By Larry Gordon
The meeting last Thursday evening in the Village of Lawrence municipal building started out slow. In fact, the agenda looked rather boring.
That is, until one of the dozen or so people present asked if she and a few others could make comments about the planned extensive building that has been approved in some areas, with other projects of thousands of apartments in various states of governmental consideration and probably ultimate approval.
“If these projects take place and we have to evacuate our area in an emergency,” a resident said, addressing the Village trustees, “we might as well stay home because either way we are going to be dead.”
Another resident rose to tell Village trustees that there is not much they can do about the potential massive building that is planned for communities that border Lawrence. They added that the Village should sue the neighboring Village of Cedarhurst that unanimously approved a 100-apartment project on Pearsall Avenue despite the objection of many residents.
In addition to the Cedarhurst project, there are other projects on the drawing board totaling thousands of new apartments and homes in Woodmere and Inwood, the area that borders Lawrence and is under the jurisdiction of the Town of Hempstead.
Several things became more understandable after the Lawrence trustee meeting and my conversation the next day with Cedarhurst Mayor Ben Weinstock. The first is that Mayor Alex Edelman of Lawrence along with the other trustees present at the meeting made it clear that they are opposed to all this new building and that they have voiced their objections to the appropriate officials.
Secondly, after the meeting and my talk with Mayor Weinstock, it seems that what we have here is a lack of communication between the various parties as well as an abundance of misconstrued details about the issues.
For example, a resident addressed the trustees and suggested that it was odd that over 200 people attended a Cedarhurst meeting and a large majority of those opposed the building and the possible additional car traffic it will create—and still the board voted 5–0 (unanimously) to approve the project.
The Pearsall Project, as it is known, was originally proposed to be three buildings of four floors each with 112 apartments. In the aftermath of the furor, the project has been reduced to 98 apartments and three buildings of three floors each.
So the voice of the people was heard and apparently had the intended effect. Still another point of misunderstanding is the fact that the Village of Cedarhurst, according to the original plan, was going to receive a $6 million “incentive zoning fee.” This information caused a bit of a stir after the original public meeting, leading critics of the project to suggest that the Cedarhurst board could not be objective because of the money involved. Some said that the money being paid explains the 5–0 vote pretty clearly.
But that is far from the truth, according to Mayor Weinstock. Firstly, the fee, like the project itself, has been scaled back and is now $4 million. And that money will be used exclusively to upgrade the quality of life in Cedarhurst.
According to the mayor, that means new LED lighting on the Village streets, the repaving and repair of the Gourmet Glatt parking lot, and improvements to the ball fields, courts, and playgrounds of the sprawling Andrew Parise Park on Cedarhurst Avenue. Contrary to what some of the critics of the Village have articulated, the incentive zoning money is not meant as a financial perk for trustees but rather for much-needed improvements in the upscale Long Island town.
If you are familiar with Pearsall Street—a long road that runs from Rockaway Turnpike to Washington Avenue—then you know that the side closest to Central Avenue is filled with commercial-warehouse-looking structures, and the other side of the street—the side closest to West Broadway—is mostly filled with ramshackle wooden structure homes that Mayor Weinstock describes as “a blight.” In other words, Mayor Weinstock says, the addition of these three buildings will be an attractive asset to the community.
But whether it is the trustees and the residents of the neighboring towns or Cedarhurst residents, few people have a problem with the influx of new people to the Five Towns. The issue is traffic.
Mayor Weinstock does not disagree. But he adds that there have been two traffic studies done at the site—one by the builder and another commissioned by the Village—and they both report that the addition of the Cedarhurst homes will not add appreciably to the current and existing traffic problems, mostly on Rockaway Turnpike and especially during morning and evening rush hours.
There is an additional concern that the opening of the Amazon distribution center at the intersection of Rockaway Turnpike and Brookville Boulevard will further exacerbate the traffic problems entering and exiting the area.
Mayor Edelman indicated that there have been discussions with Amazon on that matter and that the effort is under way to minimize the impact of traffic at the location. The Mayor was assured that once the Amazon trucks leave the facility each morning between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. they are loaded up for the day and do not return until after 9:00 p.m., long past the peak traffic hour.
Needless to say, the attendees at the meeting were not pleased about trucks from Amazon hitting the road from 7:00–8:00 a.m. as that is the height of rush hour and the time of day when most commuters as well as bus drivers hit the road.
Judi Bernstein, a Lawrence resident, spoke at the Lawrence meeting about her concerns related to the Pearsall project and the other building plans on the drawing board. “Aside from Pearsall,” she said, “There is a project already approved by the Town of Hempstead that calls for building on 73 acres which translates into several thousand apartments with many being categorized as ‘affordable’ housing,” she said.
“Please don’t misunderstand,” she said. “I am not against building, but our roadways and infrastructure is not in place or even being talked about to handle the significant increase in the number of cars on our roads and streets.”
To that end, and in response to a challenge from Mayor Edelman to bring concerned citizens and residents out to express communal angst, Ms. Bernstein has put the word out about a rally scheduled for later next month that will need to bring out several hundred people to demonstrate community concern on the deliverance of potential round-the-clock gridlock on our roads.
The plan is to have the officials or their representatives at the meeting from the offices of County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin (a representative from his office was present at the Lawrence meeting last week), and Councilwoman Missy Miller.
“You cannot call a meeting like this and have 15 or 20 people show up,” said Mayor Edelman, “You have to make sure you have 300 people there or more,” he said. As of last week that effort is under way.
Mayor Weinstock says that for the most part he has been receiving praise and yashar koach for doing his part to make the Pearsall Project happen because there is a pressing need for new housing for young couples as well as for people looking to downsize, or those selling their homes locally or in Brooklyn or Queens and looking to live near their children in the Five Towns.
There is a sense that people who live in the Five Towns do not know what is at stake or they are too busy or just simply not interested or concerned about what these suburban communities might look like a few years from now.
Ben Weinstock is positive and optimistic about the future. Mayor Alex Edelman made it clear that he and his trustee board are against the building and they are doing what they can to minimize the impact that future building might have. Residents like Judi Bernstein and others who spoke at the Lawrence meeting feel that most people are just unaware about what is going on and that if they knew and understood they would make their opinions known.
What we have here is a good debate with legitimate claims and positions on both sides. But it would be most undesirable to find out about these dramatic changes in the community once the bulldozers show up. That can happen just about any day, so whether you are for or against, the time to speak up is now.
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