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Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray has said, “Development is coming” to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale.
The question is, will the New York Islanders be there to anchor the property when all is said and done? Or will Long Island’s only professional sports franchise move to Queens or Brooklyn, or even to Kansas City or Ontario?
It’s clear that the Lighthouse, if and when it is completed, would reshape central Nassau County and its environs for decades to come. It would transform the look and feel of the county’s Hub, with two 36-story skyscrapers and other housing and commercial complexes where there are now none. The project’s developers, including Islanders owner Charles Wang, say the Lighthouse would generate tens of millions of dollars in property taxes annually while giving the dated Coliseum a desperately needed facelift that a team like the Islanders needs and deserves. We like the proposal.
We laud Wang, co-developer Scott Rechler, and their group of experts and consultants for answering the public’s questions, holding hundreds of community meetings and conducting in-depth studies of the project.
Despite the developers’ meritorious efforts to be transparent, the Town of Hempstead board had plenty of questions for them at last week’s 12-hour zoning hearing. Council members’ questions focused on traffic patterns, quality-of-life issues and the development’s potential environmental and economic impact.
The developers said that many of the answers could be found in the roughly 4,000-page final environmental report (reduced from a 6,500-page draft). Still, council members, who have authority over environmental and zoning issues, have the right to ask as many questions as they please, and they will need time — lots of it — to sift through the final report before reaching a decision on the
project.
That is why we question Wang’s do-or-die Oct. 3 deadline for that decision before he starts looking for another home for the Islanders. The town can spend months, even years, reviewing and negotiating plans for far smaller projects. There’s a reason for that: The public must be protected from careless development.
We’ve already seen too much of that in Nassau County, America’s first suburb, pieced together after World War II as a hodgepodge of well-manicured communities and atrocious-looking commercial strips. There simply was never a central plan.
Now is the time to get the Lighthouse project right by considering it from all angles. When Murray, Wang and County Executive Thomas Suozzi met to discuss the project last spring, it appeared that the process would go smoothly. Now cat-and-mouse games between the developers and town officials appear to prevail, to the detriment of all.
We urge all involved to get together and hash out their concerns. Wang must stop setting unrealistic deadlines, and using the Islanders as a bargaining chip. For its part, the town board must put its own political considerations aside and act constructively and in good faith for the benefit of all.
It’s clear that the Lighthouse, if and when it is completed, would reshape central Nassau County and its environs for decades to come. It would transform the look and feel of the county’s Hub, with two 36-story skyscrapers and other housing and commercial complexes where there are now none. The project’s developers, including Islanders owner Charles Wang, say the Lighthouse would generate tens of millions of dollars in property taxes annually while giving the dated Coliseum a desperately needed facelift that a team like the Islanders needs and deserves. We like the proposal.
We laud Wang, co-developer Scott Rechler, and their group of experts and consultants for answering the public’s questions, holding hundreds of community meetings and conducting in-depth studies of the project.
Despite the developers’ meritorious efforts to be transparent, the Town of Hempstead board had plenty of questions for them at last week’s 12-hour zoning hearing. Council members’ questions focused on traffic patterns, quality-of-life issues and the development’s potential environmental and economic impact.
The developers said that many of the answers could be found in the roughly 4,000-page final environmental report (reduced from a 6,500-page draft). Still, council members, who have authority over environmental and zoning issues, have the right to ask as many questions as they please, and they will need time — lots of it — to sift through the final report before reaching a decision on the
project.
That is why we question Wang’s do-or-die Oct. 3 deadline for that decision before he starts looking for another home for the Islanders. The town can spend months, even years, reviewing and negotiating plans for far smaller projects. There’s a reason for that: The public must be protected from careless development.
We’ve already seen too much of that in Nassau County, America’s first suburb, pieced together after World War II as a hodgepodge of well-manicured communities and atrocious-looking commercial strips. There simply was never a central plan.
Now is the time to get the Lighthouse project right by considering it from all angles. When Murray, Wang and County Executive Thomas Suozzi met to discuss the project last spring, it appeared that the process would go smoothly. Now cat-and-mouse games between the developers and town officials appear to prevail, to the detriment of all.
We urge all involved to get together and hash out their concerns. Wang must stop setting unrealistic deadlines, and using the Islanders as a bargaining chip. For its part, the town board must put its own political considerations aside and act constructively and in good faith for the benefit of all.
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