For Ivar Segalowitz, there has always been a need for Great Neck’s unincorporated Allenwood Area to maintain a civic association for the nearly 500 households that he said are located there.
“We have no direct representation as a group,” said Segalowitz, who has lived in the Allenwood area neighborhood since 1964. “The villages that surround us have a mayor and the board of trustees. We report directly to the Town of North Hempstead. It is particularly critical to have a civic association in this area.”
Although the Allenwood Park Civic Association has gone through various stages of activity throughout the years, Segalowitz said the organization has managed to remain intact for decades.
“If something important comes up, a few people gets together and the organization is revived,” said Segalowitz, who is a former Allenwood Park Civic Association president. “It certainly never was dead. Call it what you wish, but if there was a need for something to happen, it did.”
Beginning with its most recent meeting last month, the Allenwood Park Civic Association has re-emerged under new leadership to take positions on community issues ranging from a rise in the raccoon population to a request for a zoning ordinance before the Town of North Hempstead, which would allow a 320-student school to be built by the Congregation Beth EliYahu synagogue on Middle Neck Road.
“We’re excited about it,” the Allenwood Park Civic Association’s current vice president and secretary Laura Cohen said of her organization’s newest iteration.
“We believe it’s important to have an active civic association for the Allenwood area to improve the physical nature of our area,” she added, “as well as the social aspect, to make sure people feel like they are part of one neighborhood.”
The unincorporated Allenwood area consists of approximately 500 households located on a group of streets between the villages of Kensington and Great Neck in an area from Middle Neck Road to East Shore Road. All of the streets are situated in the vicinity of the Great Neck Park District’s Allenwood Park.
Earlier this year, Allenwood residents Max Karpel and Eli Schilowitz became co-presidents of their community’s civic association following an uncontested election.
Linda Cohen, who is of no relation to the civic association’s current vice president, is the organization’s treasurer.
“We hope it will be a force for good, both in terms of having a unified voice for residents, and therefore being a group that politicians will want to court,” Schilowitz said of the Allenwood Park Civic Association. “Also, just in terms of increasing camaraderie.”
Cohen said the Allenwood Park Civic Association’s June 12 meeting drew 150 people. She said over the past few months, the civic association has been successful in bringing together three generations of residents who live in her community.
“The response has been very, very positive,” Karpel said. “Anybody who hears about it says there’s a need to improve the neighborhood.”
Since last month’s meeting, Cohen said the civic association has also received a large amount of e-mails and phone calls from residents expressing interest in getting involved with the organization.
Karpel said residents have expressed the largest amount of interest in improving vehicle and pedestrian traffic safety in the Allenwood area, along with the prospect of organizing a community-wide party in Allenwood Park.
“Everybody moved to the area that we’re in because there’s a high quality of life and the park is kind of the center of that,” he said. “Allenwood Park is sort of the heart of this part of the neighborhood. People have been supportive and excited.”
That includes the 150 residents who attended last month’s civic association meeting to oppose the zoning variance with the Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals that would allow Congregation Beth EliYahu to build a 320-student school at the corner of Allenwood and Middle Neck roads, Cohen said.
The synagogue, which is situated at 211 Middle Neck Road has put in a request for a zoning variance, to build a three-story structure to serve as a 320-student school at 195 Middle Neck Road.
Cohen said the 150 residents in attendance at last month’s meeting unanimously voted for the Allenwood Park Civic Association to oppose the synagogue’s request to build the school on the site.
The Town of North Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled to review the zoning variance request at its meeting on Wednesday, June 18 at 9:30 a.m.
Attempts to reach representatives of the Congregation Beth EliYahu for comment on this story were unavailing.
Although the Allenwood Park Civic Association has yet to schedule its next meeting, Cohen said she is encouraged by the “very positive” response to the revived organization from its constituents.
“I am very encouraged by the turnout and also by the amount of interest we’ve had,” she said.
