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Community Corner

Impact of Potential LIJ Parking Expansion

From environmental problems to additional congrestion, there are some issues with this proposal.

The Lake Success Village Planning Board chaired the May 23 public hearing which was concerning the draft environmental impact statement for expansion of their facilities on the “Lockheed Martin” property (I-Park).

Based on my understanding, LIJ is requesting a change of use for additional space from warehouse to office space with a need for additional parking spaces. Change of use zoning to office space requires a higher ratio of cars to square feet of space usage. Due to a lack of parking, LIJ is proposing the building of a minimum two-story parking garage on the property and to use most of the land that had been “banked” when the developer got a site-use permit originally. This will basically eliminate the beautiful landscaping at the southeast corner of Lakeville Road and Marcus Avenue. This is complicated by the fact that the has jurisdiction over approximately half of the property with Village of Lake Success having the balance, explained Town Planning Commissioner Mike Levine. He added that "the Village has jurisdiction over Tax Lot No. 8-B18-300H and the Town has jurisdiction over 8-B18-300L."

What is most upsetting is that the "banked" spaces, which will be converted to actual parking spaces, are not sufficient for the proposed use. It means to address this serious parking deficit, a two-story parking garage is being considered. Not only will substantial landscaping be removed, but a parking garage will also appear.

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Also of concern is the impact of converting grass to impervious spaces, thereby creating a storm-water drainoff problem. When I questioned the use of the three basins (which are in the Town and fenced off because of what is in them) I was told they would use them for storm water drainage of the property since there will no more grass. I wonder about the wisdom of doing that.

The most startling fact I learned at the hearing was that soil vapors have been discovered on the site. As a reminder, in the early 1990s the soil at the southern side of the property had to be removed because carcinogenic chemicals had been discovered. We all were comforted by the knowledge that the soil vapor removal treatment had been successful; based on information contained in the DEIS, this is not correct.

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The full DEIS (which is over 500 pages) is available on the Village of Lake Success website

Comments and questions may be addressed to the Village of Lake Success concerning this matter and can be sent to the Village Office, Attn: Planning Board, 318 Lakeville Road, Lake Success, NY 11020.

Recently there have been no applications or changes filed with the Town of North Hempstead. This will have to come though because a little under 50 percent of the property is within Town jurisdiction. As an aside, an accessory parking garage is a special use in the Industrial-A zoning district (the zone in which the subject property is located), Levine said, and "if a proposal for a garage were to meet the standards of Section § 70-203U of the Town Code, then a Special Use Permit may be granted by the Town Board.  If a proposal did not meet the standards, then one or more variances would have to be granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals before the application could proceed to the Town Board."

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