By JOSEPH KELLARD
These were among the main issues raised by Engel Burman, which develops everything from assisted-living facilities to commercial property on Long Island, and residents who both opposed and supported the developer¹s application before the Hempstead Town Board on March 7 for a 68-unit condo complex in south Oceanside.
Engel Burman applied to rezone an existing warehouse at 3640 South Oceanside Road to build two-level, multi-family, gabled condos. The developer would demolished the warehouse and build seven separate buildings of housing units, which would average about 1,100 square feet, and a 129-space parking lot.
Engel Burman¹s attorney, Albert D¹Agastino, said the condos would range from $350,000 to $400,000, that buyers are expected to be predominantly ³empty nester² retirees and young couples who are first-time homeowners, and that a maximum of 10 school-age children would likely move in.
Addressing this demographic¹s effect on school property taxes, D¹Agastino claimed that given the average cost per student in Oceanside, $145,000 in taxes would be required to educate the 10 children each year, and that based on the maximum price of the condos, each owner would generate some $5,800 in school taxes, a total of about $394,400 annually. This would provide $248,400 in tax revenue for the Oceanside school district.
Opposing the condo development, Fred Morse, a commissioner of Sanitation District 7 in Oceanside, argued that it would remove the warehouse from the commercial-property school tax base.
D¹Agastino argued that since the warehouse and property are owned by South Nassau Communities Hospital, a not-for-profit business that is exempt from paying school taxes, the property was likely already off the commercial tax rolls. Describing the condos as ³affordable housing,² D¹Agastino claimed that they are in demand in the area.
Michael Mulhern, a resident of nearby Chamberlin Avenue, countered that about 200 Oceanside houses currently priced at or around the condos¹ projected cost have remained on the market for an extended period. ³Building these condos is going to make this situation worse,² Mulhern said. He also asked the board to take a broader look at what he said were growing instances of residential and commercial-industrial properties ³co-mingling² in Oceanside.
During his presentation, D¹Agastino said that although the condos would be built on the outskirts of a patch of industrial zone, they would integrate well with houses on neighboring streets across from the proposed site.
Gerome Cline, an attorney for Sanitation District 7, noting the district¹s opposition to Engel Burman¹s application, pointed out that there are several hundred homes in the Madison section of Oceanside, just south of the proposed site (neighboring Oceanside Park). In addition to claiming that the population density in the area was greater than D¹Agastino reported, Klein characterized the local traffic as ³horrendous.²
The condo complex would have two exit and entry areas, both on Oceanside Road. Traffic expert Robert Eschbacher, president of the Melville-based Eschbacher Engineering, testifying for Engel Burman, said the traffic generated by the condos would be less than half of what an industrial user of the property would attract, that an average of 36 cars would use the facility at peak daytime hours, and that it would see 400 cars a day.
Others residents pointed out that in addition to the estimated 400 homes in the Madison section, the condo complex would be neighbors with the Oceanside Middle School, Elementary School 9, the Oceanside Fire Department¹s South Side firehouse, the sanitation district¹s building, the Sands shopping center and the intersection of Oceanside Road and Mott Street, all of which general a heavy volume of cars, school buses, fire and sanitation trucks and 18-wheelers that frequent the companies in the existing industrial area.
While not speaking for the Oceanside Fire Department, Sy Majid, a 29-year veteran firefighter at South Side, said that the OFD and residents had worked to prevent the installation of corner curb cuts on Oceanside Road to stop trucks from a car dealership and shipping business from using the road, and that they had taken other measures to keep traffic in that area to a minimum.
Richard Schreiber, owner of numerous properties and builder of hundreds of homes and industrial buildings in south Oceanside for more than 50 years, lent his support to the condo development. ³I think the condos would be a great benefit to the community,² Schreiber said. ³It would certainly be better than what¹s there now, and would benefit the surrounding homes.²
Schreiber¹s only proviso was that a traffic light should be installed at the nearby intersection Fireman¹s Memorial Drive and Mott Street, an area many condo residents are likely to use. ³It can be almost impossible to make a turn there,² Schreiber said. ³... There would be a dire need for a traffic signal there.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (561)-569-4000 ext. 287.
