During a brief work session with the board of trustees, County Executive Tom Suozzi reiterated that his proposed real estate consolidation project, which would greatly affect Garden City, could not be successful unless it gets the village's full support.

He presented the board with two proposals, known as Option A and Option B, as he did during the public "town hall" meeting March 26 in the Garden City High School auditorium, that he thinks could effectively improve the county government's footprint. Both options are based on Insignia/ESG's recommendations, the commercial realtor county officials hired.

Option A proposes moving all 11 police headquarters buildings, not the eight police precincts themselves, into one campus at Grumman building five in Bethpage. It also suggests splitting the intake and administrative functions of Heath and Human Services into two buildings: an off-campus site client based facility and an administration center as part of the Government Operations Center.

Further, this option calls for the full renovation and extension of the Old County Courthouse to create a Government Operations Center, and expansion of the court complex in Garden City to accommodate Family Court and Matrimonial Court.

Approximately 35 acres of land in the village could be made available with Option A, Suozzi said. But, this depends on how the village plans to zone the area. Currently, it's zoned for public use only.

In separating Health and Human Services into administration and intake, Suozzi said that intake would have to be put in a rented facility, although he's not sure where as of yet. He did say the building would have to be in a high-traffic, mass transit area like Roosevelt Field or the Bus Hub in Hempstead - a place easily accessible in the center of the island.

"To accommodate that, we would have to build a two-story garage," he explained. "Now I know how people in Garden City feel about garages and we recognize that you wouldn't want a two-story garage in the village. Taking that into consideration, what we would do is put one story in the ground and design it in such a way that it wouldn't look so much like a garage but more like a building with heavy plantings."

Option B includes the same renovations to the Old County Courthouse and expansion of the court complex in Garden City. Additionally, the plan also calls for the expansion and renovations of the Police Headquarters on Franklin Avenue and the relocation of Health and Human Services to two existing buildings on County Seat Drive in Garden City. This option does not entail finding a new intake center. Suozzi said approximately 24-25 acres of land could be made available in the village with Option B.

Perhaps the village's biggest areas of concern surround the two-story parking garages (suggested in Option A), which would look more like buildings with heavy plantings, and the multi-level housing proposal (suggested in Option B). The county executive said the proposed housing idea, which would replace 101 County Seat Drive near Eleventh Street, could resemble the existing Wyndham complex.

"This is still just a concept," Suozzi told trustees. "This is nothing like a final plan whatsoever because this must be fruitful for the county as well as the Village of Garden City."

Trustee John Mauk, recently appointed chair of the Traffic Commission and a member of the Committee on Public Information, admitting several challenges were presented, said he plans to focus on the end result. "I'd like to see some accommodations reached on this but we have to look at what's going to be in the best interest of Garden City," he said. Mauk also requested more information regarding the aesthetics that would surround the parking garages. As far as the Wyndham, Mauk told Suozzi that in the view of some living here, the complex was "not the best thing that happened to us."

Ultimately, the village has the last word on how the property in which 101 County Seat Drive now exists would be zoned. When Mauk asked Suozzi if he had an alternate plan if in fact the village does deny a zoning change, he said frankly, "I don't have a concrete plan in mind right now." The county executive does hope, however, that village officials do not require single family homes be built on the property because, financially, that won't help Nassau County.

P-Zone Committee member and newly appointed 2nd Deputy Mayor Peter Bee said this project presented great challenges when officials first raised the idea. "The committee has prepared six interim reports, we hired consultants of our own and is now in the position to get the necessary feedback from the public and various property owners associations," Bee said. "The P-Zone Committee was convinced out of the gate that a solution will meet the county's and village's needs."

Suozzi said the project could cost anywhere between $200-$300 million, half of which would be paid for by generated efficiencies while the other half from the sale of county surplus properties. Suozzi expects to begin the project by next spring and have it completed by 2006. "I realize the public will not be that patient with a project like this - they'd want to see immediate results," Suozzi said of his aggressive time line.

Editor's Note: The complete Nassau County Real Estate Consolidation Report and supplemental documents are available at www.co.nassau.ny.us for download as several "Portable Document Format" (pdf) files. You must have a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader(r) installed on your computer to view and print pdf files. Some of the files are large so allow adequate download time.