Hempstead nixes transit-oriented, multifamily housing

The Hempstead Town Board has repealed its transit-oriented development ordinance for Inwood and North Lawrence, citing technical problems with the zoning code's enactment. 

The rescission of the zoning code on Tuesday will not only stop future housing developments but those that had already begun the application process between the code's adoption in 2019 and a moratorium on such developments imposed by the town in 2022 — reversing the town's official position several months ago that such projects could still move forward. 

“This is to rescind the zone and not grandfather in those developments,” Town Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. said at the Tuesday town board meeting.

Steven Losquadro, an outside attorney working for the town, said at the meeting there had been a problem with how the public was notified about the zoning code change in 2019. State laws require public notification before certain government actions. Town officials did not provide details on the notification process.

“Every instance with respect to notifying and reaching out and making sure there's proper communication to affected residents and property owners was not met with regard to the enactment of this zone,” Losquadro said. “It's very clear that rescission as the board will now take as an action is not just appropriate but actually required because the zone itself would be null and void.”

Losquadro did not elaborate on the notification process during the meeting and did not return a call for comment on Wednesday. Town spokesman Brian Devine, on Wednesday, in response to emailed questions said in an email, "As the questions you raised here directly impact ongoing litigation, the Town cannot comment further on them."

Five years ago the zoning changes for the overlay districts for transit-oriented development, neighborhood business, and town houses and row houses in Inwood and North Lawrence were spearheaded by then-Councilman Bruce Blakeman, who is now Nassau County executive, and then-Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, who was elected earlier this month to serve in Congress.

At that time, Blakeman described a public outreach process that included meetings with “key stakeholders” that included local government, school and civic organizations as well as a “meeting where notices were given by mail and, approximately, two hundred people showed up,” according to a transcript of the May 7, 2019, meeting.

On Wednesday, Nassau County spokesman Chris Boyle said in a statement, “County Executive Blakeman looks forward to working with the Town of Hempstead and all other municipalities in the county to explore developing blighted areas especially around railroad stations, with smart growth in transit oriented housing.”

The purpose of the zoning, according to an 877-page environmental report commissioned by the town and released in 2019, was “to create vibrant walkable hamlet centers, each with a distinctive sense of place, around the Inwood and Lawrence LIRR train stations with mixed-use development and housing choices.” The report anticipated that the rezoning would allow for a net increase of 1,320 housing units.

Commack-based developer Heatherwood Communities LLC invested about $30 million to develop properties under the new zoning code, according to a lawsuit filed against the town in September by affiliated companies in state Supreme Court in Mineola.

In 2021 the Hempstead Industrial Development Agency approved tax breaks for the planned $154 million, 313-unit apartment building, Newsday previously reported. 

The town failed to act on the developer's application, leaving the project in limbo, the lawsuit alleges.

“But for the town’s enactment of the TOD Ordinance, petitioners would never have expended this extraordinary amount of funds and company resources to pursue the project,” the developer said in a court filing. 

In 2022, the town board imposed a moratorium on development that the code would have allowed. That moratorium was repeatedly extended. In May, the town scheduled a hearing to repeal the transit-oriented development code but said that previously filed project applications would be grandfathered in.

Heatherwood Communities’ attorney, Daniel Shapiro, of Uniondale-based Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C., said Tuesday they are reviewing the board’s repeal.

“Our client is disappointed by the action and we are evaluating our options,” Shapiro said.