Submitted By The Village of

Garden City Public Information Committee, Nicholas P. Episcopia Chairperson.

Recently a good deal of misinformation has been circulated by proponents of the present Lighthouse Plan concerning the position of The Garden City Board of Trustees “BOT” as well as The Joint Conference Committee of the four Property Owners Associations “JCC.” It is prudent to simply spell out the reasons for our opinions.

We are acutely aware of the present economic situation and know that jobs are very much needed and that our local economy could use a boost. However, because of the deleterious impact it will have on the environment and economic health of surrounding local communities, the Lighthouse Project, as presently proposed, is not the way to cure these ills.

• We do not object to an expanded and refurbished Coliseum, a sports center, a convention center, new hotel space, as well as a reasonable amount of housing and the retail space to support it. The idea that a small city of 5 million sq. ft. is needed to keep the Islanders Hockey Team has never been adequately explained by the Lighthouse Developers.

• We do object to 45 story towers, several hundred thousand square feet of new retail space and approximately one million square feet of new office space. We all know the situation with retail space in Central Nassau and we certainly do not need a repetition of the early 1990’s office glut. .A severe increase in vacancy due to overbuilding would reduce commercial values and have a serious adverse affect on the tax bases of the surrounding villages. Only Uniondale will have the benefit of the new taxes.

• The sponsors of the Lighthouse project 19,000 new permanent jobs from this project. However by their own admission many of these jobs will not be the projects retail or office space, but could be in a variety of locations, some of which are not even in Nassau County.

• Traffic congestion will increase by extraordinary proportions. How can the 2,300 housing units, $1 million sq. ft. of office space and several hundred thousand sq. ft. of renew retail only result in an additional 1500 cars during one time frame of the morning rush hour.? The New York State Department of Transportation issued a very short support letter and only used the developer’s numbers. The Town of Hempstead Board “TOH” has many problems with the sponsor’s numbers; .and stated that additional mitigation would be needed for what they feel would be significantly increased traffic. The developers have proposed to spend only $55 million for improvements projected to cost $120 million. Where is the rest of the money to come from? There is no NY State or Federal Government Commitment in place.

• The proposed 2,300 housing units are almost all high-end and rents would are projected to start at $2,300 per month. Only about 5% of the housing is projected for seniors and students. The “TOH” officials correctly stated that that the housing is hardly affordable housing and make no provision for graduating students. How is this supposed to stop a “brain drain’ and keep our young people in Nassau County?

• Even if it is determined that the aquifer is adequate for this 5,000,000 square feet of development, no one has been able to show that there will be no deleterious effect on the underground plumes of pollution that are in the Roosevelt Field area..

• The Lighthouse Project, as proposed, and the new Covanta boiler will draw an estimated 750 million gallons of additional water per annum. This is a huge number, especially when the Uniondale Water District already exceeds the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s cap for annual water usage.

• The Lighthouse is expected to generate approximately 2,000,000 million gallons of sewage per day. There are serious questions as to whether or not the Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant has sufficient capacity to handle the increase in sewage.

• We agree that the ground lease for the Lighthouse Project absolutely should grant the Town the same rights as the County. Yes, retention of local firms and hiring local people to build the project should be required. No, we should not give this development tax abatement, and yes, the Town of Hempstead should have approval of any new owners in the event of a sale.

• Our elected officials in the “TOH” are performing their duty when they refuse to acquiesce to the developer’s arbitrary deadlines and threatening tactics. By far this is the largest and most complex project Nassau County has ever done and it needs extensive study.

• We have reached out to the Mayors of Westbury, Mineola and Hempstead. They all have sent letters to the “TOH” expressing many of the same concerns that the “BOT” and “JCC” have stated. Our worries and those of our neighbors about this project are not “NIBYISM but “legitimate concerns about how this massive project will affect all of us.

Please take a few moments to email the “TOH” at

LighthouseComment@tohmail.org and encourage them to continue on a prudent course of action.