Concerned over the rapid pace of development in the area known as the Nassau Hub, the Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee, a coalition comprised of 47 local business and civic groups, recently proposed that the Town of Hempstead institute a temporary moratorium on large-scale development in the Hub until a community "visioning" process is completed.

The moratorium, introduced at a town board meeting last Tuesday night, would affect all variances, special use permits, and changes in zone for projects over 20,000 square feet in the Nassau Hub, which is defined as Old Country Rd. to the north, Hempstead Turnpike to the south, Eisenhower Park to the east, and Clinton Rd. to the west.

A visioning process, similar to one that has been successfully implemented on a smaller scale in the Town of Huntington, would involve members of the surrounding communities of Westbury, Carle Place, Salisbury, New Cassel, and others, working closely with the federally funded Major Investment Study (MIS) planned for the Nassau Hub area. The proposal calls for an "intensive review of the needs of the town and the interdependent nature of the economies and quality of life interests of the communities that comprise or are neighboring the Hub, the locations in the town which are available for development or redevelopment, and the full range of options for the types and designs of possible development."

A further aim of the proposal is to identify solutions to traffic congestion problems that have been plaguing the town.

"Rather than merely reacting to the proposals of various developers, we want the community involved in a proactive way at the beginning of the planning process," explained Neal Lewis, executive director of the Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee. "This may be the last large development boom to take place in the Town of Hempstead. I think it is appropriate to involve the community before those final decisions are made."

The moratorium would target projects at the Roosevelt Raceway site and around the Nassau Coliseum, where private developers have submitted plans for three large hotels, one five stories high and 73,000 square feet, as well as office buildings and restaurants. Critics have said that such large-scale development would greatly add to traffic congestion, and could conceivably tax the water supply in the area.

"The Town of Hempstead has consistently demonstrated its commitment to bringing planned development into the 21st century, having contributed the funding necessary to complete the initial phase of the Hub study," said Town of Hempstead Supervisor Richard Guardino in a subsequent statement. "Any contemplated development of property within the nearly three square miles which comprises the Hub must include public participation throughout the planning process."

Because a substantial portion of the property is owned by Nassau County, Guardino said, the Nassau County Legislature would be the first jurisdiction to render a decision concerning their property.

"We are not opposed to all development," said Bert Donley, president of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce. "Our goal is to get better coordination between the different levels of government, particularly in regards to the federally-funded transportation study about to begin. The large-scale projects under consideration must be viewed in the context of the need to address the traffic congestion problem."

Lewis stressed the importance of moratorium, in light of the transportation study. "If you are going to build things at the same time a transportation study is being conducted, you could end up putting the coliseum in the wrong place, or building over a right-of-way that is critical to the transit line," he said.