Great Neck Plaza’s Trustees met at Village Hall Wednesday to consider two conditional permits for business hopefuls, four authorizations for actions involving the town and one law Wednesday. All motions were approved in 4-0 votes across the board.

Mayor Ted Rosen offered ribbon-cuttings, newsletter promotions and recommendations to join the Chamber of Commerce to two new businesses, La Blanc Spa at 4 Great Neck Road, and Natural Acupuncture Healing Clinic at 1 Barstow Road.

“It’s very much in the village’s interest to maximize available parking,” said Rosen. “If approved, you have to park in the rear; otherwise you have to park here,” he told La Blanc’s Alex Lau, referring to the two to three-block distance between Village Hall’s nearby parking and the limited spots at La Blanc’s disposal.

Natural Acupuncture owner Xiaohong Kei, a physician licensed in China who has practiced for 41 years, was similarly encouraged to have employees park elsewhere so their appointment-based clientele can park freely in and around the storefront. The clinic is permitted—but not mandated—to be open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

La Blanc’s New York City-licensed tattoo artist is registered for a Nassau exam on Sept. 17.

“Anyone who works for you who touches a client must be properly licensed, and those
licenses have to be displayed,” Rosen stipulated.

Reverting to the top of the agenda, Village Counsel Richard Gabriele said the amendment to revise Chapter 206 of the Village Code to enforce overtime parking regulations and collect parking fines within the Gardens of Great Neck would “benefit the village by making the shopping center more accessible, with more available parking.”

Though the center’s owner, Kimco, designates a two-hour parking limit, the mayor does not anticipate summonses being issued for any parkers who overstay the mark.

Rosen announced the board could agree upon the proposal at once. The approved law amendment will take effect on Oct. 1, assuming the agreement sent to the center’s owner is returned in short order.

“The mayor is particularly concerned with parking matters due to Main Street’s close
proximity to the trains,” Marnie Ives, Great Neck Chamber of Commerce vice president and
Kron Chocolatier CEO, told The Great Neck Record after the meeting.

The authorizations listed in full on greatneckplaza.net— allowing Gold Coast Arts Center to hang a banner across  Middle Neck Road, Galvin Bros. to replace the post office sidewalk and the clerk-treasurer to advertise for a public hearing on the hook and ladder agreement as well as a hearing on inspection of rental units — went through without a hitch.

The Sign Committee announced “nothing to report,” according to Building Superintendent Richard Belzini, who has helped applicants rejected in the past later earn permits by seeing that all safety regulations are honored to the fullest extent.

“We’re proud of the fact that we consider ourselves to be pro-business. We encourage business to come here,” Rosen told The Great Neck Record. “The vast majority [of conditional use applications] are approved. Most probably in one meeting but not all… the regulations and the laws of the state of New York and this village must be complied with.”

With La Blanc, the mayor added: “The issue last time was that everything must be done within the scope of their license. They went back, double-checked it, and also the exit plan. They worked on it with the management of the shopping center, so it’s completed and safe.”

Items briefly mentioned and tabled for later discussion following the conclusion of the agenda include: the Historic Preservation Commission’s rejected electric grid plan for Chase Bank’s parking lot, future historic sites that are being weighed, and a landscaping initiative
intended to clean up Village Hall’s walkway and other areas of note.

Rosen recalled  “very contentious denials” over the years when the room was completely
packed.

Wednesday night was not one of those nights.