Does West Hempstead need another laundromat?

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Does West Hempstead need another laundromat? The people at BAR Properties Inc. seem to think so. The company is seeking to build a facility that would house 33 washers and 42 dryers at 169 Woodfield Road, the site of the former Farmdale Farms.

According to Google Maps, however, the coin laundry business in West Hempstead is already pretty crowded. The area already has seven laundromats, with one mammoth operation — the Laundry Palace — only blocks away on Greenwich Street and open 24 hours a day. “How many laundromats should be in any one community?” asked Rosalie Norton, president of the West Hempstead Community Support and Civic Association. “If we were a village, we would have to slap a moratorium on it.”

BAR Properties is asking the Town of Hempstead for a special zoning variance not only to build the laundromat, which is in a residential B district, but to have off-street parking and a special exception to park in the front yard of the property. This was not welcome news to Norton and other West Hempstead residents who attended a Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals hearing on Oct. 1 to voice their concerns.

Joseph Azose, a Woodfield Road resident, presented a petition signed by many West Hempstead residents who are opposed to the laundromat. Azose said that other residents had voiced their opposition using the Board of Appeals’ comment form.

Norton told the board that most of the homes in West Hempstead are legal one-family dwellings, and the only people that would benefit from another laundromat would be the community’s illegal renters. West 130, the new apartment complex at 130 Hempstead Avenue, “has their own washers and dryers,” Norton said. “We have another 50 apartments being built on the other side of the train tracks, and they, too, will have their own laundry facilities. Why do we need another laundromat? They’re only encouraging and facilitating people who are renting illegal apartments and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. If anyone owns a home, they already have their own washer and dryer.”

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