The Village of East Hills' three-and-a-half year legal struggle against the New York State Department of Transportation was settled last Monday by a State Supreme Court justice with the village achieving the necessary conditions from the DOT that allowed it to end litigation threats.

The threatened litigation concerned Long Island Expressway expansion plans by the DOT. Other towns and villages on the North Shore and in the rest of Nassau County apparently had no major problems with proposed LIE expansion, but Village of East Hills officials have long opposed many aspects of the plan mainly on environmental, maintenance and school safety concerns and especially the construction of a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane.

East Hills officials have long maintained that such a lane failed to comply with the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The Roslyn School District joined the village in opposing the highway expansion plans.

Officials from both East Hills and the DOT have long been in negotiations with up to 70 meetings being held over the past three years. Both sides also agreed to "an agreement in principle" in order to reach a court mediated resolution of their differences, one that would prevent actual litigation. Among the agreements of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the village and the DOT are:

* The typical lane addition will be 14' wide in each direction which will provide for an additional 12' wide travel lane and a 2' wide HOV buffer. In East Hills, the majority of the lane additions will be accomplished by an asymmetrical widening southerly from the LIRR bridge to the parkway connector ramp.

* Full 10' wide right shoulders will be provided throughout. The purpose of the shoulders is to provide a safety area for disabled motorists, and a means of emergency response to and around an incident or around maintenance operations when the normal approach in the roadbed of the Expressway is unavailable. Under no circumstances will those shoulders be used in whole or in part to develop a fifth travel lane of the LIE.

* No HOV enforcement areas will be placed in the village.

* No separate HOV entrance or exit lanes will be placed between Exit 32 and 40.

* LIE bridges over crossroads will be lengthened to the extent practicable exclusively on the southern side of the LIE. Daytime lane closings on Roslyn Road and Locust Lane and on the service road if needed, will be confined to between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., but residents will be given access to their respective homes.

* Concerning the safety of local children, the DOT and the village agreed to close pedestrian walkways between the north and south Service Roads between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. if the Roslyn Road and Locust Lane bridges are under active construction during these nighttime hours. Supplemental busing for school children will also be available beginning this school year and continuing until 2002.

At a Nov. 8 hearing in the chambers of State Justice Wolff Lally, East Hills Village Attorney Gerard Terry and a representative from the DOT both thanked law secretary Frank Schellace for keeping settlement discussions on track during tense moments between the two parties.

Justice Lally, for his part, said the agreement "is definitely for the benefit of the residents of East Hills....the residents of Nassau County, Suffolk County....and....everyone who will travel on the Long Island Expressway."