A moratorium on building in Port Washington’s waterfront business district will not be extended, Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte said Tuesday at a meeting of the area’s steering committee.
Conducted over Zoom with over 67 audience members watching from home, the meeting saw Dalimonte and town Planning Commissioner Michael Levine discuss proposed changes to the town’s code. The changes would affect the designated waterfront business (BW) district, which covers the private commercial properties extending from Sunset Park to Manhasset Bay Yacht Club and the area south of the Town Dock.
After three years and five extensions, two of which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, the moratorium is scheduled to end on Sept. 14, with a public hearing on the matter scheduled for the meeting of the North Hempstead Town Board on Sept. 3.
The steering committee comprises representatives from civic organizations like Residents Forward of Port Washington and business organizations like the Port Washington Business Improvement District, and was formed in the summer of 2019 under Dalimonte’s predecessor, Councilwoman Dina DeGiorgio, who also submitted and advocated for the initial moratorium.
“In the spring of 2019, roughly a year and a half after the moratorium began, the prior councilwoman introduced a new proposed code and held a public hearing,” Dalimonte said at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting. “At that public hearing, there was little support for the proposed code and a lot of vocal opposition. That proposed code was never presented to the Town Board for a vote, and instead an advisory steering committee was formed in the summer of 2019.”
Dalimonte added that the day before the meeting, the steering committee met in private, in part to discuss a sixth extension of the moratorium. The councilwoman then asked the Zoom audience to “keep an open mind.”
“I want everyone to keep an open mind about what we’re going through right now, that is the existing first proposed code,” Dalimonte said.
The code changes include require setbacks for the side and rear of any property, and reducing density. Levine also added that any apartment buildings will be allowed to only have 20 percent of the apartments be two-bedroom or more, to avoid “a stress strain in terms of school enrollment.”
During a public comment session, though, residents asked to extend the moratorium until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The moratorium is not going to be extended,” Dalimonte said. “The moratorium has been in place since December of 2017, we’re going on three years or more and a moratorium is temporary.”
Town Attorney Leonard Kapsalis, also on the call, echoed her comments.
“The moratorium has been in place for well over two and a half years. That’s much longer than anticipated,” Kapsalis said. “It’s much longer than development moratoria are usually put in place to allow amendments or modifications to zoning codes. So we really cannot extend it further.”
Dalimonte then asked Kapsalis if the town could be open to a lawsuit should the moratorium be extended any more.
“We don’t need to go there, but it suspends certain rights,” Kapsalis said. “Don’t want to do that for any longer than absolutely necessary, and that’s why we do not want to extend it any further.”
Resident Michael Scharf was critical of the response.
“The town attorney just said more or less than it’s not a foregone conclusion that there is some lawsuit pending, or that the town is at great risk by granting an extension of a lawsuit,” Scharf said. “I would think that after a 100-year pandemic having killed over 150,000 Americans, I think that people deserve a good reason for not granting a six-month extension, rather than some imaginary lawsuit that hasn’t manifested before the community is thrown to the wayside.”
Dalimonte responded by reiterating changes made in the code and that the area in question was mostly private property.
“We have done so much,” Dalimonte said. “We’ve required a rear setback. We’ve required a side setback. We’ve reduced the density. This isn’t public, it’s private property. They have a right to build something, whether you like it, or you don’t like it. They have the right. They purchased this area.”
Committee member Bill Gordon, the executive director of the Port Washington BID whose business Long Island Boat Rentals is situated in the BW district, said that the situation might get worse if the new changes were not implemented.
“The major goal there is to end up with a decent commercial operation and an operation that allows successful commercial operation,” he said. “If it does not, we’ll be back dealing with this issue again with empty stores and no businesses … The conclusion that [the committee] came up with as a group is well balanced. Any further on the residents’ side starts to infringe on commercial viability, which then could leave us with what we have now, which I feel is unacceptable.”
The councilwoman closed by asking the constituents what changes could practically be made, and saying that if an agreement could not be reached, she would submit the current code without any changes.
“I mean, if that’s what the community wants, I will throw my hands up and I will say, OK, just go back to the old code,” Dalimonte said. “I’m not threatening. I’m just making a fact known. And you know what, when it’s built, don’t be coming to me and complaining, because I did everything I can. I understand we’re in the middle of a pandemic. I understand we want the moratorium extended. But I’d like to know what in this code, are we actually going to change? We’ve taken so much. What are we going to change?”
