Nassau to consider eliminating fee for nonprofit development projects

Nassau would eliminate a construction fee for nonprofit development projects under a bill to be considered Monday by the county legislature.

Nonprofits currently must pay a “cost-of-construction” fee, calculated by multiplying a project's estimated total building cost by 0.75 percent. The fee had been "a hindrance" to nonprofits looking to develop or expand in Nassau County, said Evlyn Tsimis, deputy county executive for economic development.

Nonprofit organizations would continue to pay other fees, including for traffic impact studies and a $1,500 filing fee.  

County officials want to reform the Department of Public Works' complex and costly "239-F" permitting and application process for development projects fronting county roads.

“We want to see development by these nonprofit institutions, which play a very important role in the county in providing social, economic, cultural amenities, and we want them to be able to develop projects,” Tsimis said.

Nassau County has waived the construction fee in the past, including for Memorial Sloan Kettering’s MSK Nassau, a $180 million, 114,000-square-foot cancer facility that opened April in Uniondale. Tsimis said the county wanted to codify the informal practice into county law.

The impact to the county’s finances would be “minimal,” officials with Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's administration said. The county has collected $375,000 in cost-of-construction fees from nonprofits over the past five years. During that time period Nassau collected a total of $3.9 million from developers for all "239-F" fees, which include other filing fees.

Legis. Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), the presiding officer, said he wanted to hear testimony from the administration on Monday, but added, “I want these nonprofits, hospitals to be doing this work, and you don’t really want to add in some cases ... millions of dollars in terms of cost. We literally could defeat a project in some cases.”

Kyle Strober, co-chairman of Nassau's Blue-Ribbon Panel to Streamline Development Approvals, said the group is reviewing, investigating, and researching new policies for the Department of Public Works. County officials said it takes, on average, between 12 and 24 months for construction projects to win county approvals, and the lag is due to old technology, understaffing, and the failure of outside engineers to meet county development standards.

The fee structure also is under review.

“An approval that can take 18-24 months can stymie any economic development project on Long Island," said Strober, who is also executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, a developer group. "That is why it’s critical we streamline the 239-F application.”

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.