Freeport Village Board to vote on rezoning parcels for development

Freeport Village Board members will vote Monday night to rezone three properties, including a practice baseball field used by the school district, to clear development for a last-mile warehouse.

The properties include the Cleveland Avenue ballfield, the former Moxey Rigby housing property and a former manufacturing site at an adjacent property at 84 Albany Ave.

The rezoning is part of a plan to clear the three conjoined properties for development. The village has been in discussions to sell the parcels to Amazon and other online retailers to build a warehouse for distribution, Village attorney Howard Colton said last week.

The properties need to be rezoned from residential, business and manufacturing to classify it as industrial, according to the village’s notice. The property still faces hurdles including a park easement and a lawsuit with the Freeport School District.

“It will clear the property for eventual development,” Colton said. "This is one of the steps that has to be done to ultimately be developed."

Freeport officials said the project, if acquired by Amazon, could create 320 jobs and generate $40 million in revenue for the village.

The village is seeking $45 million in damages from the Freeport School District for “interference with the village’s prospective business relations.” It's also suing the district for rights to the 9-acre Cleveland Avenue property between Merrick Road and Sunrise Highway.

School officials said the fields have been used by the school’s baseball team and other athletic clubs. The district and the village are at odds for right to the property, citing various easements and claims to ownership.

The case is pending in Nassau County Supreme Court, awaiting a judge’s ruling. School officials announced last year they were preparing legislation to preserve the fields that the district says have been used by students for more than 70 years.

More than 800 people have signed an online petition that claims the project would displace 7,000 students from using the field.

Attorneys for the district said they opposed rezoning while the case was pending. Village officials said any litigation would have to be resolved before the property is sold or developed.

“With this hearing, the village is again behaving as though students' use of these athletic fields for generations simply doesn't matter, and as though the district's legal rights do not exist. Obviously, we strongly disagree," said John Gross, general counsel to the school district.

The Cleveland fields still have a state park easement that must be repealed by the state. State Sen. John Brooks (D-Seaford) has filed a bill to remove the easement as part of a land swap giving the village 36 acres under the recently transferred Cow Meadow Park from Nassau County. Brooks could not be reached for comment last week.

The village offered Cow Meadow Park in exchange for the Cleveland fields and plans $2.5 million in improvements, including athletic fields, a playground, spray park and rehabilitating a marina closed since Superstorm Sandy.

Village officials said the district will have first priority to access Cow Meadow including three lighted turf fields and a locker room at no cost to the district.

The village board will vote Monday at 7:15 p.m. at Freeport Village Hall, 46 N. Ocean Ave.

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.