Great Neck Estates residents voiced their disapproval of the proposed condominium development at 200 Middle Neck Road at the village’s Board of Trustees meeting Monday, Aug. 11.
The board did not vote on the development’s site plan, which will continue to the board’s next meeting.
The four-story, 65-unit development would be about 143,724 square feet in total. At first, developers of the property had proposed a five-story building, but the plan was later changed to four stories and adapted to meet the village’s code.
Sarit Elias, a resident of Great Neck Estates, said around 8:30 a.m. there is already severe congestion on Middle Neck Road. Adding more residents, she said, would create a bottleneck near the train station.
“We’re urging the mayor and the board to reject this proposal for the sake of traffic, of safety, of overcrowding our schools, of harming our infrastructure,” Elias said. “It’s just not going to work.”
Kouros “Kris” Torkan, the mayor of Kings Point, spoke in favor of the proposed development project. Torkan is also the founder and owner of real estate company Villadom Corp.
“Retail is not what it used to be in Great Neck,” he said. “Renting retail on this property is going to be impossible.”
Torkan argued that if the number of residents increased, then retail businesses would be more attracted to the village due to higher demand from shoppers.
Elias said the mayor of Kings Point does not know about traffic congestion in Great Neck Estates.
“How dare anybody from Kings Point tell us what we should do in our neighborhood over here,” she said.
Mason Sofia, the development designer for the proposed project, said the average size of the apartment unit would be 1,400-square-feet. Several units are smaller, measuring at about 1,000-square-feet, and some are bigger at around 1,600-square-feet.
Sofia said there are no plans for adding a pool to the property.
“There’s really no good place that we would comfortably put the pool in the site to accommodate parking as well,” Sofia added.
Trustee Lilia Shemesh said it was a little disheartening to hear that a pool was not seriously considered since she thinks it would be a great amenity for the property.
Several speakers argued that having more residents in Great Neck Estates would create overcrowding at the Great Neck Estates pool.
For parking, there would be one parking spot per unit, and then more parking for visitors to the complex.
When asked how much more traffic there would be on Middle Neck Road, the developer said he was not sure, which was met with loud laughter from the audience.
Tense words were exchanged between Mayor William Warner and Elias.
Warner repeatedly told Elias to address only the board instead of Torkan or the audience. Elias told Warner to stop interrupting her during her allotted time to speak.
Elias said the proposal is no different from The Rose at Great Neck at 218 Middle Neck Road, another condominium complex in the village.
“What makes this building different than The Rose?” she asked during the meeting. “The Rose couldn’t sell. So why are you going to have this building here?”
Elias is also a realtor at Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. She said during an interview with the Long Island Press that although she works in real estate, she thinks having these condos would be detrimental for the neighborhood, citing overcrowding in schools and heavy traffic.
In the Long Island Press interview, Karen and Steven Roth, who live behind the proposed development, said they are against turning the property into a residential space. Steven Roth said the proposed development will be rented out eventually–similarly to what residents say are happening with The Rose at Great Neck–because developers will struggle to sell them as condos.
“We’ll end up with a lot of large rentals along Middle Neck Road, which will change the whole character of the community,” he said, “[It will] become much more transient, become much more crowded, bring down property values, we just don’t want to see that happening.”
Steven Roth said the developers want to maximize their profits, which is why they are not putting in a pool.
Karen Roth said the developers’ argument is that this individual project will not negatively impact the schools, traffic or water usage.
“The cumulative effect on all of Great Neck is going to be very negative,” she said. “And from what we hear from people who have kids in the schools, schools are already crowded…People move here because it’s a great school district, but not if the classes are overcrowded.”
Jay Corn, a resident of Great Neck Estates for more than 50 years, said most people are against the proposal and so he thinks the Board of Trustees should reject it.
“This board is a representation of the constituents that elected it,” he said. “Nobody in this village who owns a single-family residence wants this building. So please do your job and represent the people who elected you.”
Eric Alexander, director of Vision Long Island, said his organization has worked in Farmingdale and Mineola to improve their downtown areas. Vision Long Island, Alexander said, allocates public funding and resources toward developing downtown areas. The organization has a 48-member board and spans from Riverhead to Valley Stream.
Alexander said the proposed condos will help the village’s tax coffers. Alexander added there is evidence that housing helps retail in downtown areas.
“When you have more residents in the community, and it’s a walkable community, people are going to spend their dollars locally,” he said.
Although people usually worry about the safety of their town when new tenants move into their neighborhood, Alexander said for multifamily units there is often a vetting or application process.
“We believe that these housing choices will add to the vibrancy of your downtown,” he said.
David Berman, a longtime resident of Great Neck Estates, said although there may be more tax revenue for the village, it will not directly help residents.
“I am sure we’re not going to see a decrease in our taxes coming,” Berman said.
