At Manorhaven’s town hall meeting last Thursday, a handful of residents approached the board to discuss their concerns, mostly about overcrowding in the half-square-mile village.
Mayor Jim Avena told residents at a village meeting late last year that the board would host the town hall meeting in response to residents expressing their worries about the village’s increasing population.
A recently approved three-story apartment building and how that would affect future building proposals in the village was central to many residents’ statements.
Dorit Zeevi-Ferrington, a Manorhaven resident, asked the board how it would prevent a similar structure from being constructed at the former Typhin Steel site.
Avena said the board would not be offering any solutions to residents at the meeting, but instead the board would “reconvene sooner than later” and “start kicking around different ideas.”
Tim Stammers asked the board why the end to overdevelopment in the village had to be pushed off to the future as opposed to being stopped now.
“Why can’t we just stop it completely now,” he said. “I know it’s tough for people who had to plan their retirements on it, but they can still sell their houses.”
Another resident, Nick Marra, reminded residents in attendance of all the work the village has done to crack down on overoccupied homes.
Ron Kaslow, a village employee, said the Building Department has investigated over 80 complaints of overoccupancy and has issued 20 summonses.
Manorhaven resident Bob O’Brien discussed the symptoms of overcrowding at the podium. He said studies have found more police calls and family disturbances in areas that are considered overpopulated.
He suggested that the village consider imposing a moratorium on the conversion of single-family homes to two-family homes.
“We just can’t do it anymore,” he said.
O’Brien also proposed that the village buy back some green space from developers or encourage landowners to donate their property to the village instead of selling it.
Yens Ruemenapp also recommended the board impose a moratorium but instead on building structures that cover more than 10 percent of a property.
Manorhaven resident Monica Desantis shared her experience with applying for variances when she wanted to expand her home from 2003 to 2005. She said she needed the extra space to accommodate her father-in-law, who was in a wheelchair, and the Board of Zoning Appeals wouldn’t give her an inch.
She said she ended up scrapping the expansion project halfway through and hasn’t reapplied for the variances since.
At the opening of the meeting, Avena addressed residents about the quality of life issues that his administration has worked to solve since taking office, such as eliminating alternate street parking except for snow emergencies.
He reminded residents that there are limits to what the village government can do to change conditions in the village.
“I know some people would like to turn the clock back to 1955 when there were many more single-family homes than two-family homes in our village,” Avena said. “Unfortunately, that horse has left the barn a long time ago.”
