To obtain further public input regarding County Executive Tom Suozzi's plan to sell off surplus properties located within the commonly referred to Mineola Complex, the mayor-appointed Public Use (P) Zone Committee hosted a forum Oct. 23 at the high school. Committee members include Trustees Peter Bee (chair), Peter Negri and Gerard Lundquist.

In the spring of 2002, Suozzi approached Garden City with his proposed building consolidation plan, which calls for selling off properties located within Garden City's P-Zone District. He attempted to ascertain which properties Nassau County owns and whether or not they are being efficiently utilized. He also sought information on whether some of that property might be deemed surplus and available for sale.

The consolidation plan's main goal is to fuse the county workforce, potentially with a smaller number of buildings spread out in a more organized fashion. Further, selling off any surplus buildings could provide much-needed revenue for a financially strapped Nassau County.

The county properties, which have a Mineola mailing address but are geographically located within Garden City's boundaries, are situated 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.

As Bee reiterated, Garden City, as an incorporated village, has zoning power over the area. The property is currently zoned "P" for public use - in other words, the sole permitted use of that property is governmental or public use. Suozzi has requested the village's cooperation in rezoning the area to allow for non-governmental uses.

"If Mr. Suozzi were to reach the conclusion that one or more specific parcels of county land should be sold to a private developer, the developer would be unable to use that land for anything since the developer would be limited to public use," Bee said. "Therefore, the county executive has indicated that, from the county's point of view, there would be an interest in Garden City examining the possibility of private sector uses becoming permitted uses for some or all of the so-called Mineola Complex," Bee said.

In its deliberations, the village board realized that whether rezoning the area came to pass now or in 50 years from now, the P-Zone, as it was enacted in the village's code, has very few restrictions. Specifically, Garden City does not have controls over maximum building coverage, building height, yards (front, side and rear) and floor area ratios (FARs).

Although Suozzi approaching the village board might have been the incident that triggered an examination of the current code, Bee suggested he and fellow trustees scrutinize "back-up zoning."

"Such that the village's zoning ordinance would contemplate the possibility that [Suozzi] or some future county executive might sell some county property to a private developer and what kind of private development would be appropriate and permitted," Bee said.

Suozzi said, as he has both publicly and privately in the past, that he would not pursue the rezoning issue if the village determined zoning that was consistent with Garden City's needs and not his. "We're very sympathetic to Garden City and the needs of its residents," Sheldon Cohen, Nassau County's director of Real Estate, told residents at the forum.

To help them make a recommendation to the full board of trustees, the committee retained a private counsel, John Kiernan, and a private planner, Frank Fish, a principal with Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, Inc. (BFJ). The committee met with these consultants over the summer and into the fall of 2002.

"Certain principals were developed and we had conversations with the consultants," Bee said. "They indicated the types of legal and planning criteria traditionally used when proposing to rezone an area like this."

The committee also met with Suozzi again to understand what might happen in the short term, based on his plan, or the long term when he or some other county executive chooses to sell off property. Through the summer of 2003, this committee continued to work, deliberate and meet with the consultants.

In May 2003, Fish presented his preliminary recommendations, similar to the recommendations he spoke about at the Oct. 23 forum, to the public and P-Zone Committee. "Those recommendations have undergone some fine tuning," Bee said. "The committee has worked closely with the village administrator, the [Garden City] Building Department, the village attorney and the consultants to try and obtain a set of recommendations upon which this committee could deliberate. Those preliminary recommendations that came through in the spring and were later finalized in the summer still seem to require further public input."

Ken Monaghan, Garden City School Board president and liaison to the village, commented from the school board's perspective. "We don't have a solid opinion on this nor will we," he said.

Monaghan added that the district is currently working with BOCES on a demographic study. "We have not stopped our growth and do not expect to peak out, in terms of school population, for another four or five years. We expect to peak a little later than we originally anticipated and peak at slightly higher numbers," he noted. "We will have more information later in the school year when BOCES reports back to us."

He also noted that Nassau County's recent reassessment greatly affected school taxes. The mathematical percentage for the 2002-2003 tax year came in at 57.11 percent while it came in at 85.38 percent for the 2003-04 tax year, an enormous shift of almost 30 percent.

"Eventually, the burden for taxes will increasingly fall, over a long period of time, on Class 1 properties," Monaghan said. "You saw some of that last year and you saw some of it this year." Class 1 properties include residential homes, two and three-family homes and low-rise condominiums.

Monaghan suggested that when a decision is finally reached, committee members, and the village board as a whole, recognize the increasing burden being placed on Class 1 property owners since the boarders for the school district and the village are virtually contiguous.

"While the assessment has already taken place and although your taxes have already gone up, you have not seen all the increases in the tax burden for the Class 1 property owner," Monaghan reiterated. He also added that Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen Leitman and Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Powell should "probably have more dialogue with the village on this issue, as should the school board in general."

Ultimately, when considering goals and working assumptions, Fish considered accommodating existing conditions where possible, respecting existing neighborhoods, maximizing the use of the village's existing zoning because it "works well," recognizing market conditions and looking at any environmental impacts.

After reviewing the county's plans, BFJ recommended a two-pronged approach that entailed expanding the existing CO-4 Zone, which currently allows for office uses and retail. The CO-4 Zone would have a maximum 0.9 FAR and a maximum 40-foot height. Fish noted that BFJ added text to this zone: wherever a CO-4 District abuts residential property ... a 50-foot setback is required unless there is an intervening road, in which case the setback requirement would be 25 feet."

Further, BFJ suggests creating a new CO-5 Zone, divided into two parts - CO-5a and CO-5b. Both would allow offices and courtrooms. However, residential uses would be permitted in CO-5b, replacing the current P-Zone for county property east of Franklin Avenue.

CO-5a would have a maximum 0.6 FAR, a maximum 40-foot height, a maximum 30 percent building coverage and a minimum 25 percent open space requirement. This last requirement is currently not in Garden City's code and became a serious concern for committee members, Fish noted.

CO-5b would have a maximum 0.6 FAR, a maximum 35-foot or three-story height, a maximum 25 percent building coverage and a minimum 25 percent open space requirement. Fish noted that in Garden City's existing code, underground parking is permitted while structured parking decks are not. BFJ made no changes to this section.

Building Superintendent Mike Filippon said nothing is "locked in" at this time. Moreover, the P-Zone Committee still needs to make a recommendation to the full board and the full board still needs to follow a process as well. Bee told residents that the P-Zone Committee is "anxious" to bring their work to a close and ultimately propose a recommendation to the full board.

Keeping Bee's comments in mind, one resident urged village officials to do whatever will be appealing to the residents, not a future developer. "This is something that should be tantamount to this committee," she said.