A Nassau County Supreme Court judge on Tuesday denied a motion by the developers of the proposed Academy Gardens project to block a possible environmental review of the proposed project.
Judge Thomas Feinman said the Village Great Neck Planning Board acted legally when it voted on Feb. 20 to seek further information to determine if the project required review under the state Environmental Quality Review Act.
“The agency, given the opportunity to take a ‘hard look’ at relevant environmental concerns, may determine that the project will have no adverse environmental impact, and may declare a negative declaration to that effect dispensing with an [environmental impact study],” Feinman said in his decision.
Kings Point Gate Associates, the developer of the proposed project, filed a lawsuit on April 8 in Nassau County Civil Supreme Court, stating that its intent to replace an existing residential building “obviates any environmental assessment procedure” under state law.
Feinman called the April 8 lawsuit by Kings Point Gate Associates “premature,” saying that the planning board still had to determine if the project required an environmental impact study.
“The petitioner’s contention that the process is costly and lengthy is unavailing,” he said.
Christopher Prior, the planning board’s attorney, said “the planning board is pleased with Justice Feinman’s decision, which we believe is entirely consistent with applicable law.”
“The planning board will proceed with its analysis of the application for [Academy Gardens] as an unlisted action under SEQRA, to determine whether or not the proposed project may have a significant adverse impact upon the environment,” Prior said.
Kings Point Gate Associates said in a statement “the court merely held that the commencement of the action was premature.”
“The Article 78 decision did not reach the merits of the case,” the company said. “As such, the decision actually preserves the right of Kings Point Gate Associates to re-address those issues should the board reach a decision that violates the property owner’s rights.”
Kings Point Gate proposed the project to the planning board late last year, which would replace the apartment complex with a “three story multifamily apartment building” with 68 units, according to the group’s site plan application.
A similar proposal was made in 2007 by one-time Kings Point resident David Adelipour, the owner of the property.
That proposal was halted by Adelipour because the building would have required a zoning variance.
The tenants of Academy Gardens have been in a months-long battle with Kings Point Gate Associates, the managing agent of the property, and David Adelipour, a former resident of Kings Point who owns the building, over a site-plan application for the market-rate units.
The planning board three weeks ago picked the engineering firm Nelson, Pope and Voorhis and Columbia University professor Lance Freeman to determine if the proposed demolition of the rent-stabilized apartment complex would create racial disparity in the community.
Charles Segal, chair of the planning board, said Nelson, Pope and Voorhis will address the environmental concerns of the proposed project, while Freeman will look at the ethnicity of the current tenants and compare them to the ethnicity of potential tenants of the proposed market-rate units by using census data.
Freeman, who has been a professor at Columbia since 2006, is an associate professor in the school’s urban planning program and has written several books and articles on disparate impact in New York communities, according to his resume. He has also served as a consultant for New York City on the “impact of night clubs on surrounding property values,” according to his resume.
Nelson, Pope and Voorhis is a Melville-based firm formed in 1997 with expertise in “environmental analysis, planning and feasibility, resource assessment and site investigations,” according to its website.
Many of the tenants of Academy Gardens are low-income minority families who have said they could not afford to live in Great Neck if they were evicted from the apartments.
Academy Gardens tenants and their supporters called for the board to hire an independent expert to research the socio-economic impact of the proposed demolition at a March 27 planning board meeting, saying that a review paid for by Kings Point Gate’s attorney Paul Bloom was biased.
The socio-economic review provided by Bloom concluded that the proposed demolition would not create a racial disparity within the Great Neck peninsula, board officials said.
Segal said at the March meeting that the board would hire a civil rights expert to determine if the demolition of the rent-stabilized apartment complex, located at Middle Neck and Steamboat roads, would be in violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to deny residency to a person because of their background.
The planning board is scheduled to meet on Thursday, July 17.
