The Village of Great Neck Zoning Board of Appeals approved variances for developer Frank Lalezarian’s proposed housing development on Clover Drive at Thursday night’s hearing.
The decision clears an obstacle for the project, which would build 11 single-family homes on a 3.1 acre parcel of land between Old Mill and Middle Neck Roads.
“This particular use of the property is the least impactful use of that property,” board chair Dennis Grossman said. “Use of the property would, I think, be to the benefit of the village, and should be considered by others as such.”
The project is still contingent on approval from the Village of Great Neck Estates, which contains the only access road to the proposed development.
Village of Great Neck Estates Mayor David Fox said that no application had been filed with his village so he could not comment on the plans.
“At some point in time they’re going to have to make a filing to the Village of Great Neck Estates for something, but I don’t know what they’re going to file,” Fox said. “We’ll just have to wait it out.”
The zoning’s board’s 33-page decision, which is contingent on Great Neck Estates granting access, sets out several stipulations for the developer.
Lalezarian is to construct a private cul-de-sac for the new homes, as there is no public access road through the development. No parking will be allowed on the private street, and the board directed Lalezarian to seek no-parking designations for surrounding sections of Clover Drive from Great Neck Estates to create access for emergency vehicles.
The project also ran up against state fire code, as the planned cul-de-sac does not have the required width for fire trucks to turn around. The board, in concert with Great Neck Alert Fire Chief Ramond Plakstis, came up with a different solution – to require each house to have a full sprinkler system.
“There is sufficient evidence that the installation of residential sprinkler systems within detached single-family dwellings provides for the maximum degree of safety for a family and personal property in the vent of a fire,” wrote the Village of Great Neck building inspector in a letter included in the decision.
Plakstis added that the cul-de-sac was wide enough to fit the vehicles used by the Alert fire company.
The board also required the buyers of the new houses to form a home owner’s association, which will be financially responsible for the maintenance of the private cul-de-sac.
And while the board acknowledged that the area in question is in need of park land, it said that reserving part of the plot for a parks was not feasible for the development and instead required an unspecified financial contribution from Lalezarian to the village’s Park and Recreation fund.
The board’s ruling is a long time coming. Lalezarian first attempted to develop the site in 2006, and the board reviewed an environmental assessment for the site in 2011.
And at previous public hearings on the project, residents had raised concerns about possible noise levels and disputed Lalezarian’s claim to the property.
Attorney Lawrence Farkas said at a February meeting that his clients, owners of property next to the development, were entitled to right of first refusal on purchasing the lot, and that a lawsuit was pending.
“As to the questions of title raised by a neighbor, insufficient documentation was produced to this board to sufficiently challenge the title alleged by the owner, and any such challenge is properly before the courts and not this board,” the board wrote the in its decision.
