By JOSEPH KELLARD
That day is coming sometime this year or next, according to the Town of Hempstead. The municipality is in the midst of plans to extend its streetscape beautification and facade projects to the stretch along the west side of N. Long Beach Road that includes Oceanside Cycle, Cedahurst Paper, Hal Knopf Realty, Sweet Things, Salon Montaage, Manor Gate Realty, Symetrix Salon and other businesses.
The beautification features include red-brick sidewalks, new concrete curbing, Victorian-style streetlamps, stylized benches and new trees. The pending project represents the fourth phase of this program ‹ the others extend from Atlantic Avenue to Homecrest Court along the east side of Long Beach Road, and Atlantic to Davison avenues on the other side.
Various businesses along these two stretches entered a facade program that provides them the opportunity to have the town pay 50 percent to reface the fronts, sides or rears of their stores with stucco, signage and other details, and the businesses agreed to pay the other half.
"We're at the point now where the architect hired by the town has completed the designs," Town Councilman Anthony Santino (R-East Rockaway) said about the next phase. "Then the architect and the Department of Planning will meet and show the designs to the landlords interested in this program. And assuming these meet with their approval, we then can figure out the actual costs and then, once finalized, put it out for bid by spring."
Dergarabedian, who has owned Oceanside Cycle for 20 years, said he and fellow business owners on his side of Long Beach Road have been pushing for this fourth phase. "Any time you make the front of my store and surrounding areas around town nice, I'm always excited about it," Dergarabedian said. "Š If you want to make your towns better, you have to do these type of things, and with the taxes that they are charging everyone, they definitely should be doing something like this."
But beside the necessary tax money needed to perform these streetscape projects, certain standards must also be met to make certain geographical areas eligible for the project.
After completing the third phase of the beautification project on the east side of N. Long Beach, between Davison Avenue and Homecrest Court, in 2003, the town had to shelve its plans to redo the opposite side of this stretch due to changes to federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines released that year, rendering a fourth phase ineligible. The formula for federal funding ties the census to a sampling of incomes, and if a geographical area goes beyond a low-to-moderate income cap, it becomes ineligible for funding for a Community Development Block Grant, the town explained.
"Unlike the former maps we used during the 1990s," Greg Becker, first deputy commissioner of planning and economic development, said at the time, "the new federal maps, which go virtually block by block, based on the 2000 census, do not permit us to do the opposite side of the street."
But federal guidelines for income eligibility change each year due to demographic changes, and the income of residents who live near the northwest side of Long Beach Road dipped enough in 2006 to meet the guidelines, Santino said.
"The town has made a concerted effort to spruce up Long Beach Road in Oceanside," the councilman continued. "So it was very frustrating to us that the west side of the street was not included on the federal map as an income-eligible area. That changed in 2006, and the minute that became eligible we jumped on it, because it was something we had planned to do all along."
Dergarabedian declined to comment on the facade project's 50/50 payment arrangement. "I can't say anything until I start seeing numbers," he said. "If I can get the job done cheaper than the 50 percent I would pay into the program, does that make sense?"
The Herald contacted some other landlords or business owners reportedly interested in the facade projects, but they either failed to return calls or were unavailable to comment.
The facade projects are expect to break ground first, probably sometime this year, followed by the streetscape project, possibly by early 2008, according to Santino. "Assuming everything moves forward as expected, there will be construction some time this year," he said.
Santino added that this fourth phase is one of the last pieces of the town's redevelopment plans for Long Beach Road, which have included the condemnation and demolition of the Oceanside Motel and construction of a new supermarket and proposed pharmacy at the former Foodtown and Oceanside movie theater properties.
"With the completion of all these programs," he said, "we really think that we have completely changed the character of North Long Beach Road, making it a much more vibrant, thriving area, not only aesthetically, but also by raising property values for homeowners and businesses."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
