Village of Manorhaven officials announced last Thursday that the six-month building moratorium on development of waterfront property will have to be voted on again at the next board meeting.
“There’s a lot of pressure to get it done fast, but we wanted to get it done right,” Village Attorney James Toner said. “We need to make sure we don’t get sued. We have to be very clear.”
Citing the absence of an adequate village plan, board officials passed the moratorium at a April 28 meeting.
“More or less the moratorium is to put a pause to the development on the waterfront so we can have an engineering company to produce a plan for the future of Manorhaven so that the present development isn’t able to get in the way of the plan,” Toner said.
Toner said the board submitted the package to the Nassau County Planning Board on May 25.
Tensions arose between Caroline DuBois, a Manorhaven resident and secretary for the Manorhaven Action Committee, and Toner at the meeting.
“Caroline, you’ve been calling non-stop. My goal was not to do it your way, but the right way,” Toner said.
DuBois said she was concerned the board wasn’t following through with moving forward with the moratorium.
“Does not give you the right to interfere with my job,” Toner said to DuBois, who was emailing and calling board members to receive the status of the moratorium.
“Sorry you feel I interfered,” DuBois said.
“I have the right to make phone calls,” she added.
Trustee James Avena said he supports the moratorium and the board will move forward with it, regardless of the delay.
“We know we need one,” Avena said.
Toner said that a moratorium normally goes to the village planning board first before it gets passed by the trustee board.
Officials said the new moratorium is being re-written and the board will discuss it in a public hearing at its next meeting on June 22.
