The Great Neck Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved a special-use permit for new business 120 & Beyond, an adult daycare facility that would provide physical, social and emotional wellness to an aging community.
“I would like to share the value and the necessity to have such a community service in every village and township because it has a very, very good value,” program director Liora Reyhanian said. “We tend to focus on daycares for children on the different facilities that we forget our population is aging and we do need to have some facilities for them as well.”
Reyhanian said the daycare at 801 Middle Neck Road would help seniors, ages 65 and older, remain physically active and support their emotional and social well-being.
“So this really provides them with everything,” Reyhanian said.
The facility could accommodate a maximum of 25 individuals at a time.
The business’ application representative, Edna Guilor, said it has not been determined if any senior can join regardless of residency.
Mayor Pedram Bral said he thinks the facility should prioritize Great Neck residents.
To accommodate evening events, it would be open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. and provide transportation.
The board approved the site plan, a facade change, parking for the business, a change of the building’s designation for public assembly, and a shortened buffer where the building adjoins a neighboring home.
The business would provide seven parking stalls, one of which is for handicapped parking.
One resident expressed concern that the neighboring temple uses the building’s current parking lot. He asked if the business’ opening would impact parking in the village due to displacing these parked cars to other areas and evaluated the temple’s overall parking.
He also expressed concern about the number of seniors coming to the facility and the hours potentially impacting neighbors with music, traffic, and other disturbances.
Reyhanian said the facility’s transportation would help mitigate traffic, and noise would also not be at high volumes.
Guilor said the parking lot would provide spaces for three of its employees.
A 15-foot buffer is required between the building and the neighboring home, but the board approved a 12.5-foot buffer. Guilor said the shortened distance is due to the building’s placement, which can not be moved.
Because of the requests needing approval by the village, the board asked the business applicant pay a $5,000 incentive payment.
The public hearing continued from earlier this month, which is when Guilor said the board had asked for further rework on the signage. She said they have done this but have not submitted it to the building department yet.
Everything but the signage was approved at the Sept. 17 meeting.
In other news, the board of trustees directed the village to prepare a bid package for its upcoming project to construct a new village hall. The village’s former hall was destroyed in a fire in August 2022.
The bid package would be prepared with H2M Architects and Engineers. Once completed, it will be publicized so the project can be put out to bid.
Reporter Ben Fiebert contributed reporting to this story.