Friday March 1, 2019
Vol. 95, No.23
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Another spin PAGE 8 n Field renovations PAGE 43
Village Trustees, Zoning Board dive into pool issues
YOUNG SCIENTISTS
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
St. Anne's School held its annual science fair during Catholic Schools Week recently. The young scientists worked on projects over several months, culminating in the presentation of their work to friends and family at the fair. See page 46.
New Board member appointed to fill seat
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND At its meeting on Tuesday, February 26, the Garden City Village Board of Trustees appointed Jim Van Schoick, a Meadow Street resident, to fill the unexpired term on the Zoning Board of Appeals of its longtime chairman, the late Robert L. Cunningham, whose obituary appeared in The Garden City News one week ago. In 2018, Cunningham left the Zoning Board after 33 years of service, including 27 years
as chairman. He was honored at a dinner ceremony at Cherry Valley Country Club last October, and the Board of Trustees also approved a commendation for Cunningham at a 2018 meeting. With several Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) members present at Tuesday night’s Board meeting, including former Garden City Mayor Peter E. Gall (an alternate member on the ZBA) Van Schoick was introduced. Village Attorney Kenneth Gray of Bee, Ready, Fishbein, Hatter
and Donovan, explained that Van Schoick will fulfill a term expiring on April 6, 2020 and can seek reappointment to the Board at that point next year. A full term of service on the ZBA is for five years. Van Schoick has lived in Garden City for the past five years. Prior to coming to the village, he and his family lived in Hoboken and Middlesex County, New Jersey, as Van Schoick was involved in regional planning in Hamilton Township and other See page 45
At a work session of the Garden City Board of Trustees on February 26th, the Board considered changes to the application process for backyard swimming pools. Mayor Brian Daughney started Tuesday’s work session by posing a question on whether or not it’s time Garden City change its restrictions on pool installations as applications have become “burdensome” for the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Building Department. “The village gets a lot of questions about pool applications and lots of complaints about the process. Our volunteers and fellow residents put in a lot of time and take a lot of grief on our Zoning Board of Appeals and the Architectural Design Review Board, and mostly the ZBA deals with pool applications. We are not expecting to decide any changes tonight but it is a good time to have this conversation,” the mayor explained. Village Attorney Kenneth Gray, presiding at the meeting in place of Peter Bee, said that pools come before the ZBA not for granting any variances (use variance or area variance) but as official applications. “The way the current Village code is set up and the way it has been handled is that it goes before the ZBA as an application and they have jurisdiction over that whether or not the pool or any related work needs a variance of any sort. The Zoning Board often puts conditions on the approval of the pool applications,” Gray said.
Increase in Pool Applications
New Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman John Villanella, who took over as chairman from Robert Cunningham last year, has served in his volunteer role for the last 30 years. He noted how the work session topic itself and Garden City as an affluent community leads to “pool business” as a function of people’s affluence. “Thirty years ago we (the ZBA) got one or two pool requests from homeowners per year. Not we get about 10 or 12 in a calendar year so it’s multiplying. Pools are a really high impact item and I not an opponent of people installing pools on their property. I am a proponent of having a large enough property that your pool is not squeezed into a small area of the plot or that by squeezing a pool in, it impinges on the privacy of neighbors,” Villanella said. The chairman said each member of the village’s ZBA visits each property with an application for a pool. “We look very carefully about the placement of pools. We look at the lighting, the privacy, that there is thorough obstruction (of view) all around the property so that neighbors are not bothered. Presently the ZBA See page 45
Lax alumni meet again on the college athletic field PAGE 49 Garden City midshipman sails the world's seas PAGE 16