Monday, August 28, 2006

Unavailability of Sewer Line May Affect Developments Proposed for Glen Head & the Glenwood Landing Waterfront

Early last week Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi sent letters to the supervisors of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay stating that Glen Cove will not consider sewer line hook ups from locations outside of the city until the city completes an assessment of its own needs. According to the mayor, the process could take some time.

Sewer line hookups to Glen Cove have recently been proposed for two developments pending in Glen Head and the Town of North Hempstead (TNH) portion of Glenwood Landing (GWL). The Glen Head project is on the former Lundy property, a seven-acre site where single family and garden-style apartment units have been proposed. The GWL project is located on Shore Road south of the GWL Power Station, where a 60-unit condominium apartment building is proposed on a 4.25-acre parcel that is partly owned by TNH.

Last week, TNH accepted the findings prepared by its Planning Department in response to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared by the applicant, Glen Harbor Partners. This action cleared the way for a hearing to rezone the property from industrial use to residential use. The rezoning hearing was held and closed. The town council then scheduled a vote on the matter for September 13.

TNH has said that the project will not be built unless a sewer line is possible. The Civic Association has asked TNH not to grant the zoning change, or at least to delay voting, until questions regarding the sewer can be resolved, various aspects of the EIS can be strengthened, a sewer feasibility study for subwatershed 8 (of which GWL is a part) can be conducted, a plan for the entire TNH section of GWL can be formulated, and the possibility of creating a special inter-municipal park district can be fully explored and, perhaps, implemented.

TNH Councilman Fred Pollack has approached his colleagues in North Hempstead and Town of Oyster Bay (TOB) Supervisor John Venditto about the possibility of creating a special inter-municipal park district for the specific purpose of reclaiming and managing the site of the proposed apartment building. TNH appears unwilling to invest in a park in GWL on its own because, despite receiving a considerble amount of revenue from GWL utilities, the majority of people who would use the park would not be TNH residents. The residential section of the TNH portion of GWL is quite small and totally isolated from all other unincorporated areas in TNH.

On two separate occasions this summer, a standing room only crowd packed the hearing room at North Hempstead Town Hall to express their views on the proposal. The sentiment of the audience was uniformly critical of the proposed condominum apartment building, and many people said they would be willing to pay taxes to clean up the property and to protect it as open space. Several people also questioned whether TNH had made any attempt to pursue the parties responsible for polluting the property. The town, apparently, has not, stating that the process would be too time consuming and expensive.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

The Civic Association has urged both towns to explore the possibility of creating a special inter-municipal park district to manage this site. It is important that the community express its views on the possibility of such a district, whatever they are. An explortion of the matter would address many logistical questions, including how much the clean up would cost and how much the average homeowner might have to pay.

• If you live in GWL on the TNH side of the line, contact Supervisor Jon Kaiman (869-7700 / kaimanj@northhempstead.com) and Councilman Tom Dwyer (869-7696 / dwyert@northhempstead.com) to express your views about the Glen Harbor proposal, whether you have already done so or not. Be sure you let the them know you are a TNH resident and if you favor investigating the possibility of forming an inter-municipal park district. The address for North Hempstead Town Hall is 220 Plandome Road, Manhasset 11030.

• If you live in GWL on the TOB side of the line or in Glen Head, contact Suprvisor John Venditto (624-6350) to let him know if you would like to explore the possibility of forming an inter-municipal park district. The address for Oyster Bay Town Hall is 54 Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay 11771.

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