The Historic District Board held a special meeting last Wednesday night to discuss the proposed 250-unit senior housing development that Forest City Daly hopes to build off Skillman Street in downtown Roslyn. The meeting was held to specifically discuss the visual and environmental impacts of the development on the historic district.

The development was approved of last year by the Board of Trustees, the Planning Board and the Site Review Board. Forest City still needs approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals for an area variance concerning the height of the development's proposed buildings. In addition, the project's architectural features must be approved by the Historic District Board. Since Forest City has been busy, over the past year, trying to gain approval from the BOT and the Site Review Board, this was only the second presentation its personnel had made before the Historic District Board.

At the meeting, Michael Daly, Forest City Daly president, reiterated the changes and concessions his firm had made in order to receive approval from those three bodies. He noted that the size of the development had been cut from 10,000 sq. ft. to "3,999" sq. ft. The number of units had been cut also, from 260 to 250. Buildings that were scheduled to be three stories were reduced to two stories in height. Buildings were also moved back from the waterfront. The "major goals" of the firm, Mr. Daly added, were to "maintain [the] visual corridor along the waterfront."

Such changes, Mr. Daly noted, have been accepted by the public in addition to the BOT, Planning Board and Site Review Board. According to the village's Master Plan, he added, senior housing was the "preferred use" for such land.

Mr. Daly said that if the design of the office building was the most "prominent" issue for the HDB, there would be flexibility on the part of Forest City to reach a consensus between the firm and the board so that in the end, there aren't "two separate designs."

In a surprise announcement, Mr. Daly also said that if the proposal receives final approval, he would move his Manhattan-based firm headquarters from the city to Roslyn. Mr. Daly said he "didn't want to be in Manhattan" while one of his major projects was being located in Roslyn.

When asked by a resident about the size of some buildings, Paul Whalen, an architect for the firm, said residents would see a "tiny sliver of roof [of a building]" above the viaduct. Showing slides of the office building to the audience, Mr. Whalen added that Forest City especially wants this particular building, since it is the only one in the entire development located within the Historic District, to look residential. The narrow part of the building, he said, will be facing the street, and will look even smaller than the other houses in the Historic District area.

Craig Westergard, chairman of the HDB, said he called for the special meeting to "get a sense of the building's relationship to everything around it." Noting that all that was on display was an "elevated drawing" of the building, Mr. Westergard added that he needed further to "understand the building relative to things around it."

For now, HDB members plan to draft a detailed letter to Forest City outlining what they want from the firm so that both bodies can go forward with a full understanding of the HDB's position.

Among the concessions made by Forest City to receive earlier approvals include: paying sums of money for the village's Sewer Reserve Trust Fund, paying for the general "maintenance, repair and construction of public improvements" in the village, the purchase of a roadbed near the Roslyn Viaduct, the building of an easement running over and across the property and along the waterfront to Bryant Avenue. Forest City has already spent $700,000 purchasing land for the village that previously belonged to the Town of North Hempstead.

When approving the project, the BOT, SRB, and the Planning Board all issued identical statements, claiming the senior housing project "promotes the objectives" of the village's Master Plan, while also praising Forest City Daly for creating a recreational waterfront that, according to the boards, "will strengthen the linkages between Roslyn's downtown and waterfront, and will project the waterfront's harbor, natural features and vistas."