By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass

TL;DR:

The Village of Manorhaven extended its building moratorium again in September. The Board of Trustees voted 5 to 0 to pass Local Law #6-2026, which continues the pause for another six months while the village finishes rewriting its comprehensive plan. The Nassau County Planning Commission approved the extension but said it expects this to be the last one unless the village produces an actual draft plan, and as of that September meeting no draft existed. For homeowners, the practical question is narrow: does this pause affect the work you were planning before you list? The honest answer is that it depends on your property, and the village’s published notice is confusing enough that nobody should guess. This post covers what was decided, what the county said, and the specific questions to ask the Building Department before making plans.

What the Village Decided in September

On September 23, the Manorhaven Board of Trustees held a public hearing and passed Local Law #6-2026. The vote was unanimous, 5 to 0. Trustees Stone, Zahn and Ildefonso voted yes, along with Deputy Mayor Shahipour and Mayor Popeleski.

The law extends an existing moratorium for another six months. That moratorium was first adopted in 2025 and temporarily suspends building and certain land use approvals while the village works on changes to its comprehensive plan and its land use rules.

One detail worth noting: neither the minutes of that meeting nor the published legal notice states an exact end date. Both say “six months.” A homeowner planning work around when the pause lifts should get that date directly from the village rather than counting forward from the meeting.

Why the County’s Comment Matters More Than the Vote

The more significant part of the September meeting was not the vote. It was what Nassau County said about it.

The Nassau County Planning Commission granted the six-month extension, but it attached a warning. According to the village’s minutes, the county said this would be the last extension unless meaningful progress is made and a draft plan is completed.

At the time of that meeting, no draft had been completed. A resident told the board that the planning consultant had provided little feedback and that only one public forum had been held. Village committees reported that they had supplied the information requested and were waiting for guidance.

The board can still extend the moratorium again by a supermajority vote if it decides it needs to. But the county’s position changes how a homeowner should read this. This is not a pause that renews automatically. There is now outside pressure to finish, which means the rules in Manorhaven could change in a meaningful way within the next year. Anyone whose plans depend on current zoning should pay attention to that.

Why the Published List of Affected Areas Is Confusing

Here is where homeowners get tripped up, and it is worth explaining plainly.

The legal notice for the September extension lists the zoning districts it applies to: C-1, C-2, C-3, I-1, I-2, I-3, E-1, R-3, R-4, and the Business Overlay District.

But Manorhaven’s zoning code, in section 155-7A, establishes a different set of districts. The village has twelve: Marine Preservation, four residential districts labeled R-1 through R-4, three commercial districts, Marine Recreational, Enterprise, and two governmental districts. The code also carries an editor’s note saying that the Industrial Research and Light Industrial districts were repealed back in 2005.

In other words, the notice names industrial districts that the current code no longer contains.

That is not a reason to panic, and it does not mean the moratorium is invalid. Legal notices often carry language forward from earlier versions. But it does mean something practical: a Manorhaven homeowner cannot reliably work out whether the moratorium applies to their house by reading the published list. The only dependable answer comes from the village itself.

What This Means If Selling Is on the Table

For most sellers the moratorium matters in one of three ways, and all three are about timing rather than value.

The first is pre-listing work. Sellers often plan a project before going to market — finishing a basement, adding a bathroom, converting space. If that project needs an approval the village is not currently issuing, the timeline is not what the contractor promised. That needs to be known before anyone signs a contract or orders materials.

The second is what a buyer’s attorney will ask. In New York the attorney handles the contract and the title work, and buyers’ attorneys ask about open permits and the certificate of occupancy as a matter of course. A seller sitting on unpermitted work has a harder problem during a moratorium than outside one, because the usual fix — filing for an after-the-fact permit — may not be available right now. Clearing that up early matters more than usual.

The third is buyer questions. Buyers read local news too. A seller who can answer calmly and accurately about what the moratorium does and does not affect is in a better position than one who gets caught off guard at a showing.

Consider a composite example. A Manorhaven owner planned to convert an attached garage into additional living space before listing in the spring, expecting the work to add meaningfully to what the house would fetch. That conversion changes the use of the space, which is exactly the kind of approval a moratorium is designed to pause. If the owner finds that out in January after hiring a contractor, the spring listing is in trouble. If the owner finds it out in November with one phone call, the plan simply changes — list without the conversion, price to the house as it stands, and skip a project that might not have returned its cost anyway.

The Questions Worth Asking Before Planning Any Work

A single call to the Village of Manorhaven at (516) 883-7000, ideally to the Building Department, settles everything a homeowner needs to know. Five questions do it:

Which local law is the moratorium currently operating under, and can a copy of the adopted text be emailed over?

What is the actual expiration date of the current extension?

Does the moratorium apply across the whole village, or only to the districts in the notice?

Which district is this specific address in, and is that district covered?

What permits can still be pulled right now — a roof, a deck, a kitchen remodel, a generator, a new boiler?

That last question is the one most homeowners actually care about, and it is the one worth getting an answer to in writing. Village staff are generally used to the question by now.

Where to Start

For a Manorhaven homeowner thinking about selling in the next year, the sequence is straightforward.

Make the call first, before planning any work. Get the district, the expiration date, and the list of permits still being issued. Ask for it by email so there is a record.

Next, check the house for anything already open. An unresolved permit or a certificate of occupancy that does not match the house is worth finding now rather than during attorney review, and that is true in any village on the peninsula. The post on open permits and certificates of occupancy covers how that process works.

Then confirm which government actually has authority over the property. A Port Washington mailing address can sit in any of several different villages, each with its own building department and its own rules, which is covered in six governments, one peninsula. A homeowner who assumes the Manorhaven moratorium applies to them when they are actually in another village has wasted a worry, and the reverse is worse.

Finally, price the house as it is rather than as it might be after a project that may not be permitted. What drives value in this market is covered in more detail in what determines home values in Port Washington, and the broader picture of the peninsula’s villages and neighborhoods is on the Port Washington community guide.

The honest bottom line is that this moratorium is less dramatic than the headlines suggest for most homeowners, and more consequential than they expect for a few. The difference comes down to what someone was planning to build. A homeowner who was not planning any construction is mostly unaffected. A homeowner who was counting on an addition, a conversion, or a change of use before listing needs a real answer this week, not in the spring. Anyone wanting a read on what their home is worth as it stands today can start with a home valuation.

FAQs

Does the Manorhaven moratorium stop someone from selling their house?

No. The moratorium pauses certain building and land use approvals. It does not restrict the sale of a home, and homes in Manorhaven continue to list and close normally. Where it can affect a sale is indirectly — if a seller planned construction before listing and that work needs an approval the village is not currently issuing, the timeline changes. It can also complicate a situation where unpermitted work already exists on the property, since the usual remedy of filing for an after-the-fact permit may not be available during the pause. Neither of those stops a sale. Both are better handled before listing than during attorney review.

How long does the current extension last?

The Board of Trustees passed a six-month extension on September 23, 2026, by a 5 to 0 vote under Local Law #6-2026. Neither the meeting minutes nor the published legal notice states a specific calendar expiration date, only the six-month duration. Because the underlying moratorium was originally adopted in 2025 and has now been extended, the end date depends on when the clock is measured from. Any homeowner planning around that date should confirm it directly with the village rather than counting forward from the September meeting.

Will the moratorium be extended again after this?

It might be, but it is less likely than it was. The Nassau County Planning Commission approved this extension while stating that it expects this to be the last one unless the village makes meaningful progress and completes a draft of its comprehensive plan. As of the September meeting, no draft had been completed. The Board of Trustees does retain the ability to extend again by a supermajority vote. The practical takeaway for homeowners is that Manorhaven’s land use rules may be rewritten within the next year or so, which is worth knowing for anyone making long-range plans about a property.

How can a homeowner find out if their own property is affected?

By calling the village directly at (516) 883-7000 and asking the Building Department. This is not a case where reading the notice is enough. The published legal notice lists zoning districts including several industrial designations that the village’s current zoning code no longer contains, since those districts were repealed in 2005. The reliable approach is to give the Building Department the specific address, ask which zoning district it falls in, ask whether that district is covered, and ask which permits are still being issued. Requesting the answer by email gives the homeowner something in writing.

Does this moratorium affect the rest of Port Washington?

No. It is a law of the Incorporated Village of Manorhaven and applies only within that village’s boundaries. A Port Washington mailing address can place a home in any of several separate municipalities, each with its own building department, permit process and rules. A homeowner with a Port Washington address is not necessarily in Manorhaven, and many are not. Confirming which government has jurisdiction over a specific property is the first step before assuming any village rule applies to it.

By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass

Eric Berman | Long Island & Queens Associate Broker | Compass
1468 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY 11030
(917) 225-8596 | eric@ericbermanre.com | theericbermanteam.com