While a man's home may be his castle - with lawful permissive use for home offices - no homeowner in Nassau County is "free" from compliance with the law governing the creation and maintenance of accessory apartments. This point has apparently been lost on Katherine Aliferis who, in her latest missive to this paper ("No Privacy At Home?" July 23, 2004), offers only specious, self-serving, circuitous reasoning to make her case in favor of the illegal apartment.

Conceding that government has an interest in enforcing laws prohibiting such crimes as prostitution, drugs and "menacing gun possession," Ms. Aliferis would have such legal authority sidestepped - or ignored in its entirety - when it comes to the illegal accessory apartment. Likening the investigation by Town and County into suspect violations of the Building Code to a trespass, Ms. Aliferis dismisses efforts to eradicate the illegal apartment, and to diminish its ravenous effects upon community, as an unwarranted intrusion. Strangely odd how those who "trespass" on the law and "intrude" upon their neighbors' quiet enjoyment can so brazenly stand reason - if not legal principle - on its head.

The reasons for promulgating laws that, in most circumstances, prohibit accessory apartments in single family houses are myriad. Public safety. Preservation of the tax base and essential services. Management of the population of our public schools. Maintenance of our suburban way of life. The reasons cited by Ms. Aliferis for enforcing the law - a desire to intrude, as a validation of trespass, and as basic greed - are more appropriately attributed to those who rent illegally than to those who, for the benefit of law-abiding citizens, seek to enforce and uphold.

Yes, Ms. Aliferis, in this high tech age, those who flaunt the law and snub their noses at their neighbors can run. Rest assured, however, that, vacuous invectives aside, they cannot hide.

Seth D. Bykofsky

West Hempstead

(The writer is Co-Chair of The Community Alliance and chair of the Zoning Committee of the West Hempstead Civic Association.)