By Noah
Manskar
Two Williston Park businesses have accrued thousands of dollars in potential fines while operating for months without approval from the village.
The village building inspector, Kerry Collins, has issued 15 summonses to Simply Foot Spa at 120 Hillside Ave. since it opened last summer, and 12 to Liffco Power Equipment at 294 Hillside Ave., which moved to Williston Park from Mineola in March, Collins said this week. Each violation carries a fine of up to $1,000.
Both businesses haven’t gotten exceptions to zoning rules as required by the village code, Collins said.
Simply Foot Spa, which offers foot, leg and back massages, also needs a special-exception permit from the Board of Trustees, which the board will not approve until it gets the zoning exception, he said.
“Once you make it hard for us and you don’t care, then we have to do what we have to do as far as enforcement,” Collins said.
Michael Holland, a Williston Park attorney who has represented both businesses, said he has been trying to resolve the dispute involving Simply Foot Spa since November 2015 and has sent “ad nauseam” correspondence to the village. He blamed Collins for delaying a resolution.
But Liffco’s owner, Darryl Murray, said Holland gave him incorrect advice that drew out the problems and increased the costs of his relocation. He said he has hired a new lawyer to sort out the issue.
“As a businessman I’m just trying to take the high road and get this all 100 percent legal, because right now I don’t even have a sign to let people know where I am,” Murray said.
Williston Park has so far regulated Simply Foot Spa as a massage parlor, which is allowed under the village code with a special permit.
But because it is near the Schecter School of Long Island on Cross Street, it requires an exception, or variance, from a zoning rule that says massage parlors cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school, park or house of worship, Collins said.
The spa’s owner, Byung Suk You, owns a similar parlor in Syosset. An employee there said she is in South Korea and could not be reached.
Liffco sells and repairs lawnmowers and other outdoor equipment, which is normally allowed without special permission. But the village believes most of its business comes from repairs, meaning it needs a zoning variance, Collins said.
Murray disputed that, saying retail sales account for 80 percent of his business.
Holland said the businesses each got a “stay of approval” preventing the village from shutting them down while it considers their cases for zoning variances.
“It wasn’t something where Mike Holland said, ‘Okay, ignore the village and do whatever you want to do,’” Holland said.
Murray said he also renovated his store without building permits because Holland told him he didn’t need them.
While Murray said he later filed the necessary paperwork, he will now have to pay triple the original fees to get the permits retroactively, Collins said.
The village did not give Simply Foot Spa a hearing within 45 days after it appealed for a zoning variance in December, Holland said. He has also said previously that Collins told him Liffco did not need a variance because it’s primarily a retail store.
Collins showed the Williston Times a January letter telling Holland Simply Foot Spa needed the variance under the distance restriction. The Board of Trustees held a hearing that month but deferred to the zoning board before hearing Holland’s full presentation.
Holland should have known what special permits the businesses needed because they are spelled out in the village code, Collins said.
“It doesn’t pay to fight the system, and the system, I don’t think is being unfair by asking you to [go before the village boards],” he said.
Relocating Liffco, which has been in Murray’s family since 1919, will cost him $40,000 to $50,000 between village applications, building permits, legal fees and up to $12,000 in fines from village summonses, he said.
“It’s very stressful, my friend,” he said. “This is not a high profit business. I’m a regular guy, and I work very hard to do what I do to both keep my employees employed and have my customers continue the service that they offer their customers.”
