The Village of Port Washington North board tabled its decision to approve or deny an application by New Oasis Development LLC to use about seven acres of land for a senior living community after public opposition and threat of a lawsuit surfaced at a public hearing Thursday night.
The site proposal includes the construction of 44 townhouse units and a clubhouse south of Radcliff Avenue and northwest of Valley Road, located in the village’s apartment zone. All but five of these townhouse properties will be designated senior housing. The five exempt properties can be sold to any buyer on their first sale, and from then on will be senior housing for any future sales.
Every seat was filled and some audience members were left standing during the public hearing at Village Hall. Some Port North residents attended the meeting but a large majority of the audience consisted of Port Washington residents from unincorporated areas who said they live closest to where this plan is being proposed.
“This is a project that I know some people have some concerns with,” Mayor Robert Weitzner said. “I don’t want anyone here thinking because you live in the Town of North Hempstead and you don’t vote for myself or trustees, that you feel that you are at a disadvantage. I am assuring you tonight that you are not. You are a part of this process.”
But many Port Washington residents in attendance said they felt they were left out of a large part of the process. Many complained that they were not aware of the housing application, which has been in the works for more than a decade, until very recently.
The village Planning Board first approved the subdivision of the property in 2008. But this approval was put on hold due to litigation between the adjoining property owner and the village, said Andrea Tsoukalas Curto, a partner at the firm representing Oasis.
Since 2008 the housing application approval process has been a slow-moving one, she said. Approvals from the sewer and water district, for example, took time, Tsoukalas Curto said.
The village Planning Board recently approved the site plan. It now awaits a decision from the Village Board.
Tensions boiled over at the public hearing when Jon Brooks, an environmental attorney representing a group of neighbors who live near the proposed housing community, threatened to sue the board depending on their decision to approve or deny the site plan.
Brooks, co-chair of the New York State Bar Association Environmental Business Transactions Committee, slammed the housing proposal. He said the review processes initially conducted in 2008 are outdated and the site plan does not comply with the New York State Green Amendment.
“First of all, the presumption that this was going to be approved at this meeting is inappropriate and the threat of litigation to intimidate and to create a stir is unfortunate,” Trustee Matthew Kepke said.
Port Washington residents urged the mayor and board to table the decision. They argued the housing plan will worsen traffic and overcrowding conditions throughout the hamlet and have a negative environmental impact.
“I am not a resident, but this does affect the entire town of Port Washington because what you build here flows down into the rest, which is so crowded already,” one resident said. “What I’ve been reading is that this parcel of land was deeded to the village for parkland use.”
Brooks backed resident claims that the land was meant to be kept as open space by the village.
Village Attorney Stuart Besen denied these claims. He said the land was never set aside for parkland. The approximately seven acres of land included in the housing application was left to the village with no conditions by Mill Pond Acres, a condo complex in Port North, the attorney said.
The mayor said the village does have plans to build a fully accessible 4.75-acre playground and park near Channel Drive, along with a new village hall and parking lot. The plans include sensory stations for children with autism and a quarter-mile walking path.
One resident said she was “perturbed” by the mayor’s use of “buzz words” like “children with autism.”
Many residents said traffic on the roads in Port Washington is a big issue.
“The overabundance of people that are coming in [is a problem],” Port Washington North resident Pam Monfort said. “You might say it’s only 44 units. We all look at it as a potential 88 cars that are going to come up into our area.”
Tsoukalas Curto said the housing density in the Oasis application is just a fraction of the density permitted under village law.
The mayor said the lot could house 120 units, but instead the application has been restricted to just 44 units.
One community member said she lives near the area where Oasis is proposing a senior housing community. She said she sees deer giving birth and hawks flying overhead in the greenery that would have to be cut down to make room for the townhouses.
“If you pull those trees down now, that’s permanent. It’s done. You can’t put a 100-year tree back,” the Port Washington resident said. “This village has really good income streams, from the wealthy residents and some shops…there is not a financial need that is dire, not even a need, in this community and I think 3,000 people [living nearby] would appreciate being given the choice.”
