there was a 30-day public comment period beginning at the end of June until July 31.
She said the board will make its final determination after hearing all public comment at the first meeting in August.
Gabriele suggested that the Board of Zoning Appeals adjourn its hearing on the requested variances until the final determination is made.
