Letter to the Editor: Sunrise Hotels Becoming a Problem

The following is from Lynbrook resident Paul Tubin:

I’m writing today on behalf of a group of Lynbrook homeowners who have repeatedly contacted local media and the Lynbrook Board of Trustees to express our concerns and heartfelt opposition to the proposal to permit three adjacent private homes at 3 and 9 Merton Ave., and 417 Ocean Ave., to be converted into a major parking lot expansion by the Holiday Inn Express/Rockville Centre Inn Corp. on Sunrise Highway.

Various members of our group have written to village officials at least monthly since October to complain about another deplorable series of blatant violations of village ordinances by Mr. Thomas Morash, et al, the owners of the Lynbrook Holiday Inn Express and RVC Inn Corp.

Since October, 2012, despite having their parking facility permit denied by the Village Of Lynbrook, the Morash family has routinely used at least two of the properties to illegally park hotel vans, passenger vehicles, and for the past few months, Verizon Telephone Repair Trucks. (see attached photos)

What makes matters worse is that this blatant disregard for the law has gone unresolved by the Village of Lynbrook Building Department’s Superintendent.

Mr. Brian Stanton, despite numerous telephone calls, emails, letters of complaint, submission of the village’s complaint forms (at least three times in as many months) and personal visits to the Building Department -- virtually all of which have gone unanswered. Why have these actions permitted to occur for so long?

If you or any of us were to leave our cars parked overnight on any village street, we’d find a ticket on our windshields in the morning – with no recourse except to pay the fine. Have any of these ongoing violations been ticketed or issued summonses? No Way!

Mr. Stanton has claimed in the past that he’s giving the owner of the properties time to work out parking arrangements – it’s been four months now -- isn’t that more than enough time to rectify these issues? Oh My Goodness! If any of us were to call the Lynbrook Police Department to make arrangements to leave a vehicle on the street overnight due to construction, overnight guests, illness, etc – to our knowledge, no exceptions are ever granted!

In the past we’ve posed the following questions for the Lynbrook Board of Trustees and local residents to consider:

1. If you were in our shoes, living directly across the street or adjacent to the site(s) of this proposed zoning change, how would you feel about this request? 
2. Would you want this to be happening to residential properties/parcels of land where you live?
3. What would your expectation be of the village’s governing body regarding how you wanted them to respond to the hotel’s petition?

Those are rhetorical questions, as we all know what one another’s answers would be.

We’re pleased to say that the village trustees listened to and acted upon our concerns from the spring through fall of last year and did what they could to stop the project. For this we expressed our sincerest appreciation in a variety of forums. But we believe the ball has been dropped.

We’ve tried to maintain good relations with our neighbors -- the Hotel's owners. We've offered alternatives that didn’t have to be offered and, to date, instead of trying to work with us, the Morash family has done everything possible to make the neighborhood suffer because we didn’t want to live next door to a parking lot.

The buildings are falling into disrepair and trash and other refuse continually accumulate on the properties unabated. Temporary fencing was erected in front of all properties, but eventually removed from 417 Ocean to permit truck/commercial parking.

It was only after significant complaints to the Village in November, December and January that action was finally taken to at least clean up much of the debris. It was truly horrific for an extended period of time – and if we don’t call to complain, it is ignored again.

We wonder, aren’t there laws/regulations/ordinances that require homeowners to maintain their properties in at least a semi-clean state so that it’s somewhat presentable and not intruding upon the neighborhood? But then again, the RVC Inn has been in an incomplete state of construction for several years now … so perhaps that’s wishful thinking on our part.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the parking lot went through – we’d be looking at a large Verizon Truck Depot now, that’s what.  Verizon trucks have been stored on the hotel’s grounds since September, prior to Hurricane Sandy – but now it’s become obscene.  We can only imagine how Morash would feel if someone did this to some properties across the street from his home!  Fat chance he’d put up with it.

We’re looking for support from the greater Lynbrook community and asking residents to please come to Monday night’s Village Board Meeting (March 4 beginning at 8 p.m. at Village Hall) to express our concerns over this blatant disregard for the Law by the owners of these two hotels. We don’t anticipate being called upon until the end of the meeting.

If you’d like to be kept abreast of our activities, and possibly join us in picketing the two hotels over this matter, please send an email to: StopHolidayInn@gmail.com. We have a page on Facebook where you can share comments and keep up to date: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Holiday-Inn-of-Lynbrook. We also have a Twitter account for updates: @StopHolidayInn

Please take a look at the photographs that accompany this letter to the editor.  If you haven’t driven past these properties recently, take a ride -- they’re all located just south of Sunrise Highway on Ocean Avenue and on Merton Ave. See if you don’t agree with our concerns.

Thanks for any consideration/help you can provide.

Paul Tubin

A vocal resident