Glen Cove facility’s expansion raises concerns with neighbors

Officials with a Glen Cove assisted living center are trying to assuage residents of nearby homes who are upset with a proposed expansion on the hillside behind the current building.

The Regency, owned by NHI Glen Cove LLC, is planning an October session with residents to discuss the expansion, which would add 25 rooms to the 96-unit center to accommodate a new wing for people with Alzheimer’s and other conditions that affect memory.

The current building has a footprint of nearly 19,900 square feet, said construction manager Paul McDonald. The addition’s footprint would be about 7,800 square feet, he said.

Daniela Crocchiola, who lives in a home on Douglas Drive above the Regency, said the extension being proposed is far too big and will eat up too much of the hillside. Crocchiola, who said she’d accept a smaller addition, said she and other Douglas Drive residents worry that the amount of digging required will make the hill unstable and ultimately threaten their homes.

The Regency is planning to add a three-story extension and rooftop garden to its current four-story building at 94 School St. The extension would be on the slope, so the floors would connect with the second, third and fourth levels of the current structure. There will be extensive landscaping on the hillside, including newly planted trees, said Patrick Hoebich, a Glen Cove attorney for The Regency. Construction is slated to begin in mid-October.

McDonald said retaining walls would ensure the soil stays in place. Workers will dig up to 18 feet into the hillside for the bottom of the extension but remove little soil at the top, he said.

Beth Evans, who directs The Regency, said the upcoming informational session — rescheduled from Sept. 28 — will detail plans of the addition and address residents’ concerns.

“We want to be neighborly,” she said.

But Crocchiola said The Regency failed to keep residents advised in the past.

“They cut down trees without telling us,” she said, referring to about 30 trees removed from the hillside in July to make way for the extension.

Evans said since the trees were cut down, The Regency has tried harder to keep residents apprised of the project, through emails, a July 28 meeting and the upcoming session.

The new memory-care program will allow Regency residents who need such services to remain in the familiar surroundings of the center, and will let other Glen Cove area residents with memory and cognitive impairment conditions stay in their community, Evans said.