The Village of Mineola will hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 16 on its Architectural Review Law at 6:30 p.m. at village hall, 155 Washington Avenue. The purpose of the hearing is to get input from the public for the purposes of possibly making revisions to the law.

The law was originally drafted to maintain the aesthetic look of neighborhoods throughout the village. However, some believe the law had been too restrictive in terms of taking away a resident's rights to make changes to a home.

According to village attorney John Spellman, the board may discuss potential changes in the law at the hearing as it tries to decided what it should control and what it shouldn't control. "It's a tough law," he said.

The law could apply to both commercial and residential establishments. The spirit of the law was to make certain the look of neighborhoods didn't change dramatically. Applicants wanting to make certain exterior changes would have to come before the architectural review board. However, problems arose from the law. For one, it brought into question what the village should and shouldn't control in terms of property owners wanting to make changes to their buildings.

The law also caused applications to be delayed. "Things had to get sent to the architectural review board and they would languish there because people had all different ideas of how somebody else's project should look. It could go three or four months there. That's a real hardship for an applicant," said Mr. Spellman.

The village attorney said there may be a way of preserving some type of regulation while streamlining it. The law was written so that, for example, a builder couldn't tear down a home in a neighborhood of capes and then put up a totally different type of structure. In a case such as that, the aesthetic look of the neighborhood would remain the same. "The concept is that when you look down a block, you see some degree of harmony," said Mr. Spellman.

However, whenever there is a regulation that tends to tell people what they can and cannot do with their property, it has to be economically applied and it cannot be overly subjective, Mr. Spellman said.

The village board may have to decide what rules will apply to certain modifications made to property in the village. The current law did hold back property owners from getting things done and took them through extra layers of government. "I know Mayor Martins raised serious questions about its application," Mr. Spellman said.