Elmont, Franklin Square issue: too many churches?
Some residents say there is a proliferation of churches in the community
With property values declining and fewer businesses occupying storefronts along Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont, the community’s property owners have become desperate to bring in any entities that will pay rent, and as a result Elmont is becoming highly populated with storefront churches.
Muzzio Tallini, a member of the Elmont East End Civic Association and the owner of Signature Homes Ltd., said there are more than 50 churches in Elmont alone. Tallini said that the problem is the institutions’ tax-exempt status, which has caused a reduction in the community’s tax base over the past several years.
In recent years, Tallini said, Elmont’s Coalition for Sustainable Development, which works to bolster the hamlet’s economy, has been concerned about allowing additional properties to come off the tax rolls, since Elmont is in dire need of tax receipts. Tallini and another member of the coalition, Sandra Smith, discussed the issue during a panel discussion at the Elmont Memorial Library last Sunday at Elmont Online’s 2011 Black History Month Celebration.
The number of churches in the hamlet has steadily increased over the past few years, Tallini said. And although many community members want to limit the population of tax-exempt entities, including churches and nonprofit organizations, they are legally unable to do so.
Hempstead Town Councilman Ed Ambrosino said that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal statute, prohibits government from imposing land-use or zoning rules on churches that are different from other properties’ rules.
Instead of trying to find ways to keep tax-exempt properties out, Elmont community leaders, including Tallini and Smith, have been working to promote economic growth on Hempstead Turnpike, and raise rent and property values. “Then churches really can’t afford to go in,” Tallini said, adding that the Coalition for Sustainable Development has been promoting redistricting along Hempstead Turnpike to allow for mixed-use development, which would bring more private capital into the area.
