Road safety concerns in Marchant Park are also heard
Although recreational marijuana was legalized in New York this spring, the Village of Roslyn Board of Trustees voted on Sept. 21 to ban the smoking and vaping of cannabis products on village-owned properties. Many municipalities across Nassau County have adopted similar laws.
The board also voted to opt out of establishing cannabis dispensaries and consumption sites. Village Attorney Johns Gibbons explained that towns and cities cannot opt out past Dec. 31, but retain the ability to decide to opt-in in the future.
Given that the state has yet to establish regulations for licensing cannabis distributors, Gibbons advised the board to “take a wait-and-see attitude.” Mayor John Durkin agreed with this approach, noting that it will be months before New Yorkers can buy or sell marijuana legally.
While the public made no comments about the cannabis laws, community members were vocal about reviewing signage in the Marchant Park section of Roslyn, citing safety risks.
Marc Magid, a resident of the area, said school bus drivers have parked unsafely on the neighborhood’s narrow streets for years.
“I’ve had numerous altercations with some of these drivers,” Lyssa Goldberg said. “It’s been really scary. I once almost called the police.”
According to Moez Mayourian, the drivers leave large amounts of trash around the neighborhood. In a presentation, he showed photographs of empty liquor bottles on lawns and in the street.
He reported a pattern of “unwelcoming, rude behavior” from drivers. Once, he asked a driver, who was speeding near children playing in the street, to slow down.
“His exact response was, ‘Next time, maybe I will run over your fat ass,’” Mayourian recalled.
Another time, he asked a driver not to park around a bend. The driver’s response, Mayourian said, was “go f**k yourself.”
This summer, the village took down parking restrictions because the signage was too vague.
After the public hearing, the board voted to approve new signage that prohibits street parking between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., with certain exceptions. The ban will not apply on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, and parking is never allowed on bends in the road.
“As a traffic and transportation engineer, I care about safety,” Trustee Sarah Oral said.
Mayor Durkin also started a program to look into giving Marchant Park residents hang tags so that they can legally park outside their homes. Many residents expressed concerns that their visitors would be unable to do so.
“If I ask for 20 passes because I’m having a barbecue am I going to have an issue?” Shelly Irizarry asked.
While the details have yet to be ironed out, Jed Schlacter believes that “the hang tag is a key solution.”
“Everybody in Marchant Park is on the same page; we’re trying to figure out what helps everybody,” he said. “The discussion tonight was extraordinarily helpful.”
The board also voted to approve Lumber Road Roslyn LLC’s application to amend the site plan for a residential rental apartment building. In October 2020, the board approved the applicant’s permit to construct a 33-unit, four-story building on 45 Lumber Rd. located in the Waterfront Development Overlay District.
“Enhancements were made because my client and his team… saw an opportunity to draw upon the traditional architecture and materials of the buildings on the waterfront, while upgrading the design to provide a fresh new look,” Anthony Guardino said, who is the lawyer representing Lumber Road Roslyn LLC.
The building will have a rooftop terrace, three residential floors and one floor of amenities for tenants, including a gym, an entertainment center, a salon and barbershop, a library and office space. The applicant is also considering building a dock for tenants to launch kayaks or paddle boards.
“Our philosophy was to design a high-end luxury building using a modern contemporary approach and also using brick to tie in a traditional material that complements the buildings in the area,” architect Bill Novak said.
However, Mayor Durkin worried that the building’s color palette would look disconnected from the rest of Roslyn.
“It’s a very handsome building, but I want to make sure it doesn’t compete with or detract from other buildings in the area,” he said. “I don’t want it sticking out like a sore thumb.”
Novak maintained that while the design does not use red brick, the building would still complement the streetscape.
“For us to change colors drastically,” he said, “would be an arduous task.”
Nevertheless, the application was approved. Guardino is confident that he and his client will be able to come to a resolution with Mayor Durkin. Trustee Craig Westergard, an architect, will continue to assist with the building design.
—Rudy Malcom is a contributing writer for Anton Media Group
