If you attended the hearing last Wednesday on the rental registration proposal for two-family homes and you were wondering after sitting in village hall why the hearing was even taking place, you probably weren't alone.

Mayor Jack M. Martins was against rental registration for two-family homes and so were the residents who spoke at the hearing. So why was the hearing being held?

The mayor scheduled the hearing because of comments that were made at the Dec. 10 hearing for the proposed rental registration law for mixed use properties and multiple dwellings, defined as three or more families.

Having rental registration in multiple dwellings and mixed use buildings such as apartments above stores was agreed upon by the board for safety reasons because of overcrowding and certain living conditions in some cases. "We can't allow more than what would ordinarily be allowed to live in these apartments. The law was tailored specifically for that," said Mayor Martins.

Deputy Mayor Larry Werther pointed out that the rental registration that was passed by the village for mixed use occupancies and multiple dwellings was passed with a specific purpose, which is to make them a safe place to live for people renting and not cause a dangerous situation for emergency service people who may have to enter an apartment.

At the time of the hearing, there were questions about applying the law to two-family homes.

At the Dec. 10 hearing, Trustee Linda Fairgrieve said that the rental registration law that was proposed was a first step. She then said, "However, I'm a little bit disappointed. I feel that you should go further with the two-family homes."

However, at the time, Trustee Fairgrieve pushed for her proposal having to do with illegal housing. Trustee Fairgrieve proposed passing a local law, stating District Court judges could not award rent to a landlord of an illegal occupancy in a landlord-tenant dispute. However, the proposal was ultimately rejected since village counsel said it is out of the village's jurisdiction to pass a local law that would be enforceable in District Court.

Trustee Lou Santosus said at the Dec. 10 hearing, "I agree that this is a good first step. However, there are many problem areas in the village that are over and above this area. There are many two-family homes in this village that have the basements rented out and the attics are rented out."

Trustee Santosus, who has spent 40 years as a member of the Mineola Fire Department, said that there are one, two and three family homes where people are renting the basement or the attic or there are two families on the second floor when there should only be one.

At the hearing last week, Trustee Santosus elaborated that the people who have legal two-family homes are not those the village is going to look at. "There are so many good people out there, but there are a lot of people who break the laws. They think because they have a home in a two-family zone that it's a multiple occupancy. They can rent the basement. They can rent the attic," he said.

Trustee Steve Franzini also commented on the possibility of including two family homes in the rental registration law.

Based on those comments, Mayor Martins scheduled last week's hearing on rental registration for two-family homes even though he didn't believe the proposal was a good idea. "The fact that we scheduled this hearing is testament to the fact that there were trustees that had concerns about including two-family homes as part of the rental registration law. It's a fact or else we wouldn't have called for this hearing," he said. "I didn't feel, having proposed the rental registration law [for multiple dwellings and mixed use occupancies], that it should apply to one and two-family homes," he said.

Under the proposal, homeowners in a two-family zone would have to register their apartments within their homes with the village and would be subject to a registration fee and an inspection from the building department.

After numerous residents spoke out against the proposal, the board took a vote on whether the rental registration law should apply to homes in the two-family zone. The board voted 4-0 to defeat the proposal. Trustee Santosus abstained from the vote because he felt the hearing should be kept open so the board could consider many of the ideas and comments that residents made during the hearing.

The prevailing feeling among residents and members of the board is that passing a rental registration law for two-family homes would put an unfair burden on legal homeowners in the two-family zone.

"If they are legal and they are conforming, then they have nothing to worry about and it's not something that I want to do. If you do have an illegal three families [in a two-family house], then you have a problem and we have sufficient laws to cover those," Deputy Werther said.

While the impression may have been that a rental registration law would be used as a tool to fight illegal housing, Mayor Martins said there are laws on the books dealing with illegal occupancies. "The purpose of the rental registration law has nothing to do with illegal occupancies as we have historically addressed it. It's not basement occupancies. It's not second floor occupancies. It's overcrowding and living conditions in these apartments. There are laws on the books already that deal with illegal occupancies," he said.

Village Hears Application for Panera Bread

The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees held a hearing on Wednesday for an application for a Panera Bread eatery to open on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola. The proposed bakery, which would be a 120-seat bakery café, would be located in the Rockbottom shopping center. The bakery would take the place of the nail establishment, bar and a vacant space. The total space is 5,533 square feet and there is no plan to expand the building.

The owner of the property is Herricks Mineola LLC, which would lease the property to Panera Bread Bakery Café. The remainder of the shopping center would remain unchanged. The parking areas will also remained unchanged. One of the owners of the property, Michael Korff, said lighting may be beefed up in the parking lot. Trustee Lou Santosus asked that lighting be directed away from the residential area.

There are two parking areas for the establishment that are separated by Clarissa Road and would provide 205 parking spaces, which meets the total required parking for the shopping center, which are 162 spaces.

According to attorney for the applicant Thomas Pantelis, there will be an overall renovation of the shopping center building with a red brick facing. The façade has been approved by the village's architectural review board. However, the signs for Panera have not yet been approved.

Director of Operations for Panera Bread Greg George said the bakery would serve a continental breakfast including bagels, pastries, muffins and coffee and at lunch would serve sandwiches, soups and salads.

On the premises, food preparation consists of the assembly of the products except for baking, which does take place on the premises every night for the following day. There are two ovens for baking. Mr. George described the baking as a light operation since the only thing that will be baked on premises is the dough. Sandwiches, salads and soups will be prepared.

The proposed hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the latest, possibly 10 p.m. Typically there would be no more than 12 employees at the premises at one time with a total of 35 to 40 full and part-time employees. Baking is done at 10 p.m. About one to three employees are in the establishment from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Mr. George said that there would be a minimal amount of odor, barely noticeable from more than 25 to 50 feet away. Mayor Martins suggested the emissions be directed toward Jericho Turnpike and not toward the residential area. "That's very easily achievable in terms of the direction of the vents and the location," said Mr. Pantelis.

The establishment expects to receive one daily delivery, which will come in a standard box truck usually in the early afternoon, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m, although time of the delivery may have to be controlled since nearby Mineola High School lets out at 2:30 p.m.

There is also a produce delivery three times a week, also in a box truck. There is one large delivery, which will come in a tractor trailer, twice a week between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. Mr. George said he expects a total of 12 deliveries a week including the dough delivery on Sunday.

When a truck leaves the site after a delivery and heads eastbound, it can exit onto Herricks and then make the turn onto Jericho so there is no need to go back into the residential area. "The one very good thing about the site is that you have ingress and egress on Jericho and on Herricks," said Mr. Pantelis. "I think control here is going to be very logical and very practical and it should be off Jericho and off Herricks."

All garbage will be stored inside in a refrigerated cooler and when the trash company comes in the morning, it will be taken out of the building. There are expected to be three garbage pickups per week. For garbage pickups, either the truck is going to pull up along Jericho Turnpike or the truck will pull around to the front by the parking area and the garbage would have to be brought around from the back. The bakery's preference is not to bring it out through the store. "It has to go out the back. If necessary it will come around the front or, as in most cases, sanitation will generally do their pickup from the street," said Mr. Pantelis.

Garbage pickup time will be worked out with the company picking up the garbage. However, Mr. Pantelis said the store's preference is to have the garbage picked up after 6 a.m. and before 11 a.m. "We can certainly say we're not going to have the late night or evening or early morning pickups. That could be controlled," he said.

The plan also calls for a dumpster for cardboard recycling to be located behind the Rockbottom store. Mayor Martins said that since there is already a dumpster area behind Maxell's, he would prefer Panera use the same area and coordinate pickups with the same carter that picks up from Maxell's to prevent there from being another intrusion into the area from another truck. Mayor Martins may make using the dumpster area by Maxell's a condition of the permit since he would rather keep paper products in one area as opposed to having another dumpster behind Rockbottom.

The applicant indicated the dumpster is only for cardboard and would not contain any other waste such as napkins and cups, which will be stored in the refrigerated cooler inside the establishment until garbage pickup.

Another Panera Bread location is on Old Country Road and Glen Cove Road in Carle Place. Mr. George said the store is almost two times busier than the average store.

The board reserved decision on the application since it first must hear a recommendation from the Nassau County Planning Commission. However, there were some positive comments from members of the board in reference to the application. "I can only see this as being an upgrade for this village. Down there happens to be a tad of an eyesore right now because we can't seem to find anything. It just seems to make so much sense," said Trustee Steve Franzini.

The application for Panera Bread will have no impact on Clarissa Road. There is no plan to alter the road or sell it as had previously been discussed.