By Jean Pierre Chigne
A New Hyde Park business owner criticized the village Board of Trustees on Tuesday, saying it was dragging out an application for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership.
Jim Miller, a co-owner of Miller Brothers Plumbing & Heating — which the dealership would replace at 1324 Jericho Turnpike — said the village is giving the dealership a much harder time than other businesses.
“It feels like they’re abusing the people behind the project,” Miller said. “It’s a great project but [it is] being treated unfairly.”
Miller and his brother, John Miller, plan to sell their property to Amir Jarrah, the owner of Miracle Mile Harley-Davidson in Great Neck, so he can build a new 8,000-square-foot motorcycle showroom and 6,200-square-foot basement repair shop in New Hyde Park.
The plan has been on hold since October 2015, when residents vocally opposed it at a public hearing.
Jarrah submitted a detailed study in August 2016 that concluded there would be no harm to property values, noise levels, traffic or quality of life in the village.
The Board of Trustees has hired Nelson, Pope & Voorhis, an engineering firm, to review the results of that study and determine whether they are valid.
Miller asked village Mayor Robert Lofaro why the process is taking so long, saying he had heard the village would make a decision by June.
Miller said the community outcry over the project has created a large bias against the proposed dealership, which he said would not have any significant environmental impact.
He said Mathnasium of New Hyde Park, a tutoring business, and Maserati and Suzuki car dealerships had an easier time dealing with the Board of Trustees.
“People are entitled to their opinions, but people can’t have their vision on our property,” Miller said. “It’s been a rough road.”
Jarrah himself criticized the delays in an interview earlier this month.
While he acknowledged the Harley-Davidson proposal is taking longer than most applications, Lofaro said decisions for some projects take longer than others.
“If you look at the timelines, there’s been times when it’s moved rapidly and other times that it hasn’t,” Lofaro said.
Lofaro attributed part of the delay to the village’s decision to hire a different engineering firm after a principal of its first firm, Cashin Spinelli & Ferretti, took a job with VHB Engineering, the firm that conducted the study on Jarrah’s behalf.
“My responsibility is to make sure we’re following the right protocol” Lofaro said. “We want to get away from opinion and get to fact.”
The village Board of Trustees will decide whether to require further study of Jarrah’s proposal after it gets a report from Nelson Pope & Voorhis.
