Community Corner

Donnelly: Good News For Garden City

Village officials learn that two of county's transportation options for Hub area are no longer viable.

After a recent meeting with the Nassau County Hub Committee, village officials have learned that two transportation options for the proposed Hub area are off the table, news trustee Dennis Donnelly said is good for Garden City.

He said the committee has eliminated a number of different versions of how they'd "move people in and out of the Hub area," including all of them involving Franklin and/or Stewart avenues in Garden City.

Trustee Nick Episcopia, village clerk Brian Ridgway and village administrator Robert Schoelle also attend the June 2 meeting, which reviewed the alternative transportation links.

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Donnelly noted that two of the eight options that remain -- options 7 and 8 - do have bus traffic going through the village by way of Commercial Avenue from Charles Lindbergh Boulevard to Clinton Road to the Hempstead bus terminal.

"Those are the only two options that even touch Garden City," he said, "and those two options are the least favorable they are looking at because they take the most bus miles compared to the other ones."

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The preferred options, according to Donnelly, appeared to be a new railroad station behind the Stop & Shop on Old Country Road "and then some semblance of mode of transportation that would run down East Gate Boulevard where Verizon is down to the parkway into the Mitchel field area."

Despite the possible bus traffic, Donnelly thought it was a "very successful meeting." "I think people have been dealing with this issue for quite a long time in the village and today's meeting certainly was goods news," he said.

Late last month, county executive Ed Mangano said redeveloping the Hub is "critical to creating jobs" in the county and "stimulating the local economy” as he advanced a county-wide Aug. 1 public referendum to allow residents to decide whether the county should build a sports-entertainment destination at the Nassau Coliseum site that retains the New York Islanders. The proposal also includes the construction of a minor league ballpark.

The referendum, according to Mangano, asks residents if they would like to "partner" with the county by providing the financing for capital improvements to the Hub. In return, the Islanders will compensate residents by paying the county a share of each dollar generated at the new sports arena, according to the county's website.

Trustee Episcopia said the county's Hub committee presented the transportation options to the Eastern Property Owners' Association (EPOA) some nine or 10 months ago. "A large group expressed desire not to have any form of light rail transportation going through - certainly Franklin Avenue - Garden City," he said. "These people, I believe, listened to it."

Episcopia added, "The fact that the EPOA did have the group of people there and clearly expressed their opposition to the things that would destroy our village I think had some sort of effect on it. They eliminated the ones that we really disliked."

For more information about the Hub area and the ongoing studies, click here.


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