Letter: Glen Cove homes and new traffic
Building A, a condominium building with two 11-story towers, is the most controversial part of Uniondale-based RXR's planned Garvies Point development in Glen Cove. Credit: RXR Realty
RXR Glen Isle Partners proposes to build 1,110 residential units at Garvies Point, along with stores, restaurants, offices and other features. Before it is allowed to build a single structure accessible only by car, Glen Cove-area leaders and politicians would do well to bear in mind that the project lacks the single most essential component of all sustainable urban planning and development: the provision for efficient, accessible and affordable public transportation [“Mayor: 2017 budget plan will give city fiscal stability,” News, Oct. 17].
Glen Cove is a waterfront city without a strong urban core. It is bisected by a highway, with a train station at one end of town and supermarkets at another. The existing and planned apartment and townhouse complexes are nowhere near either transportation or shopping, and the waterfront is all but inaccessible to residents without cars. This city already lays claim to some of the poorest urban planning around.
The Garvies Point project threatens to hopelessly intensify this sprawl, all in exchange for serving developers’ short-term interests and providing politicians with quick fixes.
At least twice daily, mile-long bumper-to-bumper vehicular traffic reduces every Glen Cove access route to a nightmarish crawl. The effect of the RXR project’s estimated 3,200 additional cars will be unsustainable and irresponsible.
Karin Barnaby, Sea Cliff
