Nassau County is continuing to study possible uses for the 105-acre, Navy-owned portion of the former Grumman manufacturing site, which is expected to be transferred to the county once a development plan is chosen and a private purchaser identified.

As part of efforts to receive public input throughout the planning process, the county has held two public hearings already - one on Aug. 3 and one on Sept. 1, both held at Bethpage High School. The county's environmental and planning consultant, Allee, King, Rosen and Fleming considered comments from the first meeting when it drafted various preliminary alternatives for reuse. These plans were presented at the Sept. 1 meeting, and were the basis of further public comment. According to Nassau Legislator Edward Mangano, who represents Bethpage and has assumed a leadership position with the project, a report on public comment about the preliminary plans will be made sometime in the fall.

"This is a long process. Those two hearings began the process of developing a reuse plan for the property," he said. The comprehensive re-use plan eventually chosen for the 105 acres of property will serve as a guide to the county for marketing the property to a suitable developer, he noted. "It's possible the transfer could take place sometime in 1999," he added, noting that it is contingent on completing the planning process, which includes environmental evaluation, as well as identifying a purchaser. "The object is not to take the land until we have someone who is interested in developing it." The maintenance of the property will be funded by the federal government until it is acquired by the county and the subsequent purchaser.

The consultant is currently in the process of reviewing both oral and written comments gathered during and after the hearings. However, judging from comments at the hearings, Mangano believes the public would favor, for example, high technology and film industry uses at the property. In response to desires for recreational use, he noted, the county has decided to reserve McKay field, approximately eight acres of land adjacent to the Navy-owned property, for a park.

The alternatives for development of the Navy property presented at the Sept. 1 meeting consisted of the following:

Alternative "A" proposed to use all existing buildings on the property, which were formerly used by Grumman for government-contracted defense manufacturing operations. This would produce mostly warehouse and light industrial jobs, as well as some office jobs. Alternative "B" proposed to demolish all buildings and construct 1.4 million square feet of office space. Alternative "C" called for a combination of reusing existing buildings and building new ones. The total number of square feet that would be reused through each plan is the following: Alternative "A" - 995,000; "B" - 1,440,000; "C" - 1,282,000. The number of new jobs that would be created through each alternative ranged from approximately 1,000 to 6,800.

The consultant's plans also considered traffic patterns that would arise from each situation. For example, according to the plans, Alternative "A" would produce 4,700 weekday automobile trips associated with the site, "B" would produce 10,300 trips, and "C" would produce 7,900 trips.

Concerns expressed by residents about the redevelopment alternatives at the Sept. 1 hearing included the environmental status of the site and increased traffic that would arise in residential areas surrounding the site. The Navy property is an inactive hazardous waste site that has been the subject of ongoing remediation.

The remediation has been overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and funded by both the Navy and Northrop-Grumman (formerly Grumman before 1994 merger with Northrop). The DEC is planning to hold a public meeting to update residents on the progress of remediation by Jan. 1, 1999, according to Susan McCormick, section chief in the bureau of eastern remedial action for the DEC.