Town adopts mixed-use plan for Elmont

Noah Sheroff, right, of Franklin Square, attended the Elmont Chamber of Commerce’s April 4 meeting, at which residents discussed a rezoning plan for Elmont as well as other topics related to local development.

Jackie Nash/Herald

The Town of Hempstead adopted a rezoning proposal for Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont on April 10, three months after Town Supervisor Kate Murray and councilmen Ed Ambrosino (R-North Valley Stream) and James Darcy (R-Valley Stream) announced that they would recommend the inclusion of mixed-use development in the proposal.

While the three board members stuck to their promise, voting unanimously for a mixed-use amendment to the plan in January and officially adopting the proposal last week, some residents say that the plan won’t do enough to help improve the community.

The plan creates a roughly two-block-long mixed-use zone near the intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Elmont Road, where the town recently awarded a developer a contract to build a supermarket. But residents say that the new zone should encompass more of the turnpike; some say it should incorporate the entire length of Elmont’s portion of Hempstead Turnpike, from the Cross Island Parkway to Meacham Avenue.

“If mixed-use development … would bring more taxes into the Elmont community, if it were allowed, just within the zone of Hempstead Turnpike, why wouldn’t the town be more favorable about bringing more money into the Town of Hempstead?” Julie Marchesella, owner of Queen of Hearts in Merrick, said at an Elmont Chamber of Commerce meeting on April 4 attended by nearly 50 residents, including Ambrosino.

Referring to a January recommendation by Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, a nonprofit organization focused on smart-growth development, to include another mixed-use zone in the proposal, near the intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Meacham Avenue, and to extend both zones by a quarter-mile radius, Marchesella said she believed the plan would be significantly better if the new zone were extended by a quarter-mile on all sides.

Ambrosino responded that he and Alexander had agreed that an expansion of the plan would likely be considered at a later date. “If mixed use works by the Argo area, I have no problem expanding it,” he said, referring to the Hempstead Turnpike-Elmont Road intersection, the former site of the Argo Theater.