Over 650 Port Washington residents have signed a Change.org petition against a proposed apartment and marina development.
The estimated $120 million development is being shepherded by Southern Land Co., which filed a petition to rezone a 7.17-acre parcel at 145 West Shore Road, currently housing the construction supply wholesaler Bay Aggregates, from “Residence-AAA” to “Multiple Residence” to enable the construction of a seven-level, 176-unit residential building with a 29-slip public marina on Hempstead Harbor, not far from North Hempstead Beach Park.
The petition opposing the development was launched by the Beacon Hill Residents Association several weeks ago and has collected 655 signatures.
“The character and quality of life in Port Washington is once again being threatened by overdevelopment,” the petition reads.
Reasons cited in the petition include overpopulation; traffic congestion; stress on school, water and sewer district and police and fire departments, and the environmental health of Hempstead Harbor and Manhasset Bay.
Comments from signers protest overdevelopment of the area.
“I’m signing this petition in hope that no more of our waterfront is taken from the beauty of our town,” one wrote. “Leave the waterfront alone.”
“The town is already severely overdeveloped,” another commented. “Traffic has increased dramatically in the last ten years. More and more Port Washington [is] looking like Queens. If I had wanted to live in queens I would have bought a house in queens and paid significantly lower taxes. Leave the waterfront alone. Cement everywhere is not a good thing.”
“This will block the beautiful views we all have grown to love,” a third wrote. “Don’t flood the town with more pedestrians and traffic. Keep Port beautiful and charming.”
A fourth commenter said that while the public marina sounded like “a good idea,” the resulting building would be “an eyesore.”
The Southern Land Company responded to a request for comment on the petition with a statement.
“Since the start of this project more than two years ago, we have remained committed to a public and transparent process with the entire Port Washington community,” the statement said. “Over that time we have met repeatedly with community and environmental organizations to understand their needs and concerns and to offer a proposal that directly addresses them. Among the items we have committed to are an exhaustive environmental cleanup of the site, an in-depth traffic analysis, investments in the school district and critical infrastructure and support for first responders. We recognize that there are some community members who have concerns with our proposed project, and with that opposition comes the circulation of inaccurate information. That is why we are hosting four webinars next week… We want to speak directly to community members and talk through the benefits of this project and what we are doing to address concerns.”
The webinars next week will be held on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25, with details and registration available at https://145westshoreroad.com/.
Those with comments or questions relating to the draft scope of the project are advised to send them to planning@northhempsteadny.gov, with March 23 as the last day that comments or questions will be accepted. The public is also invited to offer suggestions as to what should be studied in the project’s Environmental Impact Study.
The public scoping session will be held by the Town of North Hempstead on Tuesday, March 23 at 6 p.m. over Zoom.
