Saturday, April 26, 2025
The Hempstead Town Board voted to approve a petition from Fieldstone at Oceanside LLC to redevelop the Oceanside Jewish Center property, on Brower Avenue, into residences. The decision paves the way for the development of 59 townhomes on the site, which has sparked significant debate in the community.
The Jewish Center has tried for years to sell due to a shrinking congregation. With the rezoning of the property, the center can begin to seek a smaller space to operate.
The rezoning approval passed unanimously on March 11.
“The approval of this application will help address housing concerns in the area and expand the tax base by moving forward with development consistent with the character of the community,” the town’s director of communications, Brian Devine, said.
The project, led by developer Fieldstone Capital Group, would entail the construction of townhomes on the 4.3-acre property. The project, called Fieldstone at Oceanside, will create 59 two-story luxury two- and three-bedroom homes, each with a garage, a driveway and dedicated guest parking. The property would also have green space, fencing around the perimeter and a traffic light at the entrance.
The developer would not take on a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement. Proponents argue that the project would address housing shortages for younger families and downsizing seniors while transitioning the tax-exempt property into a significant source of tax revenue. Leadership of the Jewish center, had emphasized in previous town meetings, the financial difficulties that have led to the need for redevelopment. Declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property made the project essential for the center.
Some community members have expressed support for the project, saying there’s a need for more housing in the area. “I’d rather see it be developed into attractive housing than to be empty,” Eric Abbey, president of the Oceanside Kiwanis Club, said. “In the best of all worlds, single-family or two-family detached houses would have been more favorable, but that’s not economically feasible.”
Traffic concerns
While the board has given the green light to the development, many residents say they remain concerned about the impact it will have on Oceanside’s already congested streets.
“It seems the town relies entirely on residents calling to complain about individual issues,” Oceanside resident Sean Cirillo said at the meeting after the board’s decision. “The reactive system is not an effective way to govern a town as large and dense as Hempstead. I listen to the livestream of every Town Board meeting, and without fail, at least one resident comes forward to complain about dangerous driving and how their multiple requests for safety improvements have been ignored.”
At a Jan. 7 meeting, Wayne Muller, a traffic expert with Robinson and Muller Engineering, in Huntington, presented a detailed traffic-impact study that concluded that the development would have a “net positive impact” on local traffic conditions, when compared with the synagogue operating at peak capacity. But not all residents were persuaded.
“(Fifty-nine) units is, at a minimum, 59 additional vehicles in this area that is already extremely congested,” resident Chris Tine posted on Facebook. “Oceanside Road serves as a main route for emergency vehicles going to the hospital, which adds more traffic. It’s ridiculously gridlocked at the morning and afternoon school drop offs, there are 3 elementary schools, the high school and middle school routes that are impacted, and forget about the summer.”
Some residents contend that current congestion issues are being addressed. Abbey said that the town highway department is researching improvements to problematic intersections. “I spoke to a town representative,” he said, “and they took it to the Highway Department, who is going to do the research. Hopefully they’ll look into it and get it done.”
Meeting community needs
Oceanside residents have voiced concerns that the addition of dozens of townhouses will not only strain roads, but challenge emergency services and worsen problems in flood-prone areas. “People stood up there and cheered for this thing at the town board meetings that don’t even live in town,” lifelong Oceanside resident Frank Wassenbergh who attended several board meetings, said. “When I was there, let’s say 11 people got up and spoke for the project. Eight or nine were either members of the Jewish Center, former members or lived in Long Beach.”
Wassenbergh, a coach and co-director, with his wife, of the CYO basketball program at St. Anthony’s Church’s, suggested that the existing building could have been turned into a community center or public-private space featuring playgrounds, food trucks and parks — a hub that would not only generate revenue, but also foster a true town-center feel in Oceanside. Instead, he contends, the rezoning simply paves the way for the townhouses and their additional vehicles, further worsening traffic.
“You could have put a community center there … that could have generated revenue for the town on a consistent basis,” Wassenbergh said.
Fieldstone at Oceanside LLC can now proceed with site planning,
permitting and construction approvals before breaking ground. The developer initially proposed building more homes on the property, but has scaled the project back over the past two and a half years to address the community’s concerns. Site plans are expected to be completed in the next seven months, and permits to be secured in another 30 to 45 days after that, with construction possibly beginning before the end of the year.
