Historic preservation concerns rise in Franklin Square, calls for Hempstead ordinance reform

The Franklin Square Historical Society and Franklin Square Civic Association have expressed concerns about the Town of Hempstead’s Landmarks Ordinance and an apparent lack of protection for historic buildings throughout the town.

Katherine Tarascio, recording secretary for the Civic Association, brought her concerns to the Town Board in early June. She believes that the town should include a provision in the ordinance that would prevent building owners from facilitating a historic site’s demise by neglecting it.

“It has come to our attention that the Town of Hempstead preservation ordinance is ineffectual when it comes to protecting a historic property,” Tarascio told the board during its meeting on June 4.

The concerns in Franklin Square stemmed from worries of possible disrepair in the Franklin Theater, an Art Deco theater designed in 1933 by architect Richard Thomas Short that was designated a historical landmark by the town in 2019. The site is one of 65 historical landmarks in the town.

“While the town can, and has, spent significant money protecting the designated properties, as with the Franklin Theatre, (it) has no ability to stop a property owner from allowing, or even hastening, a building’s demise by neglecting it,” Tarascio said.

Several towns and villages across Long Island have provisions that include mandatory “regular maintenance” of designated historical sites in their preservation ordinances.

In the Village of Bellerose, owners of historical sites “shall not permit the property to fall into a state of disrepair so as to cause, in the judgement of the Historic Preservation Board, a detrimental effect upon the character of the landmark or historic district.” Any property owner who fails to uphold a historic site’s maintenance there is required to restore the property and its appearance prior to the violation, enforceable by the village attorney.

“This serves to not only protect the property from becoming a case for hardship, but also protects the surrounding neighborhood from the fallout of dealing with such a neglected piece of real estate,” Tarascio said.

Historical sites can remain vacant for years, much like the Franklin Theater, whose doors have been closed since 2020. Tarascio reminded the Town Board that deserted and decaying buildings can pose structural risks to surrounding properties as well as safety hazards to bystanders, deter local investment as eyesores, invite squatters and depress nearby property values.

“Abandoned historic buildings left to ruin have the potential to be a catalyst for community breakdown,” Tarascio said. “These are things that a municipality should be working to protect against.”

She said she believed that including a “protection provision” in the town’s Landmarks Ordinance would help preserve Hempstead’s own historical sites, and that the absence of such a provision could be responsible for setting some "dangerous precedents.”

“Disgruntled property owners will continue to use this loophole to skirt the designation, and inevitably demolish a building that the municipality will have had no choice but to condemn,” Tarascio said. “But ‘demolition by neglect’ is not something that occurs overnight, and the cost of allowing it to happen has a ripple effect that can negatively impact a neighborhood for years.”

Hempstead’s current ordinance was adopted in 1983, and the absence of required regular maintenance in the document is something that members of the Franklin Square Historical Society and Civic Association believe should be rectified. Tarascio advised that any addition or amendment to the current ordinance to close this “loophole” be made retroactive, to protect the town’s existing historic landmarks.

“If demolition by neglect is allowed to happen once, it will continue to happen,” she said.

Town officials did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment about the implementation of a provision protecting historic sites from demolition by neglect or disrepair. However, the town’s director of communications, Brian Devine responded with a statement regarding the significance of historic sites in Hempstead.

“As the largest and one of the oldest townships in America dating back to 1644, Hempstead Town has a rich history and a diverse background of peoples, cultures, and heritages,” Devine stated. “Preserving sites with historical significance — such as cemeteries serving as the final resting places of Civil War veterans, the take-off spot of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, and pre-Revolutionary War properties, among many others — serve(s) to educate future generations on how our communities have evolved over time.”