Eastern Gateway To See Changes
By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The eastern gateway to Garden City property will no longer be an eyesore for pedestrians and drivers along busy Stewart Avenue.

At their next meeting scheduled for Sept. 11th, the Garden City Board of Trustees is expected to grant final site plan approval to allow 550 Stewart Avenue LLC to build 25 attached, single-family townhouse units on the north side at 555 Stewart Avenue. The Board was set to vote at their last meeting on August 21st but had to remove the item from the agenda since an expected approval from the Nassau County Planning Commission had not yet been received. Village Administrator Robert L. Schoelle, Jr. told the Garden City News that county approval was received on August 25.

The Board granted site plan approval to the same developer at their June 19th meeting to allow a three-story office building to be built on the south side.

The property consists of 4.45 acres of land on the north and 5.25 acres on the south side of Stewart Avenue. The north side at one time was a parking lot for the building on the south side, which was most recently home to the Long Island Children's Museum and offices.

The property has been in the news dating back at least three years since a zoning change was needed to allow for residential use. 550 Stewart Avenue LLC had originally proposed building 36 attached single-family townhouse units on the north side, and a four-story, 150-unit multi-family dwelling on the south side.

On June 1, 2006, the Board voted 7 to 1 in favor of revised Local Law 1-2006 to change the zoning on the north side from C-3 to R-T to allow single family detached homes and single family attached homes (townhouses) with a three-story or 35 foot height limit. The property was zoned C-3, which permitted office buildings and a series of uses that had been previously been allowed on the property such as publishing, production and manufacturing of filing materials.

Opponents to the zoning change claimed that residences would bring higher taxes, more traffic and potentially more schoolchildren to Garden City. They argued that a traffic study commissioned by the owners, which found that residential housing would greatly improve traffic along Stewart Avenue when compared with an office use, was faulty and misleading. Those who supported the zoning change argued that housing would be a positive addition to the area and would not overburden the school district.

Revised Local Law 1-2006, which was more popularly recognized at the time as "the assisted living law," does not permit multi-family housing or assisted living on the south side. The law stipulates that "multifamily dwellings and assisted living residences may only be located west of County Seat Drive."

However, the law allows assisted living wherever multi-family housing is permitted in the Village. In areas where a multi-family apartment building currently exists, the law allows a developer who seeks to convert it into assisted living residences to have 50 percent more units per acre. The size of the building has to stay the same.

In a 5 to 3 vote, the Board voted down the first proposed law on April 20, 2006. Under the original proposed law, multi-family housing or assisted living would have been allowed on the south side by special exception permit granted on an individual basis by the Board of Trustees.

Most recently the property was in the news in December, 2007 when trustees unanimously decided to get an updated appraisal on a strip of Village-owned land that separates the property at 555 Stewart Avenue and Raymond Court. The appraisal was being sought after attorney Kevin Walsh, who represents the owner of the Stewart Avenue property, asked trustees to consider selling his client the land so they could build the townhouses closer to the setback line and fit two more on the property.

The Garden City News has learned that since that time the corporation reconsidered and decided not to purchase the additional strip. The Village will retain ownership.