Baldwin revitalization deadline likely pushed to June

Planning meetings postponed amid pandemic

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Public meetings have been postponed indefinitely or canceled, leaving the residents and officials charged with developing plans for Baldwin’s $10 million, state-funded Downtown Revitalization Initiative in the lurch and wondering what their deadline to submit plans will be. It was originally April 24.

“At this time, the Department of State is revisiting the overall timeline and deadlines, but no decisions have been made as we continue to monitor the situation,” state officials said in a statement last week.

Officials said they paused all Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee and public meetings until further notice. The March meetings were postponed as coronavirus spread throughout the area.

But the deadline for Baldwin residents and officials to submit plans will likely be toward the end of June, state officials said in an email to Local Planning Committee members, a group of area leaders, last week. 

“The DRI consultants will continue to work on developing project profiles during this time,” officials said in the statement, “and will conduct any necessary outreach via remote channels to be in line with the governor’s directives on social distancing.”

For months, residents, consultants, and state and Town of Hempstead officials have discussed potential projects for the Baldwin zoning overlay district, which has a temporary zoning code meant to encourage developers to build there and revitalize the downtown, which has struggled with vacant buildings for nearly 20 years.

The Baldwin overlay zone is being implemented with the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, for which Baldwin received a $10 million state grant.
Ten communities across the state were selected for DRI grants.

“The state is working on a plan to restart the DRI process, but has not yet finalized anything,” officials said in the email. “We need to restart the DRI process for the entire state at the same time, so we have had to do a lot of outreach to see how each community is doing.”

All of the meetings going forward will be virtual, officials continued, but they did not provide details.

Baldwin American Legion Commander Bob Hare, who is part of the Local Planning Committee, said planners and developers have basically bought themselves two extra months before plans are submitted to the state to finalize the process.

In the weeks before the pandemic shut down meetings, Hare noted that there was an increasing number of Baldwin businesses and commercial developers who were interested in taking part in the revitalization program despite having passed the January deadline for a call for projects.

“If any of us are looking for a silver lining for this whole time that we’ve been going through,” he said, “it’s maybe the two extra months we got will benefit the overall process by what we get from the developers and the businesses.”

Baldwin Civic Association President Darien Ward, who also sits on the LPC, said he is concerned about the availability of the funding allocated for Baldwin.

“My question is what happens when there’s not any revenue coming to the county or the state?” he asked. “Does that $9.7 million that was available — did that change?” Some $300,000 of the funds were used to hire consultants, including VHB Engineering.

“We don’t really know the status, the pandemic, and what its effect is going to be on any funding that has already been allocated but not yet realized,” Ward said. “We have not actually taken possession of [the grant] and put any shovels in the ground. So that’s my question.”

Ward said he understood that addressing the pandemic must take precedence. But he and other community leaders had tried to set up a meeting with town officials, consultants and community leaders before the outbreak struck.

Ward and other civic association members have sought a virtual meeting with town officials, including Supervisor Don Clavin; consultants, including Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island; and Baldwin Chamber of Commerce representatives to discuss the density limits implemented in the Baldwin overlay zone by town council members. They said they hoped to have a teleconference call this week.

“We’re trying to have that conversation to discuss density and what does it really mean in the transit-oriented development segment around the Long Island Rail Road, because developers have come up with concerns about the viability of really doing transit-oriented development with some of the limitations that have been put in place,” Ward said, adding that he is looking for advice to help guide developers so that their projects succeed.
“We’ve been in contact with state officials about getting the process up and running again,” Clavin said. “I look forward to once again meeting with all the community members and stakeholders.”