Responding to the county's proposed building consolidation plan, which includes possibly selling properties located within Garden City's Public Use "P-Zone" District, Planning Consultants Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, Inc. (BFJ) made several recommendations to the mayor-appointed P-Zone Committee (Trustee and Chair Peter Bee and Trustees Gerard Lundquist and Peter Negri) during a public forum May 29.

The county properties within Garden City's borders are located generally between Old Country Road to the north, Eleventh Street to the south, Washington Avenue to the east and Franklin Avenue and West Street to the west. Garden City's primarily concerned with County Executive Tom Suozzi's plan because the county buildings, commonly referred to as the "Mineola Complex," are located within the P-Zone District, which BFJ says offers no specific controls in terms of bulk, floor area and building height and allows only governmental uses. Suozzi requested the village's cooperation in rezoning the county properties to allow for non-governmental uses.

Given the lack of restrictions, BFJ's study describes a possible zoning approach intended to "protect and promote the public health, safety and quality of life within the village." This could be achieved with the following assumptions: (1) accommodate existing conditions where possible. This implies that BFJ would not seek to radically change the built form of the buildings within the P-Zone.

The underlying assumption here, the study states, is not to take away the county's rights to reuse buildings by making them prohibited uses or non-conforming uses; (2) respect for existing neighborhoods. Any proposed zoning modifications would be sensitive to the surrounding land uses, particularly residential neighborhoods; (3) maximize the use of existing zoning tools.

The assumption is to borrow, where possible, from existing regulations that are currently contained in the Garden City zoning code. In this manner, BFJ would not be departing radically from the underlying comprehensive plan of Garden City or its existing zoning code; (4) recognize market conditions. This assumption simply means that BFJ would try to recognize what existing real estate trends might indicate for building reuse or reconstruction; and (5) environmental impacts. This assumes that BFJ would be cognizant of not overwhelming the neighborhoods with any significant adverse environmental impacts, particularly traffic, visual effects or burdens on public facilities.

Frank Fish, AICP, a BFJ principal, noted that when the company first looked at the P-Zone, "it had no standards to it and that became our principal concern ... We had to gain goals with the [P-Zone] Committee."

Part of Souzzi's proposed plan suggests consolidating county properties into five campuses: Government Operations, Public Safety, Health and Human Services, Courts and Jails. The county developed two possible alternatives - Option A and Option B. BFJ understands that the county favors Option A, which proposes to add a new 144,160 square foot addition to One West Street (Old Court house) to become the major Health and Human Services site and a new 150,000 square foot expansion to the county courts to include a Family/Matrimonial Court.

Option A further suggests rehabilitating the Old County Courthouse and selling approximately 35 acres of land (Social Services site is 21.44 acres and the DGS site is 13.63 acres). It also entails reducing the number of employees (within the county properties) by 244 (3,894 employees now; 3,650 proposed). While the total number of county employees would be reduced under Option A, the amount of parking currently provided would be greatly increased with the construction of two two-tiered parking structures. The amount of parking needed would be increased for two reasons - to accommodate parking for expanded courts and to compensate for the loss of parking from the sale of the Social Services site.

A proposed tiered parking structure at the former police headquarters would increase the parking currently provided in the vicinity from 1,044 to 2,415 spaces. Another proposed tiered parking structure at the courts would increase the parking from 3,658 to 4,544 spaces. Fish noted that these new garages do not include parking that would be needed for any new development on the proposed development parcels.

John Pittone of Locust Street believes the suggested double-tiered parking decks are not the way to go. "... Double-tiered parking between the county court and the Supreme Court would be totally inadequate. A lot of people who use the Supreme Court building now park in the Social Services lot, especially the jurors.

"If they put a two-tiered structure between the county court and the Supreme Court and then they add the family court from Westbury and take the matrimonial court out of the administrative building, that deck has to be at least four or five decks high to accommodate the parking. I don't see how a two-tiered parking deck would be anywhere near efficient."

Knowing how the village residents feel about parking decks, Suozzi has repeatedly said, both publicly and privately, that if Garden City determines zoning that is consistent with what Garden City needs and does not meet his needs, he will not fight the village on this.

After reviewing the county's plans, BFJ recommended a possible two-pronged approach that entailed expanding the existing CO-4 Zone, which currently allows for office uses and certain types of retail. This change would expand the existing CO-4 zone to the west to include the county property, with a maximum permitted Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of .09 and a maximum height of 40 feet. BFJ also recommends a 50-foot landscaped buffer be required wherever development in the CO-4 Zone is adjacent to a single-family home. Such a buffer currently exists between the parking lot to the west of the police station and the homes in the R-8 Zone.

Further, BFJ suggests creating a new CO-5 Zone, divided into two parts - CO-5a and CO-5b. Both would allow offices and courtrooms. Further, residential uses would be permitted in CO-5b, replacing the current P-Zone for county property east of Franklin Avenue. CO-5a would be north of South Road while CO-5b would be south of South Road, which essentially covers the existing Social Services site. BFJ suggests permitting residential uses south of South Road, within the proposed CO-5b zone.

"Through the assistance of the [P-Zone] Committee and Building Inspector Mike Filippon we looked at the Doubleday zoning ... You have some zoning here that forms a good precedent. It's a zone that allows continued office use and we want to do that with CO-5a," Fish said.

Suozzi's plan calls for a number of parcels to be opened up for new development, the largest being the Social Services building located at 101 County Seat Drive, which lies within the proposed CO-5b zone. The total acreage of this parcel is 21.44 and represents the biggest development opportunity within the county-owned complex. Further, Fish explained that the DGS parcel, located immediately west of County Seat Drive, would also be opened up for development. This parcel totals 13.63 acres.

BFJ proposes using the existing R-M zoning controls for the residential component of the CO-5b zone. R-M zoning is currently mapped north of Fifteenth Street on Old Country Road (particularly the Cherry Valley apartments). Right now, R-M allows 14.5 units per acre. This would allow 311 units at the Social Services site. The CO-5b zone would allow single-family homes at an R6 density, allowing approximately 75 units.

Under BFJ's proposed zoning, single-family and town homes or apartments would be allowed. Based on similar developments, Fish noted that the town homes or garden apartments options would attract "empty nesters" or "younger couples." The new residents would be within walking distance of Franklin Avenue and would provide a new market for downtown Garden City, Fish explained, and the new development would generate fewer school children when compared to single-family home development (single-family homes generate approximately one public school child per home).

"With a community aimed at young couples and empty nesters, there could be as few as .02 to .03 public school children per unit," Fish added. "The development would therefore be likely to generate net tax benefits to the village." As far as amending the village's current setback map, BFJ proposes 25-foot setbacks along County Seat Drive, Courthouse Drive, Supreme Court Drive and South Road.

Ultimately, the P-Zone Committee will make a recommendation to the full board of trustees. "This committee is ultimately going to be recommending zoning which has as its first priority Garden City's interests and land use consistency within the Village of Garden City," Bee said. Special Counsel John Kiernan noted that this is just a preliminary stage as the P-Zone Committee has only received BFJ's draft recommendations.

There are about 12 buildings located within the "Mineola Complex," including the county courts, state supreme court, county police headquarters and various county administrative offices. Total land area is approximately 85 acres and the existing buildings contain a total of 1.7 million square feet, ranging in density from .03 to 1.1 FAR.

Currently there are 4,702 on-street and off-street parking spaces within the entire project area. All the buildings within the county properties are currently included within the P-Zone as designated under the village's zoning code. The P-Zone designation currently offers no controls in terms of building height or floor area controls.