Mineola’s residential developments have brought the village millions of dollars in revenue and have set a stable foundation for its future, Mayor Scott Strauss said Feb. 17.
Between payments in lieu of taxes, host community benefit agreements and village development incentive bonuses, the projects are set to enrich the village for years to come and will continue to stabilize Mineola’s population, Strauss said in a statement during the Village Board meeting.
“We’ve been praised for our efforts and stand at the forefront of community redevelopment by creating transit-oriented developments which feed our community, while at the same time not stressing available municipal resources,” he said. “And we’ve done it while keeping Mineola the community in which we all want to live and continue to live and raise our families.”
Strauss said his comments were a response to claims in local newspapers that Mineola’s commuter apartment buildings received tax breaks to the detriment of the village and the Mineola school district.
The people making the claims were trying “to mislead and to scare” residents, he said, at a time when “the Village of Mineola is healthier than at any time in its history.”
“We welcome input from all,” Strauss said. “However, the dissemination of what amounts to lies in an attempt to scare the public should not be tolerated by you, our residents and our neighbors.”
Two of the properties — the 315-unit building 250 Old Country Road and the recently approved project at the former Corpus Christi Elementary School — will grow property tax rolls because the properties used to be exempt from taxes, Strauss said.
The projects with payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreements from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, which give property tax breaks, will pay millions to the village over the terms of the agreements, Strauss said.
The host community benefits agreements and development incentive bonus payments for each project will bring millions more, he said.
“The total amount collected as a result of these developments will greatly exceed by millions of dollars, the amount the village and the school district would have received over the next 20-year period from these five properties had they not been developed,” Strauss said. “That is a fact.”
The mixed-use zoning for Mineola’s downtown was the “cornerstone” of efforts to revitalize the area under the village’s Master Plan for development, Strauss said, first adopted in 2004.
After “nearly 20 years of stagnant growth and missed opportunities,” Strauss said, residents have embraced “smart growth” in the village and become a recognized model for other communities while maintaining Mineola’s suburban character.
“It is said we can not stop change; we can only manage change on our terms,” he said.
The developments will add to the village population, creating relief for residents who were taking on a larger tax burden as the population shrank and keeping the school district healthy, Strauss said, quoting a demographic study the school district commissioned last year.
Village Board candidates John Colbert and Larry Werther, running with incumbent Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira and Trustee Paul Cusato for two trustee positions, have spoken critically of Mineola’s development in recent weeks.
Colbert, who was at Wednesday’s meeting, said he thinks there’s been “overdevelopment” that will have unforeseen implications for traffic, parking and village infrastructure.
While the projects have enriched the village, Colbert said, the PILOTs don’t necessarily provide the same benefits for other taxing municipalities, such as Nassau County and the Town of North Hempstead.
