By Jesse Serwer
At a hearing on May 17, the Rockville Centre Planning Board approved Molloy¹s application to place a prefabricated 12,000-square-foot building on the campus¹s northwestern edge for a five-year period.
Molloy¹s attorney, Alan M. Stein, said the building ‹ which will be located behind the school¹s Casey Building, but can be moved to another location ‹ would offer the school a temporary but necessary solution to space problems while it develops a long-term master plan to accommodate its recent growth.
³The college has embarked on the creation of a master plan to address the college¹s long-term space needs, [but] in the interim they must address current conditions,² Stein said. ³It is too soon to address any master-plan issues. After evaluation of several options to address the existing space problems, Molloy determined that [this] would be the best course of action.²
The planning board granted the application, provided the college start and finish the work over the summer and come back to the board if it wants to keep the building beyond five years. A handful of residents living close to the campus, however, griped about already-taxing traffic conditions and being kept in the dark about the school¹s ultimate intentions.
³What is the long-term plan?² asked Kevin Lawless, who moved to nearby Reeve Road two years ago. ³The traffic right now is brutal across Hempstead Avenue. [Molloy] is an integral part of this community, and we are glad to have you, but if the school has aspirations to be larger, we want to understand that now. If they are going to double or triple the amount of classrooms and put in dorms, we should know what the long-term game plan is.²
Laurent Castan of Beech Street in South Hempstead said he would like to see left turns onto Hempstead Avenue from Molloy¹s parking lot eliminated. ³I¹ll pay for the [no left turn] sign myself,² Castan said. ³In one week we had three accidents. I am sick and tired of pulling kids out of cars.²
Others who attended the hearing said they planned to meet with Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino about changing Beech Street to a one-way street to stop its use as a thoroughfare for Molloy students and visitors.
While residents made references to statements by Molloy President Drew Bogner in the school newsletter regarding the creation of dorms, new academic buildings and a parking structure, such development plans are ³just possibilities,² Molloy Vice President Michael McGovern said at the hearing. ³Our long-term plans are tied to our [upcoming] capital campaign. Right now we have no idea what funds will be available to us.²
Stein said he would be available to local residents to address their concerns about the temporary new building, promising that it would be used strictly for department offices, where faculty members would meet with students and do department-related work. The building will also house a computer lab for psychology students.
³Over the last several years a number of classrooms had to be converted for various non-instruction uses,² Stein said. ³Presently there are offices for faculty which are not conducive to advisement or privacy. [Molloy] is faced with a geographic fragmentation of services which is counterproductive to their efforts to provide a more student-friendly campus.²
The 144-by-80-foot single-floor structure will be produced by Williams Scotsman Inc., a company that specializes in mobile structures. It will be surrounded by landscaping that will ³introduce a new design vocabulary consistent with what is already there, but adding some new color and texture to the site,² said John Merritt, a landscape architect involved in the project.
³By all intents and purposes, it will appear as if it was a permanent structure,² Stein said. ³There will be no alteration of the existing campus roadway system. It will not adversely impact the functions, health, safety and welfare of the community.²
Comments about this story? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
