By 7 p.m. on Aug. 19 there was "standing" room only at North Hempstead Town Hall in Manhasset, as more than 300 discontented residents, mostly from New Hyde Park, arrived to discuss the newly passed Accessory Apartment Law.

The new law was passed during the last town board meeting, on July 29, with only a handful of residents present and with no prior notice to any school or civic groups of a change in the law to replace the Mother/Daughter ordinance in the Town of North Hempstead. It will not affect the villages in the town, except to perhaps bring in additional children to the area, which would increase school taxes.

Just before the meeting, which usually starts at 7:30 p.m. but was erroneously billed by some of the local civics and by a 311 operator, to start at 7 p.m., a flier was distributed informing those present that a special meeting, to discuss the new ordinance, would be held on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. at Clinton Martin Park, on the corner of New Hyde Park Road and Marcus Avenue, New Hyde Park.

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman did, at 7 p.m., open a short meeting of the Business & Tourism Development Corporation, to announce that the town will be holding a Family Fest on Sept. 14 from noon on at the North Hempstead Beach Park on West Shore Road, Port Washington.

After that meeting adjourned he addressed the issue at hand. He announced that the Sept. 16 meeting would be held at Clinton Martin Park to discuss Accessory Apartments, but he said, "Since so many of you are here I think it is appropriate to have some discussion to let you know what actually is being discussed."

The discussion was officially "off the record" since the town stenographer was not taking notes and throughout the discussion that fact irritated many of the residents.

Kaiman started his discussion with a review. He said, "We want to tell you what actually is the Mother/Daughter/Accessory Housing ordinance. I have been reading some of the emails and some of the concerns and have actually discussed it with some of the residents who have contacted me through email during the last several days.

"The town has had an Accessory Housing law for years and it is called Mother/Daughter Housing and it basically means you can create a small apartment in your house if you are father/son or mother/daughter. It is limited as to size but the particular type of ordinance that we did have was very limited.

"Therefore, the question before the board about a month ago was whether or not to address the restrictions, address those restrictions and then open it up to perhaps an aunt, a friend or to someone you work with. The type of Accessory Housing we were talking about is not the type that creates two-family housing and it's not something somebody can go and market their home as having a separate apartment and that's what, I think, a lot of people were anticipating was happening.

"This type of ordinance requires that anybody who wants to create a space within their home would have to apply for a variance and go before the Board of Zoning and Appeals. They in turn would require a notice sent out to all local neighbors and there would be a hearing and then the neighbors would have the opportunity to comment on the application and that would then be approved or disapproved by the BZA Board.

"The restrictions attached to the ordinance would be that the homeowner would have to not only live in the house, but whoever is part of that Accessory Housing would have to be part of the house which means that they would have to go through the front door of the home. There would be no separate entrance and you would not be able to create a vestibule and have a separate entrance behind the front door and you would have to park in the same driveway. So, presumably you are letting someone into your home that you know and who you trust, so it's perceived that it will be a family member, an associate, a neighbor-someone who needs to live in the area but can't afford their own home. The theory is that you can help seniors stay in the neighborhood longer because they could rent to one of their relatives or friends, someone they know and trust. Because you are letting someone go through your front door, the assumption is that you are not going to have this type of housing that some here are concerned about.

"It does exist in most other towns on Long Island. I don't anticipate that there are any problems. Further, there would be an additional assessment on the home so that the additional taxes would cover any additional services that might exist. There are fees for rental registration because they would have to register with the town allowing the town to come in and inspect bi-annually so that there is an ability to confirm that, in fact, they are doing what they say they are doing.

"Also, there is a limit on who may live there. In the Mother/Daughter there was no limit but now there is a limit of three people. Illegal housing is one of the reasons we are trying to address this type of law. We are trying to create a situation that if someone is trying to manipulate their home: (1) They will have to pay additional taxes; (2) We will be allowed to inspect the home to make sure that the space is being used correctly; (3) There will be additional restrictions so that there is no negative impact on the neighborhood so they will have to park in the driveway or garage and they can't park in the street and that means they will have the keys to the house the same as the homeowner. "

Kaiman said, "It is further expected that over the course of a year there might be two or three applications for an Accessory Apartment."

To that remark the crowd started to shout out, disagreeing with his assumption. He said, "For the last 10 years we have only gotten about 72 applications."

Kaiman eventually said, "We will not pass any of these ordinances until the end of the year. And, we will discuss this entire situation at the meeting on Sept. 16."

Eventually Supervisor Kaiman officially opened the North Hempstead Town Board meeting, on the record and said the following, "We are now on the record. The town board, unable to take official action, has made a commitment to the community residents before us today, that is before, and we did have a length 30 to 45-minute discussion on accessory housing and many representatives and individuals living in the community have expressed their passionate objection to this ordinance. They have raised a number of points including our not communicating with organizations that would have input into this and that we need to communicate with them before any action is taken and we have agreed that we will do that. We will convene a public meeting on Sept. 16 and we will further have discussions as to what this town board should do to make sure that the concerns of this particular community and all of the communities are met."