Senior apartments proposed in Manhasset

Bill San Antonio

A developer seeking to convert more than three acres of the shuttered Mt. Olive Baptist Church property in Manhasset into a 72-unit housing complex has requested a change in the site’s zoning to market the proposed apartments strictly to senior tenants.

Representatives with G&G Acquisitions Group, LLC, which has an office in Jericho, presented plans before the North Hempstead Town Council on Tuesday that would rid the 3.19-acre property along Community Drive of various contaminants that have deemed it a “brownfield” site by state environmental agencies to allow for the construction of the apartments.   

The town council tabled a vote on the proposed zoning change until after a future public hearing that it did not schedule on Tuesday. 

Public comments submitted in writing will be accepted through the end of the month, officials said.

Linda Shaw, a partner with the environmental law firm Knauf Shaw LLP, said the property’s condition – contaminated with metals lead and arsenic, among other undisclosed toxins – exceed the requirements needed to qualify for the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. The program provides conditional tax incentives in exchange for the remediation and subsequent redevelopment of brownfield sites.

The site, she said, has become contaminated with metals like lead and arsenic as well as other undisclosed toxins due in part to occasional illegal dumping there.

An Environmental Impact Statement has been drafted for the project.

The church, which currently owns the site, has a tax exemption on the property and is not required by law to remediate the contaminants.

“You can’t take every drop of contaminated soil out, but we’re going to try and clean up as much as we can,” Shaw said. 

David Gallo, G&G’s representative at the hearing, said the project would not move forward without acceptance for the Brownfield Cleanup Program.

The proposal includes the construction of 48 one-bedroom and 24 two-bedroom rental apartments for tenants age 55 and older, Gallo said, as well as 98 parking spaces for residents, visitors and staff.

School-aged children, which Gallo defined as children up to 18 years old, will not be permitted to live in the proposed complex due to stipulations included in state housing grants that G&G will seek to help finance the development.

The total project cost was not disclosed during Tuesday’s hearing.

Tenants would be selected after an application process that Gallo said would include a criminal background check and income status.

He did not define how much each unit would cost but said applicants that make between $25,000 and $65,000 would be selected.

“We want this to be successful not just for the current residents that would be there but for the future residents there years from now,” Gallo said.

The apartment complex is expected to have minimal impact on traffic in the area, which includes Community Drive and neighboring residential roadways, said engineer Sean Mulryan, of the Garden City firm Mulryan Engineering, P.C. 

The proposal received the support of several members of the nearby Spinney Hill community as well as former congregants of Mt. Olive Church and North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck), whose 4th district includes Manhasset.

“We have an opportunity here to go ahead and address property that is deemed as brownfield while we have a developer coming in trying to clean it up not just for the Spinney Hill area but for the Manhasset community and the Great Neck community,” Kaplan said.

She added: “By looking at this change in zoning, we’re also addressing some of the concerns brought to us by our seniors, seniors who have lived in this town, raised their families, supported the schools, the parks, and now it’s our turn to give back and try to help them out and keep this place as their residence.”

Opposition to the proposal came from Manhasset resident Martin Dekom, who lives along the nearby High Street.

He said neighboring residents do not support the construction of an affordable housing unit there and accused the town of trying “to rezone Spinney Hill out of existence.”

“There is no guarantee the remediation will even be successful,” he said.

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth denied Dekom’s allegation.

Gallo said he has met with community organizations and residents whose homes border the site and incorporated their suggestions into the plans. 

In other developments:

• The council approved a special-use permit for Cumberland Farms to construct a 2,719 square-foot convenience store at the Mobil gas station at 1111 Northern Blvd. in Manhasset.

• The council tabled a decision on whether to approve the installation of underground diesel storage tanks at a gas station at 80 Horace Harding Blvd. in Great Neck and a special-use permit for the conversion of the gas pumps to self-service and the construction of an overhead canopy.

The property, owned by Gray Bros. Enterprises, LTD., has operated as a gas station for more than four decades, but shifted to vehicle repair in 2012 after previous underground gas tanks were removed.

Residents on Tuesday who opposed the proposal said the property has become an eyesore in the community because of the high number of vehicles that remain on site, and that the presence of diesel fuel would lead to health hazards.

Residents who supported the proposal said the property owner should have the opportunity to once again run a gas station there and that fewer vehicles would be serviced in the future.

The council scheduled a second hearing on Dec. 9.

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