Town destroys a bright vision for Nassau

 The plan to scale back the $3.8-billion commercial and residential Lighthouse project in Uniondale is now official, and in the view of many, a dynamic plan to create a vibrant downtown Nassau is now dead.

The Town of Hempstead has spoken and it reduced the scope of the development by 50 percent, also capping the size of towers at nine stories. Developers Charles Wang and Scott Rechler had wanted 35-story towers.The TOH plan also caps retail at four stories.

Supervisor Kate Murray and company have effectively halted progress on the project on the grounds it was too dense and did not fit in with the suburban character of Nassau County.

This is not a suburban community! It is an urban community jam packed onto this island with Queens to the west, Suffolk to the east and three airports to boot.

This quest to keep Long Island a quaint, bucolic suburb is naive, shortsighted and threatens its further economic decline. We need dynamic new projects here to attract people from outside and keep those who live here from leaving.

We need to create new housing for young people coming up so they don't flee the exorbitant costs here, said to be the highest in America, and take their brain and earning power to places like the Carolinas.

The Lighthouse project would give millions of Long Islanders, and that includes folks in Queens and Brooklyn who are also Long Islanders, a new destination to travel to besides the slog into Manhattan. It would infuse much needed revenue into the county’s cash-strapped coffers.

The area where the Lighthouse project would be built is a disgrace — a desert of asphalt surrounded by roads. We could and should build a vibrant community there with Hofstra University, the Lighthouse project and Roosevelt Field connected by light rail or a monorail.

If we want Long Island to thrive, we need to be a destination, not just a land of roads with nothing binding us together.

Charles Wang was willing to make a big bet that the Lighthouse would be viable. Who could blame him if he walks away and takes the Islanders? I don’t know Wang or any of the stakeholders. I just see it as a sound economic project that creates jobs and opportunity and makes a bold statement about Nassau County's future.

Paymar, a Rockville Centre resident, is the president of Paymar Communications Group and former anchor and correspondent at CNBC and Business Week. He has contributed columns on the lack of a Master Plan for downtown development in Rockville Centre, the health and environmental hazards of leaf blowers and the lack of parking and traffic law enforcement downtown.

Paymar, a Rockville Centre resident, is the president of Paymar Communications Group and former anchor and correspondent at CNBC and Business Week. He has contributed columns on the lack of a Master Plan for downtown development in Rockville Centre, the health and environmental hazards of leaf blowers and the lack of parking and traffic law enforcement downtown.