RVC Rejects Car Service's Appeal for License

The Rockville Centre Village Board confirmed on Monday that it has rejected the appeal of Lynbrook-based Village Car Service to be the second licensed taxi service within the village.

“After reviewing and hearing all of the information provided by residents and Village Car Service, the board believes that it would be in the best interest of the residents to uphold the village administrator’s original decision to deny Village Car Service's application for a taxi license,” Mayor Francis Murray said in a statement. “The applicant did not demonstrate the required showing of the need for any additional taxi service.”

Village Car Service went to the board for an appeal in May after Village Administrator Keith Spadaro rejected its initial application for a license, maintaining All-Island Taxi as the lone taxi service in the village. A public hearing on the matter was closed in June.

At that hearing, Village Car Service attorney Allen Stein argued that the village code was “archaic” and that “there are many other villages that have more than one cab company and they coexist.”

Murray went on to say that residents were concerned over the lack of a staging area in Rockville Centre, which could lead to Village Car Service’s vehicles double parking or “cruising around our streets.”

“This decision will help to protect our residents from issues of congestion and double-parking, particularly around the train station,” he said. “However, Village Car Service is still free to operate within the village, providing the taxi service does not pick-up or drop-off within the village on the same trip."

Matthew Hogan contributed to this story.