The Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees on Tuesday proposed an extension of its temporary moratorium on businesses that profit from on-site smoking for an additional three months.
The proposed extension comes two weeks after the Village of Great Neck Plaza proposed to extend its law banning smoking businesses for an additional 10 months to study the health effects of hookah smoking before deciding whether or not to enact a permanent ban.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said at a board meeting Tuesday that the board is close to making a decision on whether to ban on-site smoking businesses.
“It seems to me that the proof is there and that we should be able to make a decision in three months,” Kreitzman said.
The extension of the moratorium needs to be reviewed by the Nassau County Planning Commission before it can be enacted. The planning commission in November said the proposed moratorium should be left in the hands of local municipalities.
The village’s first moratorium in November followed the Great Neck Plaza’s first moratorium, which was introduced in September.
Great Neck Plaza’s temporary ban was spurred by the opening of a hookah lounge on Middle Neck Road, Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said.
The moratorium would allow the village to discuss possible restrictions on alternative forms of smoking, like hookah pipes and e-cigarettes that could pose public health risks, Celender said.
Fountain Blue Hookah, located at 435 Middle Neck Road, was approved by the board last July despite public comments urging the board to deny the application.
The property’s landlord is Mike Yeroush, a Great Neck-based developer whose company A1 Universal Development Group has worked on dozens of properties in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Long Island and Upstate New York, according to the company’s Web site.
In August, village attorney Stephen Limmer had told the board it had no legal recourse to revoke the permit or regulate the smoking of non-tobacco products, Kreitzman said.
Kreitzman said at the time the board would be responsive to complaints if the lounge was violating its permit conditions, which included noise restrictions and a prohibition of outdoor smoking by customers.
