Website Launched To Inform Residents About Third Track

During the past few months, the LIRR Committee of The Property Owners Association of Garden City Estates (Estates POA) has met to discuss the serious issues surrounding the MTA/LIRR project planned to add an additional track to the LIRR Main Line. One of the most important findings was that many Garden City residents were either unaware of the project (Third Track Project), or some had heard that the project was either a done deal or that it was canceled. The fact that so many residents were uninformed became more known as the committee and other POA members helped collect signatures on a petition against the Third Track that the Village later sent to Senator Carolyn McCarthy.

In order to help get information to residents, the committee came up with a campaign called Garden City Residents Against Rail Expansion (GCRARE). The main purpose of which is to inform and provide a forum for Garden City residents (and other neighbors) to find out more about this MTA/LIRR project which will have a severely negative effect on our home values and quality of life. GCRARE is now announcing the launch of its website. The GCRARE website (www.gcrare.net) provides information and several links about the MTA/LIRR's plan. Most importantly, it provides draft of letters to send to politicians who need to hear from everyone imploring them to stop this enormously disastrous plan.

This Third Track Project plans to build an additional track on the 10 mile corridor of the LIRR Main Line from Floral Park to Hicksville. As proposed, this additional track will be built 14 feet closer to properties located on the south side of the LIRR Main Line. This specifically includes local stations and tracks at Merillon Avenue and New Hyde Park, but it also affects all of Garden City.

The track expansion is estimated to cost tax payers approximately $1.3 billion and could take 7 to 13 years to complete; it will conjure up a myriad of safety, health, construction, traffic, financial and environmental issues, which will impact the lives of all village residents as well as the lives of residents in neighboring communities. If this project is allowed to go forward as the MTA/LIRR plans, the quality of our lives as a suburban village will be extremely compromised, during and after the project.

GC R.A.R.E. has been meeting with other local communities to unite in our opposition to an unjustified, wasteful plan, which will result in the loss of several homes, businesses, and properties. This has an effect along the entire Main Line Corridor, especially in Garden City, New Hyde Park, and Floral Park. Although we may sometimes disagree on how to address many village issues, we should all agree that in order to maintain our lives as a professional, prosperous, suburban community, we must stop this Third Track Project. This wastefully unnecessary LIRR project will have a disastrous impact on all of us in one-way or another.

The LIRR has not been forthcoming regarding details about the project, nor have they been able to properly or consistently explain the true need for this additional track. While the MTA/LIRR intends to hold public hearings in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of this year, recent news suggests that the LIRR is trying to bypass the process in local communities. A project of this magnitude may be considered, once all alternatives have been fleshed out, and if accompanied by a clear purpose and an intelligent plan, the MTA/LIRR has yet to demonstrate that requirement. We hope every village resident will attend village meetings and voice their concerns, as well as the LIRR attempt to move forward without providing details to our village. Also, please be sure to attend a public hearing on April 17th at John Lewis Childs School (10 Elizabeth St. in Floral Park) from 7:30PM - 10:00PM.

Please view our active website (www.gcrare.net) to find important information on what you can do now to help stop this devastating third track expansion project. You will also find informative updates from time to time, along with facts regarding the third track project. The most important aspect of what you can do now includes participating in the letter writing campaign which can be found on the website. Also included are links to politicians, governmental agencies and other neighboring villages, who have united in the fight against the third track. Your support is vital now, as well as later in the year when other public hearings take place.