Flower Hill trustees on Tuesday introduced a local law that would officially establish the village’s Architectural Review Committee.
The board would consist of three Flower Hill residents, one of whom already serving as a village trustee, in addition to up to two alternates, and receive advisement from the village’s building inspector.
At least two of the committee members would be qualified in the areas of art, architecture, landscape architecture of design, land development, community planning, real estate, engineering, law to determine the effects of a proposed building or structure on its desirability, property value and development of the surrounding area, according to the drafted law.
Trustee Randall Rosenbaum said the village has had a permit review committee for the last 20 years whose suggestions are taken into consideration by trustees in their approval of proposals, but there hadn’t been any stipulation in village code requiring the input of the committee in trustee decisions.
“Right now, our permit review committee acts as a de facto design and review [board] and has no legislative authority,” Rosenbaum said. “We wanted to keep [the law] very user-friendly, we wanted to keep the proceedings as transparent as they already are and we wanted residents who are coming in front of this committee to know what the committee is all about and what they’re going to be looking for in design.”
According to the proposed law, one committee member will be appointed for one year, one committee member will be appointed for two years, and another will hold office for three years. In the case of the trustee, that member’s term will last for up to three years after the typical expiration of his term.
Village officials said the earliest they would vote on the law would be at the Nov. 4 board of trustees meeting.
In other new business, Village Administrator Ronnie Shatzkamer announced she had sent an e-mail to editors of the Roslyn News regarding the use of the village’s minutes in Flower Hill-related articles.
In a recent edition of the newspaper, published by Anton Publications, Shatzkamer said a copy of unapproved board of trustee meeting minutes had been used verbatim and without identification as meeting minutes, with the story credited to a Roslyn News reporter and accompanied by a headline that Shatzkamer said was “misleading.”
Shatzkamer said the village is required by law to provide meeting minutes up no later than five days after a meeting, but minutes from the previous month’s meeting are approved as the first item of business at each board of trustees meeting.
Village of Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips said she suggested the newspaper create a column that would provide village news gathered from different area villages each week, because she said Anton Publications typically does not send reporters to attend Flower Hill meetings.
Phillips added, though, that she would not want the village to be responsible for doing the publication’s work.
“For them to publish our minutes verbatim is pretty lazy, if you ask me,” Phillips said. “Even though the minutes are public record.”
Trustee Tab Hauser has worked as a freelance writer and photographer in the past. His work has appeared in the Manhasset Press and Port Washington News, both owned by Anton.
Phillips added that if the publication were to send a reporter to Flower Hill meetings, “we’d certainly welcome them.”
In old business, trustees announced they had purchased a tarp to cover the car located on the property of the Marinelli residence at 80 Drake Lane.
In older business, Phillips also announced the withdrawal of the application for a change of use permit for Kings County Luxury Automobiles, which had been approved during a public hearing July 1 pending the site plan review by building inspector James Gilhooly.
The permit would have allowed Kings County to convert the site of 1033 Northern Boulevard from a retail store to a car dealership. The site had also previously been used as a Saab dealership.
Trustees were concerned about the potential overstocking of the site’s parking lot, as Kings County officials had planned for 11 parking spaces in addition to two reserved for handicapped motorists.
“[Their attorney in attendance at the July 1 public hearing] looked at us and said, ‘these guys aren’t messing around,’” Hauser said. “He was going to fill that parking lot up with cars.”
In her administrator’s report, Shatzkamer announced the village had received 21 requests from residents for its tree replacement plan.
The village has set aside $10,000 to replace trees that had been lost to Superstorm Sandy.
Flower Hill officials said they recently visited Hicks Nurseries in Westbury to determine bulk prices for different trees, and Phillips said residents will have the opportunity to choose from a selection of trees on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Though the village is purchasing the trees, Residents will be responsible for their maintenance.
“At least people aren’t afraid of [replacing trees] anymore, so that’s good,” Trustee Eileen Mills said.
In her mayor’s report, Phillips said she has received notification from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office that municipal pension costs are likely to decrease for 2014-15.
Phillips said pension contributions have jumped from an 8 percent increase in 2009 to increases between 17-25 percent since.
“At some point, it’s crazy,” Phillips said. “We’ve seen an over 450 percent increase in the last four years, and thankfully it hasn’t been a problem for us because we’re fiscally sound, but for other villages, it’s got to be a terrible burden.”
The board also agreed to change the date of October’s board of trustees meeting to Oct 1, as Shatzkamer said she would be traveling and would have missed the meeting as scheduled for Oct. 7.
