By MIKE RUSSO
Residents claim that the county is entertaining only Molloy College's plan to build athletic fields on the 33-acre parcel, which is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
The condemned county land, just off Coes Neck Road, is the former site of an asphalt plant and was used as a dumping ground for the old Garden City Hotel's debris. Both the county and an outside contractor have completed environmental studies of the property, and determined that sections of it remain contaminated by toxic waste.
In addition to being opposed to athletic fields, area residents have expressed concerns about their health and safety if the property is disturbed, fearing the spread of chemicals and toxic fumes that may have settled into the soil. The county does not deny that a small portion of the property is contaminated, but county officials have said they do not see that as an obstacle to its future development.
The planning commission's decision to release an RFP came despite a 6-3 vote by the county's Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee the night before to oppose the release. The OSPAC vote, which is non-binding, came at the second of two public hearings the county must hold before it can release an RFP for any property it owns.
Residents who attended last Thursday's meeting said they thought they would have a chance to speak one more time before the commission reached a decision, but commissioners insisted that the public hearing portion of the process was closed, and that the meeting was held strictly for them to vote on the issue. Residents argued with the commission for 10 minutes, but were denied an opportunity to speak on the record.
"This is just the beginning," said Carl Schroeder of the Nassau County Real Estate Office. "There will be numerous hearings and further opportunities for residents to speak on the proposals. All we are doing is releasing an RFP."
Michael Bellissimo, first vice chairman of the planning commission, said, "If there are respondents to that RFP, there are numerous steps that the property would have to go through and many opportunities for the public to speak on any of those proposals before it is actually going to happen."
Residents, however, said that commission members saw all the speaker request forms from those who wished to be heard on the Coes Neck case at the start of the meeting, and that residents should have been notified sooner that they would not have a chance to speak. "We were just disrespected openly," said James Blount, who lives on West Greenwich Avenue in Roosevelt, east of the property. "We haven't had the opportunity to voice our opinion to everyone."
"The Planning Commission was disrespectful to the community by not stating at the beginning of the hearing that they had a request for speakers, and they could have informed us that we could stay but they would not allow us to speak," said Jacqueline Bell, president of the Baldwin Oaks Civic Association. "This thing is so polluted, so weighted towards Molloy. I feel that the county has declared war on the Baldwin community."
OSPAC members were sympathetic to residents' opposition of the release of the RFP, and asked the planning commission not to move forward with the RFP process. Member Richard Schary said he opposed the release of an RFP because the land has been contaminated for decades, and added that he hoped the property could be cleaned up and turned into a wildlife preserve.
The county has the option to access town, county, state and federal funds for cleanup costs, Schary said, but in a minority neighborhood, the rules don't seem to apply. "When it comes to minority neighborhoods," he said, "they play fast and loose with the rules."
Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) has met with the Baldwin Oaks Civic Association many times to discuss the Coes Neck issue, and he said he is behind Baldwin residents. "I'm supportive of what the community wants," said Abrahams. "There is a larger consensus that the community would like to see nothing on the property or secure open space money to preserve it, and I support that. The community desires to have [the property] cleaned up - not for Molloy's purposes; just to have the brownfield cleaned up."
Molloy Vice President Ed Thompson, who spoke at the county's first public hearing on the Coes Neck property and gave a detailed presentation to Baldwin residents on the college's plans to create ball fields on the property, reiterated his promise to work with the community if the county approves the college's proposal. "The college looks to participate in a public/private partnership that benefits the entire community," said Thompson.
He has said that Molloy would only be interested in the property if it was assured that the parcel could safely be converted to athletic fields. According to Thompson, the college would commit between $10 million and $14 million to remediate the property, and taxpayers would bear none of the cost.
Despite assurances by the college and the county that residents would have a say on all future proposals, the civic association maintains that the county is interested in leasing the property only to Molloy, and that the process is essentially a done deal. "We are concerned about the process, and would like to know why and how it appears that Molloy is the only entity to offer a successful plan for the site and the county is prepared to disregard any other proposers," said Bell.
The county plans to formally release the RFP in the next couple of weeks. All proposals are subject to review by the county Legislature, but the civic association has been given assurances that it will be able to see all of the proposals before one is approved.
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
