A proposal to replace Island Park’s long-vacant, problem-plagued Long Beach Motor Inn, on Austin Boulevard, with a housing complex for veterans won approval for requested zoning variances from the Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals on Aug. 20 at a packed hearing that featured broad bipartisan and community support.
The Steven Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was seeking variances in height and occupancy regulations to build a 57-unit single-room-occupancy Veterans Village on the motel site. Foundation representatives told the board that the project would feature private bathrooms and kitchens in each unit, 24/7 on-site staff and clinicians, and services ranging from job training and entitlement advocacy to behavioral health care — all funded and operated by Tunnel to Towers.
“We are creating long-term supportive housing complexes …,” Gavin Naples, the foundation’s senior vice president, told the board. “Every veteran has their own bathroom. Every veteran has their own kitchen. There’s no communal living. This is not a shelter.”
The bulk of the requested zoning relief was related to floodplain regulations and building-code requirements. To meet the mandated finished-floor elevation, the design elevates the first occupiable floor above the level of the motel, which would raise the roofline slightly above the 30-foot zoning cap.
“In order to get the building up to current code and standard compliance,” architect Marco Giardina said of the floodplain requirements, “we need to maintain a higher elevation.”
The architects would create room for parking underneath the two residential floors so vehicles wouldn’t dominate the street view, and the structure would appear as a smaller, two-level building from the sidewalk.
Nassau County donated the parcel to Tunnel to Towers last year, after the foundation presented plans for a veterans facility to replace the motel, which has been closed since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The motor inn had long been a source of frustration for Island Park residents. The property fell into disrepair and, over the years, gained a reputation for being a hot spot for illegal activity. There was overwhelming support for the housing project from elected officials, veterans’ organizations and residents at last week’s hearing.
“It’s not about Republican or Democrat, it’s about the right thing for veterans,” former U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, an Island Park native, said.
For more than a decade, discussions about how to redevelop the property dragged on. Proposals came and went, but none seemed to strike the right balance between addressing the community’s needs and creating something meaningful.
“The boarded-up and graffiti building is not nice to look at,” Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty said. “It’s still an eyesore … We have an opportunity for greatness here.”
Representative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Oceanside native as well as veteran Jason Loughran, spoke at the hearing urging the board to move the project forward, and noted that housing veterans brings federal benefits — from Veterans Administration compensation to education and employment support — to the local economy.
“When veterans are housed, our whole community thrives,” Loughran said.
Tunnel to Towers provides housing assistance and access to supportive services for over 10,000 veterans and their families nationwide. Its Veterans Villages feature extensive security and screening protocols, as well as transportation to nearby VA facilities and shopping.
The next steps will include final engineering and site-plan review, any county approvals tied to traffic volume on Austin Boulevard, and building permits. Nassau County Legislator Pat Mullaney, who also endorsed the project, said that county officials would coordinate traffic studies and community input as the project advances.
Tunnel to Towers said that the plan includes 52 on-site parking spaces; that it predicts, according to its operating experience, that roughly half of the residents would own vehicles; and that it was willing to work with county and town engineers on traffic mitigation, crosswalks and signals. It estimated that demolition and new construction would take 12 to 15 months after all approvals were finalized.
“We have about 20 projects right now,” Naples said. “We will build over 100 Veterans Villages throughout the United States in the next 10 years.”
