At its January meeting, the Village of Roslyn board of trustees closed public hearings on the Site Plan Review, the Architectural Review, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the Special Permit Application, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed B.I.T.I. residential housing development.

According to village officials, any final decision on the B.I.T.I. project, which entails a plan to build 80 luxury row house units in downtown Roslyn, is still months away.

For now, the Findings Statement, Special Permit Application, and Site Plan Application will be referred to the Nassau County Planning Commission for that commission's review and recommendation once the site plan and architectural drawings have been modified to conform to the requirements of the SEQRA Findings Statement.

BOT members note that no vote will be taken on the Special Permit, Site Plan, or Architectural Review until such time as a recommendation shall have been received from the Nassau County Planning Commission.

Final comments on the Findings Statement, the Site Plan Review, and the Architectural Review were taken in June 2007. At that time, Kevin McAndrew, a village consultant, addressed resident concerns relative to safety impacts of the project.

At previous BOT meetings, residents have also expressed concerns over the density and scale of the project, how it conforms to the village's Master Plan, the usual traffic concerns, plus its impact on the downtown business district, and Hempstead Harbor, especially downtown harbor views.

All throughout the ongoing debate, B.I.T.I. officials have made revisions to its row house plan.

In 2005, B.I.T.I. personnel offered to build a large pond on the row house grounds, with a bridge crossing over the body of water.

More significantly, B.I.T.I. has scaled down the number of units it seeks to construct.

Originally, B.I.T.I. had hoped to construct 126 units on the downtown site. William Cohn, a principal for B.I.T.I., claimed that up to 160 units were possible for that stretch of land. Instead, B.I.T.I. has downsized its plan, reducing to 80 the number of row house units it hopes to build.

In turn, the BOT allowed that 80-unit plan to be used as the basis for an Environmental Impact Statement, one that it has now deemed as acceptable.

Prior to the January meeting, the Planning Board completed its review of the B.I.T.I. application. As reported in The Roslyn News, the Planning Board's review covered both site plan and environmental issues. Its contents included comments concerning the proposed site plan, covering such subjects as the shifting of the Village Green, sewer easement, ingress and egress, town homes, building heights, the Grist Mill, mailboxes, street names, and the Aqua Blue property.

On the shifting of Village Green, the planning board recommended that the most-recently proposed modification of the site plan, which opens a view plane looking north from the southeastern corner of the property, is the preferred option.

The currently proposed southern entrance/exit could be converted to visitor parking to support the village's downtown commercial establishments, planning board members added. In the proposed construction plan, an alternate view of ingress and egress contemplates a roadway running from Old Northern Boulevard just west of the Junior League on a straight run north to Skillman Street, in effect establishing a full transportation grid in the village's downtown. The board of trustees may wish to evaluate this option, the report stated.

The Planning Board also considered the impact of the proposed project on the school district, on historic preservation, tree preservation, façade maintenance and public amenities.

For instance, the report stated that the board of trustees should carefully re-examine the data and projections concerning the impact of the proposed development upon the school district's budget both with respect to fixed and incremental costs.

It also stated that the board of trustees should assure that any buildings on Skillman Street worthy of preservation be, in fact, preserved. Relocation should also be studied.

In addition, the proposed parking lot north of Poco Loco restaurant should be examined in order to preserve the mature trees, even if several parking spaces may be eliminated, planning board members said. The mature trees upon the Aqua Blue lot must also be preserved. Overall parking at the development site should also be examined in order to determine whether any other mature trees may be preserved, the report stated.