Port Washington residents packed Baxter Estates Village Hall Wednesday night, Feb. 4, as the Board of Trustees opened a public hearing on a proposal to demolish an existing building at 25 Shore Road and construct a new two-story headquarters for the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation.
The Dejana Foundation’s previous headquarters was located at 30 Sagamore Hill Drive, but it has since been sold, leaving the foundation without a secure home.
The board emphasized throughout the evening that the meeting was informational and procedural, and that no decision would be made until the public hearing record is formally closed.
Village counsel Chris Prior said the board was sitting in its capacity as the planning board to consider an application seeking site plan approval and a reduction in the number of required off-street parking spaces under village zoning law.
The application also seeks approval to use residentially zoned portions of the property for accessory parking, a request that would require a separate appearance before the village board of zoning appeals if the trustees grant preliminary relief.
“This body is here only to consider the site plan, and to consider the number of parking spaces,” Prior said, noting that additional approvals from the board of zoning appeals would be required before construction could proceed.
The hearing drew such a large crowd that some attendees had to wait outside due to space constraints.
The property, located at the corner of Shore Road, Harbor Road and Bayside Avenue, consists of three lots spanning both business and residential zoning districts. The Dejana Foundation has owned the property since 2002, and said the “project will significantly improve the site’s appearance and functionality.”
The applicant proposes demolishing the existing one-story structure — formerly a bank and later a church — and replacing it with a two-story, 9,868-square- foot office building that would serve as the permanent headquarters of the charitable foundation.
Representatives of the foundation described the project as a permitted philanthropic use under the village code.
“It is a philanthropic foundation,” attorney Michael Sahn said. “This will be their offices for the institution. It is not a building that will have tenants or a third party occupying it. It is strictly for the institution to fulfill its mission.”
Village Superintendent of Buildings Robert Barbach provided a detailed history of the site, noting that residentially zoned portions of the property had been used for accessory parking since the 1950s under a series of approvals tied to its former use as a bank. Those approvals became indefinite in 1993 but were limited to banking use.
“The church was never required to seek a variance,” Barbach said, adding that the village’s past actions “does not preclude the village now requiring the board of appeals to authorize” new accessory parking.
Barbach also described enforcement action taken by the village in 2024, when demolition work was observed at the site without proper permits.
“We investigated, we found that demolition had begun without a permit,” he said. “We directed that the demo be stopped.”
Architects and engineers for the foundation presented site plans, traffic studies and architectural renderings, describing the proposed building as carefully designed to fit the character of the surrounding neighborhood.
Architect Mark Stumer, founder of Mojo Stumer Associates, said the design team worked to ensure the building would be “harmonious to the community, properly sited on the property, properly scaled on the property.”
“The leaf, the design, the quality of what we’re trying to bring to Baxter Estates, Port Washington, and Sands Point neighborhood, and to maintain the quality for the designer organization, the fund, that this is something that they’re proud of,” said Stumer.
Stumer emphasized that the project was not intended as a typical commercial office building.
“This is a foundation, not a commercial office group,” he said. “This is not a doctor’s office or a lawyer’s office. This is a business office for the foundation.”
A central topic during the hearing was parking. Under the village code, the proposed building would require 51 off-street parking spaces. The site plan includes 29 constructed spaces and seven “land-banked” spaces that would remain landscaped unless needed in the future, for a potential total of 36 spaces.
“The applicant is proposing 22 parking spaces less than that which is required,” village officials noted during the presentation.
The foundation’s traffic consultant Sean Mulryan argued that the parking requirement overstates actual demand.
“On a typical business day, neighbors and passersby can expect to notice an average of maybe eight to 10 vehicles in the parking lot,” he said, adding that the building would operate primarily during weekday business hours and would not host large public events.
Engineers said the project would not add new curb cuts and would reconstruct existing driveways to meet current Nassau County Department of Public Works standards.
A left-turn restriction is proposed for vehicles exiting the site onto Shore Road, and the project will be reviewed by the Nassau County Planning Commission and county public works officials.
“We believe that the site access is within current standards,” Mulryan said, adding that the former bank use would have generated “significantly more traffic than the building that we are proposing.”
During public comment, several residents raised concerns about increased traffic, safety and quality of life, particularly on Bayside Avenue, a narrow dead-end street adjacent to the site.
A Bayside Avenue resident said she moved to the neighborhood in 2020 and described it as a quiet street where children regularly play.
“This is a street where children play, families feel safe,” she said. “A foundation has employees, visitors, deliveries, meetings and potentially events, which is far more activity than what existed before.”
She said the project’s size raised “real safety concerns,” citing limited turning space for vehicles and the number of young children living on the block.
Many residents asked for the building to remain one level.
Manhasset Isle resident Sherry Den said, “You are taking away the views of some of the residents out there, but now are going to no longer have that.”
“Manhasset Isle has been plundered by the developers that have come there seeking de minimis variances that have been egregiously given by the BZA,” said Den about the Manorhaven Board of Zoning Appeals.
Port Washington resident Russell Berman said he supported the development.
“I’ve seen the streets of Port have increasingly become empty,” he said. “There are people who want to see things remain the same, but if things remain the same, you will see an increasing amount of empties.”
Foundation representatives emphasized their long-standing ties to the community and their charitable work.
“We chose this visible, prestigious location on a main thoroughfare in this beautiful village for our permanent home, with the idea of appropriately and tastefully augmenting the village’s prominence in full Washington, not to negatively impact the village in any way,” Gerard Terry, secretary of the Dejana Foundation, said.
“Our sole purpose is to establish a modern, permanent, and Port Washington-based headquarters. Not our office headcount, but our mission,” said Terry.
Trustee Maria Branco asked about the number of office spaces needed.
“The core use of the building day to day will be to provide private office space for 12 employees, for Mrs. Dejana, for Miss Schweber, for outside professionals, if they need to come in, and they require office space,” said Terry. He also said the foundation is planning a summer intern program that would require offices for the students.
“The absence of any objection to what is being proposed should lead to no inference that the village supports what is being proposed,” Prior said. “Each board member’s responsibility is to keep an open mind.”
After several hours of testimony, the board voted to continue the public hearing to allow additional time for review and response. The hearing will resume at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, and will be held at the Port Washington Public Library rather than Village Hall due to anticipated attendance.
