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Town mulls joining motel owner's appeal
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February 12, 2009 | 02:46 PM
Noting that the zoning board of appeals voted unanimously in his favor, the owner of Chalet Inn and Suites says the town is behind him in his appeal to remodel his motel situated on the corner of Centershore Road and Route 25A.
"The town is with us. It's just this woman," owner Frank Sciortino's said, referring to the neighbor who started the legal protest against his renovation.
Yet Huntington town attorney John Leo said he is not sure whether the town, zoning or planning boards will join the appeal. "There are issues … especially on the use variance. …" Leo said. "But we are considering the option of appeal at this point of time."
If it does appeal, Leo explained, it would not be to side with Sciortino but to protect "past practice and what we believe the law is. Not having anything to do with him individually, or his project."
After tweaking his 2003 zoning plans to conform to the board's requests, Sciortino won approval by the ZBA in October 2006. He planned to expand his motel from 46 to 61 rooms, and add a new building with a second floor along with a restaurant and catering facility at ground level.
The following month, Anne Wesp, of Prospect Road, challenged the ZBA's decision with a lawsuit. She and the other resident plaintiffs argued that the town acted arbitrarily in granting the decision. Calling the project an "over-intensification" in the neighborhood, they stated their concern about the plan's aesthetics as well as about its proposed parking lot coming right to the edge of the street with a minimal landscaped buffer.
They also claimed the proposed expansion conflicts with the town's Comprehensive Plan, which calls for no more commercial building on Route 25A in Centerport and claimed the ZBA variance to allow the parking lot ignored the recommendations of town engineers.
In December 2007, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tino's Enterprises, the Chalet's corporate name.
Wesp's lawyer, David Yaffe, of Melville's Hamburger, Maxson, Yaffe, then argued the case to the Supreme Court's Appellate Division on Oct. 14, 2008. The court ruled Jan. 13 in favor of Wesp and fellow plaintiffs.
Summarizing the case's history, Yaffe explained that Tino's Enterprises applied and obtained from the ZBA a limited-use variance in 1983, which allowed him to add 15 units to his 31-room motel. In 2003, Sciortino again applied to the ZBA, seeking to determine that the 1983 approval was unlimited "so that they could expand as far as they could, under the zoning code, to add as many rooms as they wanted," Yaffe said. That year, the ZBA determined that the 1983 approval was limited and that the owner would have to obtain a variance for further expansion.
In 2004, Tino's Enterprises started a new application, which the ZBA ultimately resolved in 2006, reversing its prior decision and saying that the Chalet did not need a variance to expand.
Yaffe said, "We argued that the 2006 ZBA was not free to reverse the decision of the 2003 ZBA."
In its latest ruling, the court deemed the 2006 ZBA decision to have been "irrational and contrary to law. They also violated the requirements of [the State Environmental Quality Review Act]."
Jean Weiss, who lives across from the Chalet on Ale Court, said she sided with Wesp because she does not want to lose her view of the water.
"We certainly bought for a nice unobstructed view and I don't want a commercial building of that magnitude in front of my house," Weiss said. "I don't want the congestion, I don't want the road noise. … It's going to reduce the investment in my priority. No one's going to want to buy across from that."
Pat Coyle, of Centershore Road, joined the suit because she is concerned with the size of the project and its impact on the community. "Traffic, congestion, pollution — environmental and quality of life issues. … The size of the building they want to build seems so tremendous and much bigger than anything in Centerport."
Comparing the area today to pictures of Centerport from the 1950s, Coyle said Mill Pond has shrunken over the years. "It's a very sensitive fresh water pond that they're on."
Yet Gloria Wertheimer, president of the Centerport Harbor Civic Association, said 95 out of 100 respondents to questionnaires she sent out approved of Sciortino's plans.
"I don't know what they want," Wertheimer, a Prospect Road resident, said. "I don't know what they're objecting to. … I can't believe that traffic is going to be a problem. We certainly need some improvement there."
Wertheimer said the area would also benefit from additional motel rooms. "I had to book a year in advance to get rooms for my family when they came in."
Pete Gunther, of Centerport, said he is up for the expansion. "It will bring jobs, clean up that corner and help bring in some tax base for the Town of Huntington."
Gunther said he hasn't heard a convincing argument from those in opposition to the project. "They just don't want it in their own backyard," he said.
Wesp said that she understands Sciortino's position and that the lawsuit is blocking him. "And it is his livelihood," she said. "But that doesn't mean that I think that he should get to do things that are inappropriate."
Tino's Enterprises and the town have until March 4 to file a motion to reargue the appeal or ask for leave to appeal, Yaffe said. "That remains to be seen what they do."
Sciortino's lawyer, Thomas Abbate, did not return two phone calls by press time.
Meanwhile, Sciortino sounded a note of resignation with his six-year legal ordeal and has put the names of his daughters, Deborah, 40; Donna, 38, and Michelle, 28, on the deed.
"If it wasn't for them," he said, "I would have been out of here six years ago. … But they want to stay. So I said, 'Wonderful, we'll make something out of this place.' All I want to do is create something for my daughters. I'm out of here. I'm finished. It's their place, not mine."
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