Village of Great Neck Estates officials approved the building of 10 homes in the neighboring Village of Great Neck and one in their village despite seeing few benefits on Monday night, citing the potential costs of losing in court if a denial is appealed.
Old Mill 2, which is managing the project for Frank Lalezarian of Lalezarian Properties, sought to subdivide three acres on Clover Drive to build 11 single-family homes, only one of which is in Great Neck Estates.
The access road to the properties, which is at the state minimum of 26 feet for emergency vehicle access, would also cut through Great Neck Estates.
The Village of Great Neck approved the subdivision proposal in May 2014 after years of proceedings, although the approval process did not conclude there until 2016. Applications were then filed in Great Neck Estates in October 2016.
Great Neck Estates officials said that according to both village and outside counsel, they would likely lose in court if the applicant appealed a denial because of how much effort the representatives put in to addressing requests.
This in turn could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and potentially cede over $1 million in mitigation costs promised to the village, they added, with the project still going through anyway.
Mayor William Warner said nobody he has spoken to in the Village of Great Neck Estates seems in favor of the project, but he said the developer has a history of winning litigation and the village cannot afford to “gamble” in court.
“[The Village of Great Neck has] backed us into a corner by approving the subdivision, approving what they need to approve, and we really have nowhere to go here,” Warner said, noting that he is “troubled by it.”
“The worst thing would be to take that gamble and then the project still gets done,” Warner added, “which is the likelihood of this.”
Deputy Mayor Jeffrey Farkas, who raised his hand high to be the lone “no” vote on the project, urged his colleagues to reject the proposal as there is “no upside” to approving the applications.
He said the homes would not conform to the character of the village, would aggravate traffic and safety concerns, and the Village of Great Neck will reap the tax benefits while the Village of Great Neck Estates deals with the burden of the access road.
“Property values will not increase. The new homes do not make Great Neck Estates a more attractive place or better place to live,” Farkas said. “In fact, these new homes will burden our community for years to come without any long-term benefits.”
“There is not one person in this room, or the entire village, other than the applicant, who would say this is an improvement to Great Neck Estates or this is a benefit to Great Neck Estates,” Farkas added.
Trustee Howard Hershenhorn said he believes that because of the work done by the applicant and the applicant’s compliance with village traffic requirements, it has “put us in the position” where the village would lose an appeal in court and money “in excess of seven figures.”
“When we look at this in terms of the entire village, the applicant has dotted every i and crossed every t,” Hershenhorn said.
He added that village officials have a “fiduciary responsibility” to the residents and couldn’t lose this money.
Trustee Ira Ganzfried said there’s “no single issue” holding up the application, although he knows “there is no benefit for this village for this project” and years of construction likely to come.
“But the approval of the project seems to be a much more intelligent idea than trying to fight it,” Ganzfried said. “I really think that fighting it at this point is not going to have a positive outcome for us.”
Trustee Lanny Oppenheim said he “shares everyone’s frustration” but that officials have “peppered [village] counsel every which way” to try finding where the village stands legally.
“And unfortunately his conclusion is one that forces us as fiduciaries to protect the village assets,” Oppenheim said.
Paul Bloom, a legal representative for Old Mill 2 LLC, said a “tremendous amount of thought” went into the approval process and thanked trustees for their efforts.
“We were impressed with the knowledge and the concern of all the board members,” Bloom said. “We understand that this was a difficult decision… We believe that you’ve come to the correct decision.”
As Lalezarian walked past Village of Great Neck resident Jean Pierce, she said, “This is nothing short of blackmail. Disgusting.”
She later added, “How much money does that guy need?”
At the same time, a Great Neck Estates resident asked, “Why?” and peppered trustees about the decision, saying it’s “always about the money” and asked what would happen if residents raised the money to offset the costs.
“No one in Great Neck Estates wants this,” she said. “How could you do that? You represent us, not them.”
Warner said the trustees are representatives of the village and reiterated “we have taken everything into consideration.”
