The Mineola Board of Trustees Wednesday night approved a three-story, 30-unit residential building to be built at 155 First St.
The structure, located across the village’s post office on the corner of First and Main Streets, will have its units built on top of 54 parking spaces, which will be at ground level.
Mineola’s board of trustees held a public hearing for the application on Wednesday, Oct. 11 and reserved a decision until this week so the developers could resubmit new renderings, which were approved.
The building’s layout will be 28 one-bedroom residential units and two studio apartments. On the first and second floors will be 12 units and six on the third floor.
Currently, the property is located within the village’s downtown overlay district which the board unanimously approved last year. It gives Mineola more flexibility when considering developments.
The development, which is approximately 10,000 square feet and 40 feet high, will also replace the current 20,000-square-foot building on the property.
Trustee Paul Cusato was the only trustee out of the five-person board to vote against the project, saying that he felt the project was too big for the area.
“Many many years ago we had Morgan Parc come to this village and I voted no at that time because I thought the building was just too big,” Cusato said, referencing the approximately 311,500 square-foot complex that was built in 2019 on Second Street. “I feel the same thing about this structure. I think it’s too big for that corner so I’m going to vote no.”
Pereira said before voting for the project that proposals such as this one are the exact reason the districts were created last year.
In unrelated village news, Paul Pereira thanked all parties involved for the successful exchange program the volunteer fire department held with representatives from Pereira’s hometown in Estarreja, Portugal.
“I would like to thank the entire village staff but really the entire villager of Mineola,” Pereira said. “They went home with nothing but amazing memories.”
During the week of Oct. 9, fire department officials from the Portuguese city, including New York City-born Mayor Diamantino Sabino, explored what the village and New York City had to offer.
The week was part of a cultural exchange where the department trained with the visiting firefighters and held a fundraiser with proceeds going toward a new training facility in Estarreja, among other things
The idea came when Pereira, who is from Estarreja, was introduced to the chief of the fire department in the city, Joaquim Rebelo, while on a trip to Portugal with the Mineola School District, where he works.
“Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees and when we have outsiders coming in, we realize we live in a pretty special place,” Pereira said. “Sometimes we need to be reminded by those who are not here every day like we are.”
Representatives from the village will be traveling to Estarreja in 2024 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city’s fire department.
