Balsam Lane Building Plans Opposed by Property Owners

The Levittown Property Owners Association unanimously opposed commercial plans for a former barber shop on Balsam Lane at Tuesday night's meeting. 

The owner of the property at 123 Balsam Lane, the former Sam Jon's Hair Studio, is seeking several variances, including the request to use the property as a retail store and an apartment, which is not permitted in the LPRD district. 

The front of the property is the former hair studio and is located on Hempstead Turnpike, while the rear is located on the Balsam Lane residential street.

Related: Property Owner Seeks Variances at Former Hair Studio

The owner had also requested to waive off-street parking and a special exception to park in the front yard setback on Balsam Lane and Hempstead Turnpike. Another request was the installation of a dumpster with a six-foot high enclosure and the installation of a six-foot high fence.

"It's not just a barer shop - it's two or three apartments, it's a commercial slash residential area. It's a complete nightmare," a member said. 

Gerard Ritter owns the house next door has lived there 37 years. He said he opposes the plans for the property, along with many other residents on the street. 

Ritter said a hearing for the variance requests at the Balsam Lane property will be held on October 9 at the Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals. He said several previous hearings have been postponed, so this next meeting could also be pushed back. 

Crocus Lane Update

Josato, Inc. will go before the Nassau County Planning Commission Thursday as a "formality" to take the Crocus Lane property that is one parcel today and officially split it to four, said LPOA Vice President Tom Caro.

In October 2012, the company was denied a request to build a two-story 46-unit condominium development at the former site of the Long Island Motor Parkway.

The company then proposed a new plan calling for four single-family homes. Variance requests permitting four non-conforming homes and a shared driveway on the Crocus Lane property were approved by the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals in April. 

Caro is still worried that Josato will try to build more homes on the property. He said that the LPOA will request that the documents and the restrictions that were agreed upon by the Town of Hempstead be put into every deed.

"It's one more thing in there that will stop them," Caro said. 

"The common road was a substandard size road and they were calling it a road," Caro said. "You can't do that. Then also they tried to pack houses in and make it a substandard size on the property. They went through this for years – they were going to put 10 houses down there... finally they came down to just four." 

Conditions put into the plans include a restriction on the first floor bathroom - the bathroom can only be a half bath, never a full bath. "They can't do that because they'll subdivide it and rent it," Caro said. 

Following Thursday's hearing, Josato will need to get permits from the Town of Hempstead in order to start construction on the next three homes, Caro said.