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Mostly Cloudy Hotel, residents given time to work out compromise
How many homes to go to make way for parking lot?
The decision on whether three homes will be torn down to create a parking lot will not come until September, as Lynbrook Mayor Bill Hendrick and the village trustees decided at the Aug. 13 regular board meeting to give the two opposing sides more time to work out a compromise.
The hearing on the rezoning and special use of three properties — 417 Ocean Ave., 3 Merton Ave. and 9 Merton Ave. — at the corner of the two roads was adjourned and rescheduled until Sept. 10.
In addition to the Holiday Inn Express, which is located on the opposite side of Ocean Avenue at the corner of Sunrise Highway, Thomas Morash owns the three properties, and the homes that are there now, which are unoccupied. The proposed lot would provide additional parking for the hotel.
The homes that would be demolished are in a residential zone, which is why Morash and the developer, Sunrise One LLC, must request a change to commercial zoning from the village board.
Alan Stein, the attorney for Morash, presented the proposed lot to the board, which included 44 parking spots and landscaping around it. Expert witness Barry Nelson, a licensed real estate appraiser since 1992, said there would be between eight to 10-foot plantings around the lot to make it aesthetically appealing and added that the only access to the lot would be on Ocean Avenue. The proposal also called for no left turns onto Ocean Avenue when exiting the lot. Some of the trees located on Merton Avenue would also be preserved, Nelson said.
In the months leading up to Monday’s board meeting, residents who live nearby the proposed lot have said that their property values would be severely impacted if homes were demolished in favor of a parking lot. Nelson said that because of commercial development in the area in years past and the location of the homes on Merton Avenue already, the values of residents’ homes wouldn’t be impacted. “Those property values have been impacted,” he said.
Trustee Hilary Becker disagreed. “It’s a common principle in appraisal practice and assessment practice that if a house is next to another house it’s going to be worth more than a house that’s next to a parking lot,” he said.
