The Lake Success Board of Trustees enacted a series of property regulations on Monday night, with laws targeting mansard roofs, garages and lighting.
The laws came after a public hearing last month, where Trustee Alan Mindel raised concerns about loopholes in current laws that allow people to gain more square footage on their homes. Meanwhile, the lighting law, trustees said, followed a series of complaints.
Local Law No. 4 restricts the floor of a garage under a dwelling from being more than two feet below the adjacent curb level. The law also says that the garage square footage will be included in floor area ratio calculations.
“This is a law to combat a loophole that is been found in our village building code whereby if a garage was below grade, it was not counted in the square footage of homes,” Mindel said at the meeting.
“Where we’re finding is that they’re building homes that look like they are almost three stories high because they’ve dug their driveway down a little bit, they put their garage at that lower level, and all of a sudden that square footage doesn’t count,” Mindel added.
Local Law No. 5, meanwhile, redefines a flat roof as one with a pitch of less than five inches per foot. Mindel said that this changes the measurement starting point to be from the top point rather than the ridge.
“Some of the houses were actually shorter because of the mansard design and it all worked and the houses looked great,” Mindel said. “Then, a year and a half ago or a year ago, someone put together an application for a mansard roof and discovered they could increase their interior footage by the footage of the mansard roof.”
Local Law No. 2 aims to create “a certain sense of safety of lighting within the village,” setting requirements for people who put lighting on private property. It bans strobe lights, caps the height of lights, limits how far the light reaches and requires all exterior lighting be “fully shielded.”
“It’s basically making sure that everyone’s acting in a respectful and smart fashion with their home lighting,” Mindel said.
The Lake Success village board also approved the use of 224 Lakeville Road as a religious institution for the Chabad congregation, with two trustees abstaining over potential parking concerns.
Robert Schaufeld, a representative for the group, said that having another house of worship would benefit the village and that there are no other Orthodox congregations in the immediate area.
“It is a long standing rule that religious and educational uses are inherently beneficial,” Schaufeld said, “and it should be noted that there are presently two religious institutions on Lakeville Road and in the Village of Lake Success.”
“There is no other Orthodox congregation servicing the area,” Schaufeld added.
Village officials also introduced — but tabled for next meeting — a bill that adjusts weight and height limits for trucks and gives the village the right to bill any overweight commercial vehicles.
Village Administrator Patrick Farrell described this as laying a “groundwork” for enforcing commercial vehicle laws and noted that Rockville Centre, Floral Park and Garden City have similar laws.
“This code will allow the Village of Lake Success police to issue tickets to commercial vehicles, which we currently cannot do,” Farrell said. “Initially Lake Success would be assisted by New York State police and we can eventually apply for grant money to purchase the materials and weights needed.”
Lake Success Mayor Adam Hoffman also approved new appointments to the village’s environmental commission. The new commission’s members include Trustee Alan Mindel, Roberta Chavis, Laura Gal, Vincent Lentini, Judy Liman, Roger Nettler, Michele Raphael, Adam Schneider and Rosalind Zitner. Jill Madenberg and Esther Voigt are serving as alternates.
Hoffman previously said the decision to delay appointments came after some members were not attending enough meetings.
Their primary responsibilities are to study the local environment and recommend actions the village should take to protect and improve it, according to the village website.
