The Town of North Hempstead board of zoning appeals has rejected Congregation Beth Eliyahu’s proposal to open a religious school on Middle Neck Road, ruling that planned bus service would could cause safety hazards and alter the character of Allenwood Road.
“It is unlikely the neighborhood will be able to absorb, without severe disruption, the impacts associated with the introduction of stopped buses and cars,” wrote the board in its decision, adding that the traffic would impede emergency services from accessing Allenwood Road, Day Court and Middle Neck Road.
The congregation’s proposal drew opposition from several villages, the Great Neck Vigilant fire company and the Allenwood Park Civic Association after the zoning board first held a hearing on the plan in August 2012. The villages of Great Neck, Kensington Lake Success and Great Neck Estates penned letters decrying the plan and co-funded a traffic study with the Allenwood Civic Association.
Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth and Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Anna Kaplan joined the opposition in December, voicing concerns on how the project would affect safety and quality of life on one of Great Neck’s busiest thoroughfares.
The proposed school site on the corner of Middle Neck and Allenwood Roads lies in an unincorporated part of the peninsula controlled by the Town of North Hempstead and is under the jurisdiction of the town’s board of zoning appeals, rather than the government of any neighboring village.
The congregation had sought to open the school in a vacant retail building across the street from its main building and had requested variances for insufficient parking spaces and for the use of the space as an educational facility. Congregation’s attorney Steven Schlesinger, who represented Beth Eliyahu before the zoning board, said in October that it would be “impossible” for the school’s bus routes to cause a safety hazard.
But the zoning board disagreed in its long-awaited decision, taking the proposal to task for perceived risks to safety and quality of life on Allenwood Road.
The congregation planned on installing a school bus drop-off zone about 20 feet from the intersection of Allenwood Road and Day Court, with Allenwood Road serving as the only entrance and exit route for buses and cars carrying students, according to the ruling.
Such a setup could cause blockages and safety hazards at the intersection, the zoning board ruled.
