Village of Sea Cliff holds final Long-Range Plan meeting

The Village of Sea Cliff held the final public comment session for its Long-Range Comprehensive Plan on June 20, the culmination of four years of work by the village board. There were plenty of comments, and not many were supportive of the plan.

The session marked the last chance that Sea Cliff residents — and those from neighboring municipalities — had to share their thoughts and concerns with members of the board before the village begins the process of drafting the final copy, which will be approved or rejected by the board at a meeting in early September.

Sea Cliff has not had a long-range plan of any description since the 1970s, and Mayor Elena Villafane has been vocal in her support for it. Throughout the process of creating the plan, her mantra has been, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

“We’ve been working on this, with the interruption of Covid, for four years,” Villafane emphasized during the meeting. “This plan is not a reflection of what this board thinks; it’s about what (residents) want.”

Despite this, several of those in attendance ex-pressed skepticism, concern and even anger at the concept of the plan. Numerous speakers said they were particularly distressed by the potential changes to the village’s zoning code, the re-evaluation of which is a major goal of the plan.

Anthony Los-quadro, a resident of Sea Cliff for nearly 35 years, is one of the most outspoken opponents of the plan, saying that he believes it will cause the village far more harm than good. Losquadro pointed to two issues which already face Sea Cliff and surrounding communities — traffic and overdevelopment — and added that the plan would only exacerbate those issues.

“I think it’s a pig in a poke, because there’s lots of unanswered questions in this plan,” Losquadro said. “I can give you an example; from section 5.1 to 5.4, ‘consider making changes to the minimum lot size and dimensional requirements in residential lots in Sea Cliff’s code.’ Well, what are the changes? It doesn’t say.”

Although the meeting was meant to be public comment only, early on Villafane began responding to many of the questions and accusations by residents, predominately responding to queries that had been answered at past meetings or correcting misconceptions some residents had regarding the plan.

For example, several residents accused the board of intending to allow residents and developers to build three-story properties in Sea Cliff, stoking fears of increased development and overstretching the village’s infrastructure. However, Villafane and the board members pointed out that the village’s zoning code already permits three-story construction, and issues like these represent the very reason the board hopes to implement a long-range plan.

Even where there was disagreement however, the discussion was quite civil, as even some residents who appeared to oppose the plan thanked the mayor and the board for their hard work and efforts to engage the community in the process. Numerous residents also expressed their support for the plan, although even they still had comments and issues to present that they hoped the board would incorporate into the plan.

Carol DiPaolo, the water-monitoring coordinator for the local environmental group the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, made several comments regarding the environmental aspects of the plan, some of which were echoed by subsequent speakers.

Serving as the coalition’s representative during the meeting, DiPaolo also emphasized their belief that the plan was essential to the continued growth of Sea Cliff.

“I’d like to congratulate the board for this process, which we feel is absolutely necessary,” DiPaolo said, “and we hope that the momentum will continue to revisit the plan, and not wait 50 years until another plan is looked at and other recommendations are made.”

Although this was the final public comment meeting, the process for making the Long-Range Comprehensive Plan is not over yet. Villagers have until the end of Friday, June 30 to submit questions and comments to the plan’s website, seacliffcomprehensiveplan.com.

Residents are encouraged to attend the subsequent meetings regarding the plan and changes to the zoning code, which will be held on July 10 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 9 at 7 p.m.