Trucks raise Inwood neighbors’ anger

At 11 p.m. on April 5, about two years after the applicant for Bayview Inwood LLC introduced himself to an Inwood neighborhood and told residents of Bayview Avenue that he was going to build three or four houses, Ameera Gomes heard a knock on her door. A process server handed her a paper about a hearing five days later, whose subject would be the rezoning of property on Bayview and storing dump trucks there.

Gomes made copies of the letter and went from house to house, handing them out. She was the only one to receive the notice, she said, and her neighbors weren’t aware of the applicant’s plans.

A trucking company, Five Star Cargo, occupies a big portion of Bayview Avenue.

“When I first moved in eight years ago, there was no trucking company there,” Gomes recalled. “All of a sudden last year, during the night, trucks just started to come, and we had no idea they were moving in. Now they have these 18-wheelers that are blocking our driveway every day, blocking the road every day, and they completely demolished the sidewalk and fence.”

In 2022, Bayview Inwood LLC filed an application with the Town of Hempstead requesting a zoning change for the property at 356-370 Bayview Ave., from residence to light manufacturing, to create a storage facility for 29 dump trucks. Neighbors say that would make the area tidal flooding worse, because the construction would add a dry well. This would make flooding more frequent, and on higher ground.

Before the April 10 hearing, of the Hempstead Board of Appeals, Gomes created a petition on change.org to oppose the application and to raise awareness of the possibility of having a dump truck storage area and an associated worksite near residential homes.

Some of the neighbors who live near the property attended the hearing, and were not happy.

“The proposed site is not only in a flood zone, but a tidal flooding zone, subject to moon phases and storms without the bay overflowing,” Inwood resident Elisa Bachrow Hinken said. She urged the Inwood Civic Association to get involved.

“I’m opposed to it,” association President David Hance said. “I’m not anti-truck, but in this case we don’t know exactly what they wanted to do — it just said truck parking, without explanation.”

Hance noted that a truck storage site could impact school bus stops for Lawrence High School and middle school students, as well as Inwood Park, a Nassau County facility at one end of Bayview Avenue. 

“There’s a park at the end of the block where families and children have to walk,” he said, “and to have more dump trucks will affect this greatly. I recommend that they find a place that’s zoned for that use. Don’t try to change a residential use for commercial use. It’s not what we want, and we can’t handle that right now.”

According to Hance, Bayview Avenue is already crowded with trucks, to the point where it appears that school buses cannot safely negotiate the street to pick up and drop off schoolchildren. He also said that Inwood is already a heavily taxed community, and the new zoning would affect that deeply.

“They always park on the sidewalk,” Hance said of the trucks. “It’s not a good thing. We don’t know who we’re dealing with, and it’s not something that the neighborhood or that particular road can sustain in the moment.”

Bayview Avenue is slowly being taken over by commercial and industrial businesses, residents say. To complicate matters, the roadway is narrow. Neighbors say they are concerned about their health and safety should the zone change be approved.

“The thought of dump trucks that close to residents’ homes,” Gomes said, “immediately raises concerns about the potential health risks, environmental damage, unpleasant odors, pest problems, increased presence of flies and mosquitoes, as well as potential dangers posed to our children.”

“We urge you to reject this application under Section 273 Article 28 which threatens not only our investments but also disrupts the peace and harmony that currently exists within this community,” Gomes wrote in her petition to the Board of Appeals.

Bayview Inwood LLC’S rezoning application was tabled at the April 10 hearing. In 2022, Daniel Baker was the lawyer representing the LLC. He is also a co-chair of Long Island Land Use Practice, which regulates the use and development of public and private real estate, and no longer represents Bayview Inwood. The Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals said that this is not a conflict of interest.

To view Gomes’ petition, go to TinyURL.com/rejectbaywoodllc.

Have an opinion on the Inwood truck issue? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.