The five members of the Village of Great Neck Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) are taking another month to ponder the application of developer, David Adelipour of Kings Point Gates, LLC, who is seeking a variance in a 68-unit luxury building that is proposed to replace the 40-unit Academy Gardens rent stabilized complex on the northwest corner of Steamboat and Middle Neck Roads.

Mr. Adelipour, a Kings Point resident, is a joint owner of a boutique luxury hotel in Manhattan, Hotel Mela, on West 44th Street that opened its doors in 2007 after a $20 million renovation according to The Real Deal, a New York based monthly real estate magazine.

Although the BZA members are not the final arbiters in the matter, people in the audience and one of the board members, Victor Habib, urged that the board consider the negative impact to the community if 40 affordable housing units were lost. The question that has been before the board since this matter was initiated in the fall of 2007 has been whether they should rule on the narrow matter of the variance that asks for a height dispensation to allow an additional 9 feet that would accommodate a mechanical structure on top of the proposed building or whether they should rule more broadly on the macro-issue of the loss of affordable housing at a time when it is almost non-existent in Great Neck and in great demand.

Attorney for the applicant, Paul Bloom, a former trustee and justice in the Village of Great Neck clearly believes the board would be overstepping its legal authority if its members rule on the big picture instead of a relatively minor variance request. Mr. Bloom countered that only 26 affordable apartments would be "lost" as the other units "are not habitable."

Further under the affordable housing legislation passed by the Village of Great Neck, if the proposed building is eventually constructed, 6 apartments would be available under the market value price. However, there are no guarantees on that matter either. After securing all the needed permits from the village, the developer could challenge the village's affordable housing law in court.

According to Julia Shields, the president of the tenants association, the owner of the property has been warehousing apartments as they become vacant. In fact, she has urged all tenants to send in their rent checks by certified mail to ensure that they can prove that they have made all efforts to pay rent on time and in full in order to avoid eviction proceedings.

Mr. Bloom argued that the reduced rates for rent-stabilized apartments make it financially implausible to expend funds on updating apartments.

And yet, the crux upon which the Division of Housing & Community Renewal will base its decision eventually as to whether or not to approve the application to eliminate the rent stabilized building, is specifically how deep the developer's pockets are.

According to Christopher Ducie, Nassau County Division of Housing office, all applicable village boards, zoning planning and architectural review would have to sign off, and all permits would need to be issued from the village before the applicant could apply to the Division of Housing for demolition of the complex. He said, "We have not received anything yet from the applicant."

The builder would have to prove that he could afford to supplement the tenants' rent in the Great Neck vicinity over and above what they are paying now for a period of six years. The owner might also simply "buy a tenant out by offering a lump sum that is accepted."

The Record called the Nassau County office and the regional office of the Division of Housing to ask one question in light of deteriorating economic trends: "What kind of safety net is in place to protect the tenants if the developer were to file for bankruptcy after tenants were re-established in supplemented apartments elsewhere?"

As The Record goes to press, we have not gotten a ruling back from the Division of Housing.

Back at the hearing, a number of people implored the zoning board to "take a courageous stand," to consider the economic impact to the community if these units were eliminated and to study the matter further.

Board members puzzled over what would happen if they turned down the variance. Nick Nabavian stated that the developer could redesign the building in a manner that would require no variance...that would be "as of right." Members of the board speculated that perhaps a new design might not be as safe, but members of the audience and the mayor noted that the village would require a safe building meeting all code requirements, no matter what.

Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said, "While I feel bad about the plight of the tenants, I also feel bad about what the loss of this apartment complex will mean to the village as well."

The Nassau County Planning Commission has also gone on the record against the proposal. Their resolution states that the commission "discourages the elimination of affordable housing units without the replacement of the development with affordable housing options."

This case is the first of its kind in Nassau County. It will be watched closely by sustainable community advocates and developers alike. The only thing that all participants agreed on was that the process of village review and Division of Housing review could be a long, drawn out process, perhaps taking years.

If the Division of Housing denies the application, the owner may petition for an administrative review. If the agency approves the application, the tenants also have the right to petition for an administrative review. According to Mr. Ducie, this review process can take from one year to eighteen months to complete.

Finally, if the applicant does not win the case, he could file an Article 78, which would go for a ruling in the New York Supreme Court.

Board chairman Dennis Grossman stated that it has been a "gut-wrenching" issue and asked for another month for the board to review all pertinent issues before taking a vote as early as Sept. 4, the board's next scheduled meeting.