The meeting is good news and long overdue. But how it comes that members of this gathering repeat that the number of those people who protested revitalization was 20-something?
The change.org online petition to Stop the Revitalization has more than 1,400 signatures (https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-village-of-great-neck-zoning-code-change).
Several public hearing meetings in a row the residents filled the Village Hall beyond capacity to warn against the plan, among them a judge, an architect, a city planner, a professor, several lawyers, a school board president, fire department chief and many other highly educated and respected members of the community.
It’s obvious that the quoted numbers of Bart Sobel and Marc Stumer are not only disrespectfully dismissing resident’s concerns but plainly not true.
Another question: how did it happen that a private architect, who has an interest in local development (among his current applications is the Mashadi Center on Steamboat Road) is invited to the meeting of the local officials? What kind of public office makes him eligible for participation?
Stumer calls to ignore the resident’s valid arguments (schools overcrowding, traffic, and environment) and calls instead to provide developers with incentives to make them WANT to build here.
I wish this gathering would invite an independent urban planner or civil engineer, but not a private architect directly involved in local development.
Kate Goldberg
Great Neck
