Friday, October 20, 2017
Vol. 94, No. 5
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
38-0 win PAGE 59 n Street Fair PAGE 48-49
Affordable housing may be part of new development
THREE CHEERS FOR GARDEN CITY
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Garden City celebrated Homecoming last weekend with a parade, street fair and football game. Above, some young cheerleaders from the second grade maroon team.
Clock stopped: HS start time stays early BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
At its work session on Wednesday night, October 11, the Garden City Board of Education vowed to continue work on moving the high school starting time back to 8:30 a.m., but said that a decision cannot be made in time for next school year. The Board looks forward to having a fifth board member in the spring 2018 election and on top of that, a new superintendent of schools in place by
summer 2018 and having those additional points of view on the intiative. One reason the board deferred its decision was because the proposal could have moved the Garden City Middle School starting time up to 7:40 a.m. along with pushing the high school’s back to 8:30 a.m. That would have left last period as “gap time” at GCMS, requiring a voluntary study hall period to be staffed by at least two and as many as eight chaperones, and includ-
ing the compensation for their time. Also the district administration was hesitant about an “open campus” atmosphere for the Middle School children should the students be allowed to leave and be picked up or walk home around 2:30 in the afternoon and come back for after-school activities. There would have been approximately 40 minutes between the end of a GCMS academic day and the beginning of the Middle See page 27
During a work session on Wednesday, November 1 the Garden City Zoning Change Review Committee will hear an application from a deveoper who seeks to build 150 units of housing at 555 Stewart Avenue. Because the Village is under a federal court order related to losing a housing descrimination case in 2014, the developer may be required to make at least ten percent of those units "affordable housing." The Village’s Fair Housing Compliance Officer, Anthony M. La Pinta said he will attend the November 1 public work session. La Pinta was appointed by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt to supervise the village’s compliance with the judgment in the MHANY housing discrimination lawsuit, which the Village lost in 2014. “The judgment has to do with the developer’s obligation to set aside a certain number of units for affordable housing. It is the law that the developer (550 Stewart Acquisitions, LLC) must put aside a certain percentage regarding their number of units. The November 1 work session is to discuss a possibility of a zoning change or whether the village will consider a special use permit for that parcel (555 Stewart) to allow the development to go up. It is the village’s responsibility to deal with the zoning aspect of the developer’s plan to develop the property. The Board of Trustees will need to decide if they will proceed with a village zoning change or a special use permit that will allow construction of that project,” La Pinta said. Judge Spatt’s MHANY case judgment says that the Village of Garden City require applications for new housing developments consisting of five units or more to have a 10% allocation reserved for Affordable Housing. As part of a letter dated February 11, 2016, from La Pinta to the Village of Garden City’s counsel (Cullen & Dykman, LLP of Garden City and Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP of Manhattan) La Pinta suggested creating an information packet for developers of multi-unit housing proposals including not-for-profit developers as well as private market sub-dividers and site plan applicants “which spells out the affordable housing requirements of the judgement.” La Pinta also addressed the 555 Stewart Avenue concept specifically, as it had existed prior to the ramifications of the MHANY judgement on Garden City. About 18 months ago in his letter, La Pinta noted for 555 Stewart Avenue “this initial application did not include the required 10% affordable housing required by the judgement. I have learned this omission was not the fault of the village. The village did notify the owner/developer of this legal requirement. Accordingly the required affordable housing was added to the amended application…. The Village of Garden City should take all reasonable and necessary actions to overcome any barriers to the re-zoning of this development, which is one of the few larger-scale opportunities in the village to See page 27
GC girls soccer team extends winning streak to six PAGE 51 Girls varsity swimming & diving remains undefeated PAGE 54