Hempstead Town board plans to rescind moratorium on Baldwin redevelopment

Hempstead Town Board members plan to scrap a proposal on Tuesday for a one-year moratorium on building in downtown Baldwin, instead requiring further scrutiny and environmental analysis by the town.

Residents and Baldwin leaders see it as one more delay in a decadeslong struggle to redevelop downtown Baldwin after the town received a $10 million state grant in 2019 for the revitalization project that has been stymied for years.

Town attorneys had proposed a vote on the moratorium at a hearing Tuesday after expressing concerns about density and the legal status of an environmental impact statement for revitalizing the Grand Avenue corridor running from the train station to Merrick Road.

Hempstead officials under then-Supervisor Laura Gillen received the $10 million grant to boost mixed-use developments on Grand Avenue and transit-oriented apartments and businesses.

The town rezoned an 87-acre overlay district under the 2019 plans that would streamline the process and attract multiple developers to submit projects to the town. Previous plans by master developers have fallen through.

Town attorneys said the district was not a one-size-fits-all for projects, which require further environmental scrutiny and variances for density of apartment proposals, including a project with 450 units.

“We have a direct responsibility to residents to do what’s best for America’s largest township to consider reasonable development while protecting the environment for future generations,” Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin said in a statement last week.

Town attorneys said they could proceed without the moratorium with greater oversight by shifting the approval process to the town board rather than a three-person design review panel in the town building department.

The town board plans to vote on new regulations and an approval process for Baldwin projects by June, Town Attorney Jack Libert said Friday.

“No one in the building department is qualified to make that decision,” Libert said. “But we don’t have to hold it up for a year. It should be resolved in a few weeks.”

Baldwin leaders and building advocates eager for development see the new procedures as further delays as they are eager to have a more attractive, walkable downtown.

Last year, then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced several projects using the state funding including a $2 million project to develop restaurants and 200 apartments at the site of a used car lot on Sunrise Highway. Another project included $3.5 million to build a seven-story apartment building with 24,000 square-feet of commercial space and 100 apartments near the train station.

Nassau County Legis. Debra Mulé (D-Freeport) at a protest at the Baldwin train station on Thursday said Nassau County has already invested $11 million in infrastructure improvements for Grand Avenue, on top of state funding. Mulé and other Baldwin leaders protested stalling the project and demanded the town put shovels in the ground. 

“The town’s reasons make no sense. We all understand the project was delayed by the pandemic, so why are we still waiting for the town to move forward with their part of the plan," Mulé said.

Former Baldwin Chamber of Commerce President Ginny Foley said she had been standing with town officials since 2002 and had seen multiple promises and versions of the downtown project fail.

She said further delays by the town would only exhaust state funding with stalled proposals and hamper Baldwin’s development.

“Enough is enough. With architectural drawings, consultants and lawyers, that $10 million will go down the drain and we’ll have nothing left,” Foley said.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.