Housing Project planned for the Nautical Mile

At the corner of Ocean Avenue and Hamilton Street, off the Nautical Mile in Freeport, a woman ran for her car in the rain and another woman popped open her umbrella and strolled toward Woodcleft Avenue on May 25.

Unwilling to give her name, the woman with the umbrella said, “I think a new housing development is a good idea. I don’t know who will live there, but this is a safe block. I’ve been living here for 20 years.”

The Village of Freeport is seeking to sell a municipal parking lot, at South Ocean and Hamilton, to a development company that would build one- and two-bedroom apartments at the site. The 43-unit apartment complex could go up within a year, according to Freeport Trustee Debra Mule.

The village board rezoned the lot from marine industries to residential at its May 22 meeting. The board voted 5-0 in favor of the rezoning, allowing housing development to proceed on the property, which is next to an environmental center run by the nonprofit organization Freeport SPLASH (Stop Polluting Littering and Save Harbors).

According to Freeport officials, the village is still in negotiations to sell the municipal lot to the developer, whom they did not identify, nor did they say how much the lot might be worth.

Three calls to Village Attorney Howard Colton seeking the name of the developer were not returned as of press time on Wednesday morning.

After the apartment complex is built, second phase of the project would be construction of a separate parking garage at the rear of the apartment building, which either the village or the developer would build. The development would not include Section 8 public housing.

Mule said that any type of business could have moved onto the property if it had remained zoned for marine industries, and the impact of that business or businesses on the Nautical Mile would have been unpredictable.

“I think it has potential to be a real plus,” she said of the proposed housing development. “We know there’s a housing issue on Long Island — a rental-housing issue on Long Island. People who are just getting into the housing market or just getting started, people who are looking to downsize after owning a home — this is an opportunity for them to get, according to the proposal, what looks like quality housing.”

Freeport officials asked that the Herald file a Freedom of Information request to obtain more specifics about the developer’s proposal, including artists’ renderings. The Herald is filing that request.

When asked for their opinions about the possible project, five business owners along the Nautical Mile declined comment.

Freeporter Alphonso Hardwick, brother of former Mayor Andrew Hardwick, said he did not believe the project would benefit the area, noting that it could increase traffic along the already congested Nautical Mile during the summer.

“I think it will affect the entire Village of Freeport, just the traffic alone,” he said. “The traffic they have to deal with in the summertime, but then the new residents that will be moving in the apartment [complex] will be a problem, too, because there’s no parking now. The village and the residents know there is not enough parking” on the Nautical Mile.