By Kate E. Salute
³What's happening is that we've applied to the Board of Appeals for a zoning variance on two lots,² The Meadows¹ developer, Steven Krieger, of Lynbrook-based Engel-Burman Group, said beforeto the March 1 zoning board meeting. ³Right now the Town of Hempstead has rezoned the property to Residence B, the whole property and we're going for an additional two lots that didn't have frontage on a public street. There [is] frontage on private roads and what we're trying to do is build two homes on [those] private roads rather than public streets.²
One of the two lots to which Krieger refers is on Smith Street, a private dead-end street with nine homes, and the other is on Cayuga Road, also a dead end.
Residents voiced opposition to a previous version of The Meadows ‹ one that called for 100 attached homes ‹ at previous Hempstead Town Board meetings, citing overcrowding in the schools, strain on the police and fire departments, and ingress and egress issues. When Engel-Burman came back with a 53-single-family-home proposal, Lakeview residents applauded the developer¹s commitment to wanting to negotiate with them and members of the Lakeview Citizens Committee. One Orlando Avenue resident said she commended the developers for coming back to the table to try towork with the community, while another said that what had started as an ³abomination² would do some good for the community.
Julian Jones, president of the Lakeview Community Council, and Viberta Caesar, who lives on Smith Street, were the only two Lakeview residents present at the latest hearing to express their concerns with the additional lot on Smith Street.
Jones and Caesar argued that Smith Street is already too narrow and crowded to bear the burden of another house. Jones stated that the road is only 15 feet wide at the beginning, narrowing to 12 feet at the end, making it difficult for emergency vehicles to maneuver on it.
Caesar said after the March 1 hearing, "We're lucky that so far there has been no major emergencies since I've lived here, but the one time an ambulance had to come to Smith Street, they could only get as far as 10 Smith Street and had to back out because there was no room to turn around. That's not usually how they operate."
³It's a nice cul de sac, and the people who live there don't want it changed,² Jones said.
Caesar spoke of how Smith Street used to flood and how the private street doesn't have any snow removal by the town or county. ³We don't even get sanded when it snows,² she said. ³We have a hard time maintaining the way it is now. Another house would only add to the problem.²
Engel-Burman attorney Albert D'Agostino promised that construction vehicles would not add to the congestion problem on Smith Street, sincethey would not come through Smith Street or Cayuga Road. As for post completion of the home, D'Agostino said, ³The conditions exist whether or not the house is built.²
After receiving a letter from the Board of Zoning Appeals that stated that there was no decision yet on the matter, and that she would be notified when one had been reached, Caesar said, "They can't do it ‹ they can't open up the street. There is no curb line, all the houses are pretty much at the front of their property on the curb line, and they can't put in a sidewalk without taking away from everyone's property. It's been looked into already."
Caesar said that if the developers could build a turn-around by setting the house back ‹ even if it's a broken turn-around, perhaps there wouldn't be a problem. "But I don't think they want to take away from the adjoining lots to do so,² she said.
Site facts
The building occupying 910 Orlando Avenue was erected in 1953 and operated as a cardboard manufacturing plant. Additions to the structure were made in 1963 and 1979. It was later sold to Rugby Darby drugs, which used the building as a distribution facility. In 1995 it was purchased by Butterfly Realty, whose Natural Science Industries Ltd. manufactured crafts and toys.
D'Agostino, the developer¹s attorney, said that in 1983, an environmental study found that chemicals had made their way into the groundwater, and there was a five-year groundwater-monitoring program. Soil and groundwater have since been fully remediated, but D'Agostino said that public water would be brought in for any development. In addition to temporarily housing Richner Communications, publishers of the Herald Community Newspapers, some of the space in the lot is rented to a car dealer for storage.
