Board Comments On Lighthouse Development
As most of you have read the Town of Hempstead has accepted the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Study "DGEIS" and is now accepting comments from the public. A Public hearing will be held on Tuesday morning Aug 4th at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, Hofstra University. The Board of Trustees "BOT" has been studying the effects of this massive development for several years .The majority of the Trustees believe that something will be developed there, but feel this proposed project is far to large, and could have significant adverse affects on the neighboring Village Business Districts, as well as quality of life for all residents.. Nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted in Nassau County.
A quick review of the planned development will illustrate this point. The Nassau Coliseum, presently a 400,000 sq. ft. facility will be expanded to 1.2 million sq.ft. and in addition. Additional development will consist of 2,300 residential units ranging from luxury to affordable or work force housing, 100,000 sq. ft. of convention space, 1 million sq. ft. of office and 500,000 sq. ft of retail and 300 additional hotel rooms. This additional development will total approximately 5.5 million sq. ft. This is the size of a Central Business District in a medium sized city. While there are certain desirable aspects of the housing component, what will be the affect on existing home values? This is especially true given the current state of the market. The 1.1 million sq. ft. of office space will increase Nassau Class A space by over 20%. What happens to the rest of the Central Nassau office market which is already has a total vacancy rate of over 16%? Perhaps the most worrisome part of this plan is the 500,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Obviously some community type retail will be needed to support the housing, but 500,000 sq. ft. is the size of a mall. Retail development always creates heavy traffic and we all know just how bad traffic is on Roosevelt Field approaches such as Old Country Rd and Stewart Ave. Finally, how can this massive creation of retail space help our business community? They are already feeling the affects of the recession and more.additional restaurants, pubs, or boutiques cannot help. Almost 10 years ago the Garden City spent several million dollars to improve Franklin Ave. and our commercial district. This expenditure coupled with a revived economy and creative commercial property owners rejuvenated our business district. Will this turn into a waste of taxpayer dollars?
The 'BOT" has approved funds for both an environmental consultant and a law firm with experience representing opponents to projects such as this. Since the "DGEIS" is literally thousands of pages and appendices, our consultants will simply not have time to review it in depth and develop the proper objections by Aug 4th. . After discussions with both counsel and the consultant the following appear as the most blatant deficiencies in the study.
• Residential streets in the southeast section of Garden City such as Meadow and Commander were neglected in the "DGEIS" traffic study. These are residential streets that could become alternative routes to the Lighthouse. The traffic counts used for the study are dated and really need to be updated.
• The proposed minor league ballpark is not in the study. Our counsel states that this is not an independent unrelated activity and has to be included in the "DGEIS". In fact County approval of this project requires that this ballpark be built.. Its affects must be analyzed.
• The alternatives to this massive development must be expanded in the DGEIS to include a detailed discussion of different configurations of the project, which will lower the overall square footage.
• The water supply section of the "DGEIS" acknowledges that the pumpage caps developed by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation "SYNDIC" are already being exceeded. This project will greatly increase the need for water. The availability of alternative water sources must be addressed. To date the Lighthouse group has not dome this. This is a critical environmental problem. which affects everyone in the area.
• Finally the time frame given to study this proposal and make comments is woefully short. This document is far too voluminous to be digested in a few weeks. We will protest this vigorously at the hearing.
The "BOT" is very cognizant of the disastrous consequences to our quality of life from any light rail system which goes through Garden City. Nassau County has accessed federal monies to study various types of light rail to "alleviate" vehicle congestion in the "HUB "area. Village Officials and Senior Administrative personnel have attended at least ten of these presentations since 2003 and have followed up with strong condemnations of this project. One of the most striking comments was made by past Mayor Peter Bee when he said this project would be a "sword through the heart of Garden City". Though a light rail system is not in the present Lighthouse Plan, it is clearly something still being considered by the County, and has the support of many of our elected representatives. We will continue to fight this with every means at our disposal.
In summation, if you believe as many of us do, that the Lighthouse Development as presently defined will adversely affect our quality of life, then register your complaints with the Town of Hempstead at lighthousecommens@hotmail.org. or write Town of Hempstead Lighthouse project One Washington Street Hempstead New York 11550. Please do this by Aug 17th, .the present cutoff date for comments. The "BOT" and the Property Owners Associations cannot do this alone. Your help here is invaluable.
Public Information
Committee
Nicholas P. Episcopia
Chairperson
