By ERICA SCHWARTZ

When state Sen. Jack Martins walked into the Village of East Hills courtroom on Aug. 13, he wasn’t state Sen. Jack Martins. He was Jack Martins, attorney at law.

Martins requested nine variances on behalf of East Hills resident Miguel Quezada at a Village of East Hills Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.

Martins said Quezada is in the process of selling the house and wants to acquire belated variances for structures that currently stand in violation of East Hills code.

“We want to make sure that before the house is marketed that all the permits are in order and are squared away,” he said. “Then, the house can be marketed and sold appropriately so that the next owner will have the benefit of a home without any violations and the permits in order.”

Quezada purchased the home in 2012 and resided there until 2022.

According to Martins, the home additions his client is requesting variances for have already been completed; the client conducted the majority of the renovations himself or with independent contractors he hired between 2012 and 2013 without the proper variances in place.

Martins presented the board with surveys of the home from 1964-65, 2001, 2012 and 2023. The 2001 survey confirms that the gate in the front yard was added prior at least 10 years prior to Quezada purchasing the house.

Quezada has not lived in the home since 2022, Martins said.

When asked by board chairman Stanley Dessen about multiple cars he said remained in the driveway of the home, Martins said he also had seen those cars and was not sure of who they belonged to, but said he would assume they belong to Quezada’s family members.

Martins asked the board to consider the house’s overall design in relation to other houses as it does not front on the street like other houses. He also said the house is set back from the street 85 feet, meaning that the family only has usable space in the back of the house, which is much smaller than the front yard. 

“Typically, a home would have a much larger backyard and a smaller front yard,” he said. “That 85-foot setback in context, I think, does relate to why a portion of the property has greater lot coverage in the rear of the property and not so much in the front of the property.”

The largest of the nine variances Martins requested on behalf of Quezada was a 763.72 square feet variance for the rear yard lot.

Under East Hills law, accessory buildings and structures cannot take up more than 20 percent of a home’s backyard, which is 750.75 square feet for this property, according to court documents. The current lot occupies 1,514.47 square feet.

Dessen said the board and Martins must recognize that this is a 102% variance. Martins said he agreed this is a large variance percentage-wise, but the structure of the house makes it less obtrusive to the community and is a reasonable use of space.

“It is a large variance, but in light of the space that is available to a property owner to be able to use that space, I would actually argue that the use of that space is appropriate given the configuration of the house and the lack of impact to the community,” he said.

Martins said requiring Quezada to remove the additional 763.72 square feet would place an undue burden on him given that there was no proven direct impact to the rest of the community.

“We could all lament Mr. Quezada not having sought council and not having checked the code, but the fact is that that additional 763 feet is there,” he said.

Quezada was not present at the meeting. The court broke for recess twice to allow Martins to call his client on the phone.

On the first of the two calls, Martins said Quezada complied with board member John Wagner’s suggestion to add mechanism to the front gate so that first responders could manually enter the gate in case of emergency.

Martins said that Quezada also agreed with board member Bram Weber’s suggestion to remove part of the driveway that stretches to Glen Cove Road to add back some “green space” to the property.

Village of East Hills has not released the date of the next zoning board meeting as of the time of publication.