Trustees unanimously voted to prohibit medical offices on the ground floor levels of buildings located in the village's C-4 Zoning District, which was established back in 1989 and stretches from Stewart Avenue to Tenth Street.

Further, the legislation, Local Law No. 1-2003, permits office space on the ground floors of such buildings in that designated district only by special permit. Certain conditions have been set forth in determining whether or not the special permit would be granted.

Before trustees voted, Ross Mongiardo, Garden City Chamber of Commerce president, requested that the board amend the proposed legislation to also strictly prohibit any office use on the ground floors of buildings located within the district in order to keep Garden City's retail sector vibrant.

Russell Matthews of the Albanese Organizations agreed, saying, "All of us made the investment in an expectation that the village would protect us and encourage continued retail use." Admitting 960 Franklin Avenue to the corner of Franklin Avenue and Tenth Street is of particular concern, Matthews added, "We're dealing with fragmented ownership and some of us don't share the same vision."

Trustee and P-Zone Committee Chair Peter Bee explained the effort to put forth clear legislation that was consistent with the Chamber's request to ensure retail be the preferred and encouraged use in that district. "It was our objective to see how we could structure legislation that met a compromise between the needs of landowners and the desire to encourage retail use. This is that compromised piece of legislation," he said.

Matthews criticized the law's conditions, citing that advertising for six months "at a rate commensurate with rates in similar retail space" or advertisement "by other means" is extremely vague. "We want to ensure that landlords in this area make a good-faith effort to lease the space to retail, just as we did," he said.

He added that a special use is "tantamount" to a permitted use. "Courts have consistently held that a special permit gives permission to use property in a way that is consistent with the zoning ordinance, although not necessarily allowed as of right. The inclusion of office use on the ground floor as a special use is tantamount to legislative finding that the proposed special use for office is in harmony with the general zoning plan and will not adversely affect the neighborhood."

Matthews believes, as does Mongiardo, that office use on the ground floor in a C-4 District is no way in harmony with the general zoning plan because it's "completely inconsistent with the village's Master Plan Update, which recognized that the C-4 District is a transitional district. Further, both feel allowing office use on the ground floors "undermines the efforts and recent developments supported by the Chamber of Commerce and the village to achieve the Business Planning Coalition's objective of preserving the retail character of the C-4 District."

Robert Rothschild, who served on the Business Planning Coalition and is the current president of the Coalition for a Better Garden City, told trustees "we're opening ourselves up to lots of loopholes [with the way the legislation is written now]. The first thing someone does when they come in with an office is put up blinds ... Offices are not something the Coalition wanted to continue down Franklin Avenue."

Bee offered three options: make no further amendments to the legislation despite the continued urging of the Chamber and landlords to prohibit ground floor office use; pass the legislation as is and then, if any further changes were to be made, refer it back to the P-Zone Committee for further deliberation; or do nothing and possibly re-notice it with revised legislation.

Mongiardo appealed to "have some of what we want now and try and get the rest later although I do have some concern about that. I would like some kind of assurance that by getting half of it done from our point of view now would not necessarily mean the issue is back-burnered for an extended period of time."

Although Bee said he couldn't promise that the committee would come forth with different results, he did promise Mongiardo that he would bring the matter up again to the committee. "The committee's heard what you said tonight," Bee said. "It's heard that you feel very strongly about it. That message is very loud and very clear. I'm implying to take a position that half a loaf today is better than none and we'll work on the second half of the loaf at a later point in time."

Matthews was also in favor of trustees voting on the current legislation in the hopes that it would go back to committee to be reconsidered and possibly re-introduced at the Feb. 18 board meeting.

"It is my understanding that this could be passed tonight so that we have something in place that's better than what we have now. We could then go back to committee and hopefully the committee would reconsider the present legislation. Like I said, we all have a huge investment on this two-block stretch and I would hope that you could come up with something tighter."

Trustees received specific recommendations concerning this zoning change from a subcommittee of the board and the village planner in a Dec. 17, 2002 memorandum. Chapter 200, Article III, Section 200-28.1 of the village code as last amended by Local Law 4-1997 is hereby further amended to read as follows:

Commercial C-4 Districts

A. Uses. In C-4 Districts, no land, building or structure shall be used and no building or structure shall be erected or altered to be used for any purpose other than:

1. The uses permitted in Commercial C-B Districts except that offices for business or professional use shall only be permitted on the ground floor by special permit.

2. Food and hardware stores not exceeding 15,000 square feet of the floor area.

B. Other use regulations. In C-4 Districts, other use regulations shall be the same as those in C-2 Districts except that offices for business or professional use shall only be permitted on the ground floor by special permit.

C. Offices for business or professional uses are permitted on the ground floor only by special permit approval by the Board of Appeals pursuant to Sections 200-65A and 200-73 and the following conditions:

1. The space has been advertised twice a month for six months for retail in local newspapers at a rate commensurate with rates in similar retail space in the village; or the property has been advertised by other means to the reasonable satisfaction of the Board of Appeals.

2. If finding (1) of this Section is satisfied, the proposed office use is required to occupy floors above the level of the ground floor before occupying the ground floor.

3. If findings (1) and (2) of this section are satisfied, any alteration of the ground floor façade of a building used as offices for business or professional use must also be approved by special permit. At a minimum, windows should be provided across 30 percent of the base of the building.

D. Medical offices shall not be permitted on the ground floor.

Please note that this local law shall take effect immediately.