Lawrence Civic Association express anger on over-development

What I think the community is voicing, and I'd love for Mr. Clavin to hear, is enough.”

Jeff Landy, Lawrence deputy mayor

Proposed or ongoing projects in the Five Towns

A 17-apartment residential development was proposed for 68 Washington Ave. A variance meeting will be held on Feb. 14, at 7 p.m., in Cedarhurst Village Hall.

Transit-oriented development in North Lawrence and Inwood could bring up to 1,200 residential units to the area.

The developers of the Woodmere Club, most of which is in Woodmere but which also impacts the villages of Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Woodsburgh, have proposed 284 single-family homes on the land. The Town of Hempstead and Lawrence and Woodsburgh created the Coastal Conservation District, which would reduce the number of homes to 54. The developers sued but lost, and are appealing.

The Pearsall Project was approved by Cedarhurst village last year. Three buildings comprising 98 residential units are expected to be built.

Campus Estates LLC is building 17 single-family homes on a three-acre parcel on Greenfield Avenue in Woodmere, purchased from Lawrence Woodmere Academy.

While the theme of the Feb. 1 Lawrence Civic Association meeting was that the 95-year-old organization was back in action after the pandemic, the tone established by the group’s new leader, Judi Bernstein, was anger about proposed development in the Five Towns.

“We are the watchdogs of the Village of Lawrence,” Bernstein said. “Our organization was established in 1928, and during Covid we went into quarantine like everyone else, and now it’s time for our re-emergence and our revival.”

Development — or what is seen as overdevelopment — was the focus of discussion and questions last week.

“If I can’t get from my office in Woodmere to my house in Lawrence on a summer afternoon, and it takes me 45 minutes to drive 1.7 miles, it’s insane,” Lawrence Deputy Mayor Jeff Landy said. “What I think the community is voicing, and I’d love for Mr. Clavin to hear, is enough,” Landy added, referring to Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin.

Clavin did not attend the meeting, but his chief of staff, Jack Libert, gave the group an update on several development proposals.

The Town Board approved a six-month moratorium on development in the area last September, including housing units in North Lawrence and a 20-acre, transit-oriented project near the Lawrence and Inwood Long Island Rail Road stations. Libert addressed what would happen when the six-month period ends.

“We are going to extend the moratorium for an additional year,” he said, “which is the limit we can go, as the court says we can’t do that forever.”

The specter of the potential construction of 284 single-family homes on the 110-acre Woodmere Club property looms over the Five Towns. The proposed development would directly impact not only the hamlet of Woodmere, but also the villages of Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Woodsburgh.

In the latest legal wrangling, in December, a federal court ruling backed the efforts of the town’s Coastal Conservation District, which was created to reduce the number of homes to 54. The developers, Efrem Gerszberg and Robert Weiss, are expected to appeal, and residents have expressed their concerns about what might result.

“At this point, there are negotiations on whether we can bring down the number of houses as much as we can,” Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman said.

“Lawrence and Woodsburgh are negotiating with the town for the minimum houses possible. (The developers) are not happy with the number we proposed, which is in the 50 to 60 range. They want 75 to 90.”

Concerns about the future of property in the area have risen, including the possibility that the Lawrence Woodmere Academy may close and the Number Five School may be sold. Campus Estates LLC is already building 17 single-family homes on a three-acre parcel on Greenfield Avenue in Woodmere that it purchased from Lawrence Woodmere Academy.

“In this fight, we’re getting killed by 10,000 paper cuts,” Landy said. “It’s too much development, and we need to figure out a way to make everyone happy.”

Bernstein and others organized a gathering of more than 500 community members last August, at which town officials learned of the opposition to the extent of the development in the Five Towns.

Edelman lauded the Lawrence Civic Association’s role in the community. “This is the voice of the people,” he said. “The trustees and I do what we think is right, and some people in Lawrence may not think so, so this is the opportunity for them to voice their dislikes. It’s a good outlet for the people.”

Have an opinion on development in the Five Towns. Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.