To rezone or not to rezone in East Rockaway

More than 300 concerned East Rockaway residents packed Rocco’s Catering Hall on Main Street last Thursday to vocalize their fears about a proposed rezoning of the village’s small industrial area, located along Ocean Avenue near the East Rockaway Long Island Rail Road station. Hundreds more who lined the sidewalk outside had to be turned away due to space limitations.

“We’re talking about a proposal here,” said Mayor Ed Sieban as he welcomed the anxious crowd inside. “There’s nothing written in stone.”

Sieban said that he did not want to go the way of other villages and towns by passing legislation before hearing what its residents had to say on the matter. “We want your thoughts,” Sieban said, “and, based upon what takes place tonight, we’ll take a look at the information, filter it and see where we want to go.”

Most residents’ fears were of losing Pathmark, the only supermarket in East Rockaway; of developers accepting Section 8 vouchers — a Housing Choice Voucher Program that is a type of federal assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that sponsors subsidized housing for low-income families and individuals — and of an already congested traffic area. “Pathmark is going nowhere,” said Sieban in reply to shout outs from the audience regarding the village’s only supermarket, three-quarters of which lies within the industrial zone. Many people said that they attended the meeting because of an article in the Herald’s April 15 issue, “New village plan centers around railroad,” and because of a flier that was distributed to many homes around the industrial area urging residents to attend the meeting, and claiming that the village’s proposed plan “would likely lead to the closure of East Rockaway’s only grocery store.”