Public Hearing Held on Proposed Adelphi Construction

Adelphi University is requesting a special use permit to construct a 99,691 square foot two- and three-story Nexus Building and Welcome Center on the northwest portion of its Garden City campus.

Construction is slated to take 21 months as architects are aware of the urgency to get the project completed before students arrive in September 2015.

Adelphi University president Dr. Robert Scott addressed the board during a May 16 public hearing. "Adelphi started in Garden City Sept. 30, 1929 after moving from Brooklyn where the institution began as an academy in 1863," he said. "Garden City is our home and we try to be good neighbors in the community."

During the past decade, Dr. Scott said the university has "flourished" with adult  enrollment increases, a doubling of students living on campus and the hiring of more than 300 new faculty. In light of these points, Dr. Scott said the university has no plans to increase undergraduate student enrollment.

The new green facility's design is to be consistent with the "style and feel" of the existing campus and will house classrooms for the university's new School of Nursing and Public Health, as well as provide dedicated space for, among other things, alumni relations, admissions, career services and simulation labs to be made available to regional healthcare partners for professional development.

According to Dr. Scott, the university's 2010 facilities masterplan revealed that more than 70 percent of the 1929 campus classrooms were "inadequate" in relation to "contemporary and competitive standards." In the past 12 years, some 500,000 square feet of space has been added and/or renovated. The university received LEED certification for two of its largest projects and the campus also hosts two geothermal fields, Dr. Scott said.

Construction of the new facility will enable the university to renovate and reuse Alumnae Hall, which opened in 1943, and Levermore Hall, one of the first three buildings on the campus and current home of admissions and financial aid.

"This new facility is designed to ensure our continued success in recruiting, retaining and graduating students with the highest graduation rates on Long Island being at Adelphi," Dr. Scott said. "It is not our intent to increase enrollment on the Garden City campus except for some adult and graduate students. We plan no increase in the number of undergraduate students."

Mark Chadwick of Ballinger Associates said after meeting with the Garden City Fire Department, all parties agreed that the existing fire lane, which dissects the campus north to south, would remain and a new lane created along the west side of the site.

A total of 55-60 parking spaces will be added via a two-level parking structure (upper level at-grade) to accommodate the new facility. Chadwick noted that the upper level parking deck could withstand the weight of a fire vehicle.

Trustee Richard Silver inquired about parking during the construction phase. Robert Eschbacher, a civil engineer, said arrangements made with Nassau County will allow Adelphi to use the former Nassau County Social Services parking lot off of Eleventh Street.

"We will be transporting people who park there with our bus. We've actually encouraged people to take advantage of that ... We're hoping that and the Pool parking should more than suffice," Eschbacher said.

South Avenue will serve as an entrance for all construction vehicles. "They will come in off of Nassau Boulevard. The contractors we'll probably be using most of them are the same ones we've used before and they are well aware of the village ordinances," Eschbacher said. "We'll stay on top of them to work with you as best we can. There will be truck traffic though."

A Brompton Road resident said he's concerned with the extra traffic that he thinks will result. "While Adelphi is a great neighbor and strives to do great things the traffic that has increased as a result of their expansion program ... I'm not sure if anyone here is addressing it," he told trustees.

Dr. Scott said over the past eight or so years the university has increased the number of students, staff and faculty who don't have to drive by increasing its van service. "This current year we have some 400,000 riders who otherwise might be driving from the train station, the bus station, the shopping malls and other locations," he said. "We do not anticipate that this project will result in additional traffic."

Building superintendent Mike Filippon added that a pre-construction meeting was held, as with any project of this magnitude, to discuss traffic mitigation, among other potential issues.

"We go over the routes the trucks will take and what approach they'll be making from the east, from the west, north and south. We coordinate that with the police department should there be any problem that we ourselves don't perceive," he said. "So any concern about any perceived negative effect we do address that. We can't say you're not going to notice it at all but we make every effort to make sure that's tended to."

Thursday's public hearing was the "first and major step" in the approval process, Filippon said. Adelphi has already been before both the village's Planning Commission and Architectural Design Review Board once.

"Those boards are not able to render final decision until this board grants the special exception permit ... I can tell you at least for the time being our architectural board is in accordance with the design of this building and some of the features that it has. It's also been before the Planning Commission and some of the same questions asked here tonight were asked by them," he said. "After special exception is granted and those processes are completed it actually comes back to this board yet again for what's known as final site plan approval. It may seem a little redundant, which it is, but that's the nature of our process. You will actually have another opportunity to review a final version. I don't expect many changes to take place to this design."