Possible Court MoveIgnites Controversy
By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Family Court building in Westbury will not be moving closer to the Mineola/Garden City court complex-if the Village of Garden City has any say about it. The question is: do they?

According to Gerard Fishberg, counsel to the Village of Garden City, the Village is "very concerned" about the possible relocation and will explore all possible options to stop a move. He would not discuss the Village's possible legal strategy, but did say a major issue would be whether a public building can legally be permitted in a residential zone.

Garden City Mayor Peter Bee said that the Village is against the move because of the desire to keep taxes as low as possible for both County and Village residents. "Garden City is already bearing a heavy loss of tax revenues because of all the county offices located here," he said. "We need relief. The site was recently re-zoned to allow for tax-paying housing."

Bee gave two more reasons in a statement released to The Garden City News. "There is no question that a new Family Court would be far more expensive than refurbishing the one in Westbury," he said. "We all know how estimates balloon once the hammer hits the nail. Taxpayers should not be burdened with even higher taxes to pay for a new building.

"Finally, Nassau County has recently renovated the Juvenile Detention center in Westbury. This tax money should not be wasted and a nearby Family Court makes more sense."

The approximately 25-acre site where the old social services building sits on County Seat Drive, which was zoned for public use, is now in a Residential-Townhouse zone. After many months of debate, on June 3, 2004, the Garden City Board of Trustees deleted the Public "P" District by unanimously passing controversial local law 2-2004. The R-T zone permits single family detached homes and single family attached homes (townhouses) with a three-story or 35 foot height limit.

At the time, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi was pleased with the zoning change since it meant he was a step closer to achieving his building consolidation plan, which would require the sale of several county properties. The sale of the former DSS site was expected to bring more than $50 million in revenue to the county.

The issue of a possible court move has arisen occasionally at Garden City Board of Trustees meeting over the years. Former mayors, as well as current Mayor Peter A. Bee, have said that Suozzi, although at one time pressing for the relocation of Family Court, acknowledged the Village's opposition and said he would abandon his original plan.

On Sept. 27, Suozzi's presented his most recent proposal, which is to renovate the current Family Court building. Suozzi said he has about $75 million in his capital budget for the renovation and expansion of the Westbury site, including doubling its 385 parking spots. He said it would be considerably more expensive to put the court in Garden City, and acknowledged the legal opposition the County would face from the Village could amount to a delay of five to 10 years.

His plan has come under criticism by the Nassau County Bar Association. In an e-mail to the editor of The Garden City News, the board of directors of the Bar Association said they want the new Family Court to be built on the old Social Services building site. Even if both the Probation Department and a new Family Court were placed in the Garden City complex, they claim there would still be fewer employees than there were when the building was used for social services, and that the parking lots could accommodate the additional parking. They also contend that Family Court is no more dangerous than other courts and that the transport of juvenile criminals from the detention facility in Westbury would be "a very limited number."