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September 2, 2001, Sunday
1690's Home Survives In Development Fight
By STEWART AIN
THE wood frame building on Oyster Bay Road
in Locust Valley, known as the Joseph Weeks house and built around
1690, is believed to be one of the two oldest homes on Long Island.
Last month, a group of community residents say, they saved it
from the wrecking ball.
Two other buildings, including a restaurant-bar dating to the 19th century called the Country Inn, were razed last spring, however, and the furor over whether the Weeks house had been in jeopardy renewed some residents' concerns about development on the site.
''A neighbor saw a LIPA crew working at the Weeks home and asked why they were removing the electric lines,'' said Martha S. Offerman, the clerk of Oyster Bay Town. ''The service man said the building was set to be demolished the next day.''
Mrs. Offerman said she told other residents and prepared to go the next morning ''to stand there and block the bulldozers with our bodies.'' She said she called the town supervisor, who asked the Building Department to issue a cease and desist order.
The next day, Mrs. Offerman said, she drove by the site and found that although the Weeks house was not touched, other construction work was continuing. She called Anthony D. Macarnone, an Oyster Bay Town councilman, who called the town's Building Department to insist that a fine be issued for violating the order to stop the work.
''He violated the law and I'm going to insist that he not do any work until he has the proper permits,'' Mr. Macarnone said of the contractor, Mohring Enterprises Inc. in Glen Cove.
Richard T. Mohring Jr., who with his father owns the company, insisted that the Weeks house was never scheduled to be demolished. He produced architectural drawings for developing the property with a notation beside the Weeks house: ''Existing two-story dwelling to remain.''
The Town of Oyster Bay granted the house, built by Joseph Weeks Jr., landmark status on Oct. 25, 1988. Herbert W. Schierhorst, president of the Locust Valley Historical Society, said the house appeared to have changed little over the years. He said he hoped the house, which is badly in need of a paint job and other repairs, would be restored so that schoolchildren could visit the building, an example of the type of homes built by the area's first settlers.
Mr. Mohring said he had all the permits necessary to develop the 2.27-acre property, known as Matinecock Court, and was furious with the stop-work order. He acknowledged that he stopped work only after the police were called.
At the time the stop-work order was issued, Mr. Mohring said he had begun work installing roads and sewer pipes for five single-family homes that are to be built at the rear of the property. Two of the front lots -- on which the Country Inn and an upholstery store had stood -- are being developed commercially, he said.
The commercial development has also run afoul of residents, who claim Mr. Mohring violated an agreement to build only residential homes there.
Paul D. Annunziato, founder of the Locust Valley Civic Association, said the composition of the development, not its size, was the issue ''because there is more than a 30-degree slope to the land and there are concerns whether the project would fit in with similar construction in the area.''
Mr. Annunziato said that in negotiations with the contractor's lawyer, Kevin J. O'Brien of Mineola, an agreement was reached last year in which the project was scaled back to include only the Weeks house and seven new homes. As a result, Mr. Annunziato said, he supported the project's application before the Nassau Planning Commission as well as the villages of Matinecock and Lattingtown, both of which also have jurisdiction over the property.
When he heard eight months later about a developer selling three of the lots, Mr. Annunziato said, he mistakenly assumed the sale was of residential lots.
Mr. O'Brien said that the Country Inn and the upholstery store were on commercially zoned property and that there was no agreement with the civic group regarding their future.
''They could have remained indefinitely,'' Mr. O'Brien said.
This project has been going on since 1994 with various proposals, including one for residences for the elderly and another for 10 single-family residences, he said.
But Mr. Annunziato cited an April 18, 2000, letter in which Mr. O'Brien said that in exchange for the civic association's support, Mr. Mohring would not build more than seven single-family residences and would maintain the Weeks house. Mr. Annunziato also noted that the Village of Lattingtown, in approving the project, said that if the restaurant and upholstery store were ever demolished, ''any new structure shall be used for residential purposes only.''
And a lawyer for the Nassau Planning Commission, Albert A. D'Agostino of Valley Stream, said that the commission, in approving the development, relied on an environmental assessment that said the southern part of the site would be changed from active commercial to residential.
Mr. Mohring said that in May he sold the three front lots along Oyster Bay Road -- including the Weeks house -- to John R. Grace, a real estate developer in Oyster Bay. Mr. Mohring said it was explained that the Weeks house had landmark status that required approval of Oyster Bay Town's Landmark Preservation Commission before any changes were made.
The lawyer for Mr. Grace, Thomas L. Seifert, said he could not comment because his client was out of town.
Mr. Mohring said Mr. Grace hired him to demolish the structures on the other two front lots: the Country Inn, which had a rear apartment, and the upholstery store, which had a second-floor rear office and two apartments. He said he understood that Mr. Grace was planning to erect an office building on the site.
Mr. D'Agostino said that in light of these developments, the Planning Commission planned to review its approval of the subdivision to see if it was necessary for Mr. Mohring to submit a new application.
Mr. Annunziato said he and the civic association ''don't want to stop development, we just want it done right in this area.'' He said there were other buildings of historic interest in Locust Valley and that the association was seeking to have the entire area declared a historic district ''rather than having to go from one battle to the next.''
Mr. Schierhorst of the historical society said the district would stretch primarily between the two Long Island Rail Road trestles along Buckram Road and Oyster Bay Road -- as Buckram Road is called at its eastern end -- and encompass the Weeks house at 41 Oyster Bay Road.
Mr. Mohring said he was aware of the civic association's effort at one point to seek landmark status for the Country Inn and the upholstery store. He said they abandoned that effort after he agreed to reduce the number of homes from 10 to eight.
''Once we agreed, their concern for the landmark went away,''
he said. ''So how important was it?''
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Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company