GN Plaza enacts new massage law

John Santa

Businesses providing massage-related services in Great Neck Plaza will now be required to abide by several new regulations aimed at preventing illegal sexual activity in the village.

After several months of debate, the Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new local law last Wednesday that requires any businesses providing massage-related service to obtain a conditional-use permit.

Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said the conditional-use permits will allow local officials to better govern the type of activity occurring behind closed doors in village massage parlors.

“We believe we’ve developed regulations that will strengthen our ability to issue conditional-use permits only to those licensed facilities that will operate in a manner in which we’re looking to have provided by this type of service,” Celender said during last week’s board of trustees meeting.

Village officials first began investigating businesses offering massage-related services in January because, Celender said during a trustees meeting on Feb. 1,  the village had been receiving complaints from residents of illegal sexual contact being to customers at local establishments.

When the proposal for an eight-month moratorium on businesses providing massage-related services was made, the village held a public hearing on Feb. 15, which Trustee Gerald Schneiderman said was attended by more than 60 people who were concerned over the “negative perception surrounding (massage) services.”

Since February, Nassau County police have arrested four people for providing massages services without the proper licenses in the village.

An employee of Oriental Body Works at 25 Cutter Mill Road was apprehended on March 7 and charged with unauthorized practice of a crime.

“We’ve had many meetings where this was discussed and we had people from the licensed massage professional societies that came here, people that have business that made testimony about this issue,” Celender said. 

Although the proposal to institute the moratorium was eventually dropped, Great Neck Plaza Attorney Richard Gabriele said the law now in place “clarifies” the rules for any businesses providing varying types of massage in the village.

“All businesses in the village that provide massage services have to come for a conditional-use permit,” Gabriele said of the law. “It imposes various provisions to be included in the conditional-use permit to give the village more ability to make sure that legitimate services are being provided by the businesses.”

Before the law was implemented by Great Neck Plaza’s trustees, it was approved by the Nassau County Planning Commission in May. 

“The Nassau County Planning Commission left this matter for local determinations, which means that the board can do what it wants with this law and proceed to vote on it,” Gabriele said.

In addition to requiring a conditional-use permit, the law also instituted a new set of regulations businesses must abide by if they wish to provide massages.

The law stipulates that massages must be provided for “therapeutic and health-related” reasons, while prohibiting “unlawful, elicit or sexually-oriented” services offered by village businesses, Gabrielle said during a May board of trustees meeting.

Another provision of the law includes a requirement that would not allow anyone under the age of 18 to receive a massage in the village without written consent from a parent or guardian.

A closing time of 9 p.m. was established by the proposed law for massage-related businesses.

In addition, the proposed law indicates that all massage-related businesses must obtain and maintain all licenses maintained by government authorities.

Businesses providing massage-related services would also be required by law to display their license, registration and a photo ID issued by the state Department of Education or the state Department of State.

With no village police department, Great Neck Plaza’s Building Department is charged with enforcing local conditional-use permits.

A stipulation of the law also grants the village’s building inspector, Joe Diaz, or other code enforcement officers access to the premises of businesses suspected of illegal activity.

In other business, trustees unanimously adopted a new set of regulations for the rental of apartment buildings that provide affordable housing units in the village.

With construction of the six-story, 94-unit Lalezarian Properties apartment building at 245-265 Great Neck Road nearing completion, Gabriele said it was necessary to establish the new rules to govern the selection of tenants, along with the application and administration process for the rental of affordable housing units.

The Lalezarian Properties apartment building along Great Neck Road is being constructed through a partnership with the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency and Great Neck Plaza.

The 94-unit building will have 19 affordable housing units reserved for county first responders when completed.

During a ceremony in April, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano touted the building as Nassau’s “first transit-oriented development project.” He said the project has already brought about the creation of 175 construction jobs and 16 new full-time positions at the complex, all while injecting $175 million into the county’s economy.

“In light of the specifics of this building, it made sense to revisit the selection procedures and the eligibility procedures and the review procedures,” Gabriele said.

Great Neck Plaza adopted a local law in 2005 to regulate the construction and leasing of affordable housing units in its C-2 district, which is comprised of businesses along portions of Cutter Mill and Great Neck roads.

“This local law modifies a lot of provisions of the (2005) law,” Gabriele said.

One of the main issues addressed in the law is the creation of a category of tenant, who will be eligible to rent the affordable housing units.

Under the law, the affordable housing units will be eligible to be rented by Great Neck Vigilant and Manhasset-Lakeville fire department volunteers, who have been with the companies for at least five years.

The apartments would also be open to armed service veterans, employees of the village, residents under the age of 30 who have lived in the village for at least 10 years and anyone over the age of 65 who has been a resident of the village for the past 15 years.

Other components of the law also include restrictions for how Lalezarian properties can accept or deny tenants’ applications and appropriate rent levels for the affordable housing units.

“These provisions would be applicable for another building,” Celender said of the law. “It’s not just geared to that particular one, but now having one that we can look to as a model, (we can) more specifically craft some of the administrative parts of this. It made sense to change the law rather than adopt separate regulations.”

Originally an office building, the property at 245-265 Great Neck Road was left as a “hole in the ground” when it was abandoned by its last developer following the economic downturn in September of 2008, Celender previously said of the site.

When completed this summer, the 94-unit apartment building will include 24-hour-a-day doorman concierge services and on-site parking, along with amenities such as 10-foot ceilings and landscaped roof decks. The apartments will also include surround-sound stereo systems and washers and dryers.

Lalezarian Properties is also currently in the planning process of a controversial 12-house development on Clover Drive in the Village of Great Neck, which will have a road running through the Village of Great Neck Estates.

“We’re very excited that we’re going to have 19 affordable housing units,” Celender said. “We’re the first village on the peninsula to adopt legislation.”

Gabriele said construction of the apartment building at 245-265 Great Neck Road will be completed in “two or three months.” 

“It’s a handsome building,” Celender said. “It’s going to have very good units in there. We’re very excited, so stay tuned.”

Due to the Fourth of July, the next Village of Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees meeting will be held on Monday, July 2 at 8 p.m.

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