At the Sept. 4 board meeting of the Farmingdale Village Board, trustees held a public hearing on local laws regarding amending the village's business zoning district.

The local laws discussed were to expand the Business "D" district on the south side of Fulton Street, 220 feet west of Main Street and 900 feet east of Main Street, to expand the permitted uses in the Business "D" zone and to provide for incentive zoning in the Business "D" district.

These local laws would allow for townhouses to be built in Business "D" zones, creating mixed use area. The 10 new townhouses approved for south of Route 109 and west of Main Street are now in Residential "B" zone, however, would be included in the Business "D" district if these local laws are passed.

"The permits are issued," building superintendent Ron Craig said. "My understanding is that they will be breaking ground within 30 days."

Village resident Chuck Gosline inquired why the board didn't agree to this type of housing in a residential area.

"This allows for townhouses to be built in Business "D" zones," village attorney Kevin Walsh said. "The purpose of this is to introduce housing to your downtown area. We need to marry our districts a little better. We want to get it so that our people are living near the downtown areas so that they can support the downtown area, there is less traffic and fewer parking issues. By creating local laws, the trustees can implement certain aspects of the Master Plan."

"Many of them [local laws] were tied into applications brought before the board," Deputy Mayor Joe Rachiele said. "We would go back and forth and look how it fit into the Master Plan."

Gosline said he would like to see or hear more about the Master Plan.

"All of these pieces are being brought across one piece at a time," he added.

Rachiele responded that everything that was involved in passing these local laws was one of the 42 recommendations from the visioning process.

"We can't pass 42 laws at once," he explained. "We look at things as builders apply. We don't want to keep granting variances or send applications to the zoning board. We want to put a law on the books that mirrors the Master Plan. It's a work in progress and many of these zoning codes haven't been changed in years."

Village resident Frank DeStefano asked, "Why not create a housing zone for the type of housing you want to create in a downtown area?"

"It's a business zone, create it as what it is," he suggested.

While trustees said that DeStefano brought up a valid point, Starkie responded that by giving that area a new zone, some places would have to go for a change of zoning.

"You can't just take one piece of property and call it one zone," Walsh added.

The public hearing was adjourned without a vote. It will continue at the Oct. 1 board meeting.

The Good and Welfare portion of the evening brought village resident Rich Gosline requesting restitution for damage to his home and property during the August storm that flooded Linwood Avenue.

"I took a lot of damage on this flood," he said. "My kid's new car was totaled out."

Village Engineer Don Sioss said that Nassau County owns the recharge basin and the pipes leading up to it on village streets are the village's responsibility.

"Some of the pipe is in the street, but then it goes into backyards, crosses south into the recharge basin on Jefferson," he added.

Rachiele suggested sending a camera down "to see what is going on down there."

When Linwood was redone during the Road Bond project in 1999, Sioss said an additional drainage pipe was installed to overflow excess water to Jefferson.

The Village of Farmingdale will hold its next board of trustees meeting on Monday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall. For more information call 249-0093 or visit www.farmingdalevillage.com.