Last September, the Village of Roslyn's board of trustees approved Local Law #4-2007. The law established the R-4 District (Low Density Single-Family Residential---Special Character) which was designed to preserve the character and scale of the single-family residential Roslyn Pines and Marchant Park neighborhoods and to allow for the appropriate development and redevelopment of lots in those areas.

Those amendments also created a five-man Architectural Review Board (ARB), whose many duties include the maintenance of the new law.

At the February BOE meeting, Mayor John Durkin, with the approval of the board, appointed Glen Wolfe, Bennett Chaite, Sharon Oken, Walter Muller, Demetri Kokkoris, and alternate member Marc Magid as ARB members. All members reside within the R-4 district.

Resolution on the matter was necessary since the current building moratorium expired last fall. The amendments, as importantly, were designed to deal with the problem of bulky housing in the village. Over the past several years, numerous villages in Nassau County have approved similar codes.

The ARB will focus mostly on design issues: What new homeowners in the R-4 district can and cannot do to their structures. Appeals to ARB recommendations will now go to the village's Zoning Board for review.

In addition, ARB members are considered by the BOE to be qualified "by reason of training or experience in architecture, land development, community planning, real estate, [and] landscape architecture." Such members might be involved in similar businesses or professions and would also display "civic interest and sound judgment" concerning residential development.

Among its other duties, the ARB would require an application for plans regarding setback dimensions, the size, shape, and location of existing and proposed construction, the locations of existing streets, points of entry and egress for automobiles and the locations and layout of all paved areas, including off-street parking and loading facilities.

Other applications under the ARB's domain would include all existing and proposed topography, the location of existing and proposed plantings and screening devices, walls, fences, and railings and their height and the materials of their construction, plus exterior lighting, and "other potential disturbances" to the public and adjacent properties due to "noise or odors emitted from the proposed use."

In addition, the ARB will have the authority to disapprove any application it deems "detrimental to the character, property values or development" of the neighborhood that particular property is located in.

When disapproving an application, the ARB may specify modifications in the design or structure of the buildings. At the same time, approval of an application may come with the ARB imposing "appropriate conditions and safeguards designed to prevent harmful effects" of any new construction or modifications.

Concerning subdivisions, the ARB would review and make recommendations to the Planning Board. The ARB could require applicants to provide, among other things, designs of the exterior appearance of all proposed buildings and structures.