BOT Changes Food Establishment Regulations

By Meg Yergin -

An ongoing challenge for small towns and villages is how to attract businesses to ensure economic vitality while also protecting the quiet charm of its streets.  At its June 9, 2025 meeting, the Board of Trustees (BOT) came down firmly on the side of making the Village more appealing to commercial businesses.

In response to complaints from some business owners, the BOT voted to revise long-standing Code requirements for food-establishment special permit renewals with the passage of PLL M-2025.  See HERE.  The Building Inspector (BI) will now approve most renewals of special use permits for food establishments instead of the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) in a public hearing, the exception only being for a business with an adjudicated violation.

Many residents are acutely familiar with the potential issues a food establishment can produce after experiencing the noise problems generated by Modern on the Rails and Molly Spillane’s (the previous restaurant in Nonna Carola’s space), and the traffic issues caused by Ralph’s Ices at its original location on Keeler Avenue.  

Intent of Special Use Permits

Special use permits are intended to ensure that a business is not just operating in compliance with the Code but is also functioning in harmony with its specific location. 

During an initial special use permit review, the ZBA has the responsibility to determine if the use as designed will adversely affect the neighbors and/or the Village in general.  The ZBA can include specific conditions in the special permit to mitigate potential adverse impacts after hearing from residents.  For example, it may impose conditions regarding the use of outdoor seating to ensure that neighbors are not subject to noise and litter generated by activity in that space. 

Business Owner Complaints

At the BOT’s June meeting, Village Manager Kathleen Gill told the Board that she often hears complaints about the special permit requirement and the difficulty in opening a business in the Village.  Gill read a letter she received from the owner of Augustine’s Salumeria in which he complained that his restaurant’s opening was delayed because he had to sit through two ZBA meetings to get a permit.  He said he plans to look at other towns that are “friendlier to getting open” when he opens another restaurant.

The owner of Brooklyn Bagels spoke at the meeting and said it cost him $50K- $60K to open, but did not identify what those charges were for.  The Village application fee for a special use permit is $650, and the applicant must deposit $651.50 in an escrow account which is returned if not used.  (The BOT sets those dollar amounts.)

At the meeting, the BOT considered only a few anecdotes from business owners that the current special permit process is unreasonably difficult.  They did not review how other factors may contribute to their frustration, such as their interactions with the building department.  They also did not address the NYS Village Law requirement that special-use-permit reviews must occur in public hearings. See HERE.

Letter from the ZBA

Ahead of the meeting, the members of the ZBA sent a letter to the BOT unanimously opposing the law, stating:

The Proposed Law says to the Village and its residents that the Village doesn’t care about the impact of a new use on the neighbors unless there has been an adjudicated violation.  In the many years of reviewing and approving special permits, members of the ZBA could not recall any situation where there had been an adjudicated violation; issuance of violations themselves are extremely rare.  Given that fact, the unintended impact of the Proposed Law is that special permits will almost always be automatically reviewed without an assessment of their impact.  This essentially gives priority to a business over Village residents. (Emphasis added.) See HERE.

ZBA Chair Robin Kramer also sent a personal letter to the BOT expressing her disapproval of the new law. See HERE.

Need for Additional Code Revisions and Enforcement

Deputy Mayor Nora Luca was the lone dissenting vote on PLL M-2025.  She argued that before making this significant change to the special permit renewal process, the BOT should make other changes to the Code.  She urged the Board to look at the Code holistically and pass more specific standards regarding time of operations and noise.

Mayor Torres stated that she was in favor of hiring more part-time Code enforcement officers so that enforcement could be provided at night and on the weekends, rather than relying on the special permit review process to catch violations.

The trustees also discussed the fact that there have been very few “bad actors” opening food establishments in the last few years and didn’t think it was fair to inconvenience all businesses with a burdensome special use permit renewal process.  The trustees did not consider that the recent lack of issues with food establishments may be because the special permit process was working as intended to prevent them.

The Current State of Restaurants in the Village

Contrary to concerns that the process to open has been unreasonably onerous, there are approximately  80 food establishments currently operating in the Village. See HERE. This is a striking number for a non-city municipality.  For comparison, Rye has approximately 25 active food establishments and Harrison has approximately 20. See HERE. The Village is not at a loss for eateries with an estimated restaurant per capita ratio of roughly 250 residents per restaurant.

The Village also varies from many other municipalities in the location of its commercial zones.   Rather than concentrating restaurants in a centralized commercial district, food establishments are permitted across all of the C1 zones (the Boston Post Road, Halstead Avenue and a portion of Mamaroneck Avenue) which stretch across the width of the Village and are flanked on either side by residential districts.  Homes in those districts adjacent to food establishments are particularly vulnerable to the potential adverse impacts of restaurant crowds, noise, litter, cooking smells, parking and traffic.

Former Process for Obtaining a Special Use Permit 

So what is the process for a new food establishment to obtain a special use permit in the Village?

First, the business submits an application along with required materials and filing and escrow fees.   Next, the ZBA schedules and holds a public hearing to review the application.  At the hearing, the ZBA reviews the materials, questions the applicant and listens to residents’ support of and/or concerns with the proposed operation.  

After the hearing closes, the ZBA customarily approves an initial probationary permit for a period of 3 years at its next meeting.  But it would sometimes make the probationary period shorter depending on concerns raised during the public hearing.  If all goes smoothly and the applicant has included all required materials the review process takes approximately two months.  A business owner can submit a special permit application as soon as all relevant information is available to avoid any delay in opening; there is no need to wait until the establishment has been built out.

At the end of the probationary period under the old law, the business returned to the ZBA for another public hearing, giving residents a chance to share any issues they had encountered with the business.  The ZBA would check that the operation met the conditions of the probationary permit and decide if additional conditions are necessary before approving renewal of the special use permit. 

Changes Under New Law

Under the new law, the ZBA will continue to issue the initial probationary special permit but will be restricted to granting no less than a 3-year approval.   And more significantly, the follow-up public hearing for the permit renewal is now eliminated, with an exception only if there has been an adjudicated Code violation brought against the business.  If there are no violations, the BI may grant permanent approval for the special use permit with no expiration date.

This change means there will be no public hearing for neighbors to share their experience with the business after it opened.  Residents may have complained about noise or parking, but if a Code enforcement officer didn’t follow up with a violation that was then adjudicated, it seems that those complaints will no longer be considered as part of the special permit renewal.