By Rebecca Melnitsky
The Roslyn Village Board of Trustees approved a resident’s plan for a pool at his home in the hillside protection district on Tuesday night.
Resident Ryan Hiller needed to get permission from the board to add a pool to his backyard on 47 Davis Lane because it is within the Hillside Protection Overlay District of Roslyn, which is a protected slope area. The board has to insure that a pool would not compromise the steep hillside.
The planned in-ground pool has dimensions of 31 by 16 feet, and will be five and a half feet deep. There is a four-foot spa section as well. Hiller’s representative, Craig Bonawandt from Haven Pools, said the land would be level and the pool will not be visible from the street.
According to village Attorney John Gibbons, a 1999 request to build a pool on the property was denied because of a neighbor’s concerns about the pool being elevated higher than the neighbor’s home. If the pool had leaked, it would have flooded the neighbor’s yard.
“I’ll just note for the record that at the time this application was denied in 1999, it required a 40-foot setback,” said Gibbons. “And now it is a 20-foot setback.”
Hiller said his neighbors had been notified and none had any feedback. The board approved the application unanimously. “We do allow pools,” said Mayor John Durkin. “It is within setbacks. It is attractively built and designed … it meets all the requirements. I see no reason to deny the application.”
The village board also approved hiring two people, Jason Guichard and Lesvin Leiva Videz, as laborers for the Department of Public Works. “We need the extra guys on crews,” said Durkin. “The weather has been bad. We’ve had a rough winter. We need extra people.”
