Nassau presiding officer backs Trump on the Ocean

BY BILL BLEYER | bill.bleyer@newsday.com

January 31, 2008

Trump on the Ocean has picked up a key ally: Nassau County Legislature presiding officer Diane Yatauro.

While several Nassau politicians have criticized the catering hall and restaurant planned for Jones Beach, Yatauro said yesterday she was endorsing Donald Trump and Steve Carl's venture because it would create about 500 jobs and have a positive economic impact.

Meanwhile, Yatauro's fellow Glen Cove Democrat and political mentor, County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who had not publicly stated a position on Trump's project before, said last night that while he hasn't studied the project, "My only concern is that it be architecturally compatible with the original Robert Moses design. I think it's a good idea to have a restaurant and catering hall because it's not only a way to provide a service at Jones Beach, but also generate some sales tax revenue."

Yatauro also added her voice to a chorus of local officials who say a hearing scheduled Tuesday in Westchester on the Trump project "should be held on Long Island." Unlike several others, however, she hasn't expressed her view to the state's Department of State, which is running the hearing.

Meanwhile, the seven Audubon Society chapters on Long Island have come out against the project. In a letter to the state, they lamented the size of Trump's project and its parking lot: "Pavement would replace green space."

Yatauro's stance appears to have evolved quickly. On Tuesday night, she said she needed "to get more information" before taking a position and possibly enlisting the support of others in the legislature's 10-member Democratic majority.

But by yesterday afternoon, she was on board for Trump. Yatauro said she called Carl and project general manager Jay Kranitz yesterday: "We had a long conversation and they answered a lot of my questions."

While Carl described Yatauro's support as "great," critic Legis. David Denenberg repeated his opposition.

Denenberg said he feels the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation did not conduct an open process in negotiating a lease for the project. He said an annual "payment in lieu of taxes to the Wantagh schools and fire department, and the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County is appropriate." Yatauro said she would work with Denenberg to try to arrange such payments.

Trump and Carl have filed a new application for a variance from the state building code to build a basement under their 350-seat restaurant in a floodplain. Their initial application was rejected last month by a state review board. Denenberg, Nassau Assessor Harvey Levinson and others asked that the hearing scheduled for Cortlandt Manor on Tuesday be relocated to Wantagh.

When the state agency refused, Levinson, Sen. Charles Fuschillo and Assemb. David McDonough appealed to Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez. Department of State spokesman Eamon Moynihan said yesterday that "there will be no change."