NEWS
TRANSCRIPT OF CHARLES WANG'S PRESENTATION AT LIGHTHOUSE ZONING HEARING
Sep 24, 2009
Lighthouse Project Zoning Hearing
September 22, 2009
John Cranford Adams Playhouse, Hofstra University
Good morning Supervisor Murray and Town Council members.
I'm Charles Wang, Principal of the Lighthouse Development Group and I am here with my partner and friend Scott Rechler, Michael Picker, the President of the Lighthouse Development Group and Terri Elkowitz, partner from the environmental firm, VHB. Also in attendance are the remainder of the Lighthouse staff and all of our consultants. We are requesting the Board enact a new zoning district known as the Planned Development District or "PDD" that will govern the development of the Lighthouse site. Specifically, our application pertains to the following sections, blocks and lots as shown on the Land and Tax Map of the County of Nassau: Section 44 Block F Lots 326, 351, 384-387, and 401-403 and Section 50 Block 340 Lots 466G, 466H, and 483.
The property is currently zoned as Mitchel Field Hotel, Mitchel Field Office, Mitchel Field Office II, and B Residence. Our proposal, a Planned Development District will incorporate mixed uses: residential, retail, office, hotel, and entertainment. It is this mix of land uses that will generate the most benefits for Long Island.
The site for the Lighthouse project is surrounded by Hofstra University, Nassau Community College, Museum Row, the Hempstead Plains and Purcell Preserve, and commercial space. This is an ideal location for the mixed uses proposed for the Lighthouse, as there is no condemnation and eminent domain required and no residence abuts the site. Even more amazing is the infrastructure that was built at and around Mitchel Field as the County had planned for smart growth at this site.
When the project was first proposed in 2003, we began a community outreach initiative like no other developer on Long Island has undertaken. We have held 212 community outreach meetings. We have returned to communities and groups multiple times as the project has evolved based on the input of the community. The video we are about to show you explains the different components of the project and the necessary mitigation measures we have proposed.
[VIDEO]
You see, the Lighthouse project is about what Long Islanders need and want to have in their community. This project reflects the people's needs and dreams. We, the developer, have listened to what they want to see for the Lighthouse project. The voices you will hear in the next video are the same people who are waiting for you, the leaders of this Town to take action so our community can begin to experience the benefits.
[VIDEO]
At the SEQRA hearing on August 4, the public commented on the extensive and thorough 6,500 pages of our draft environmental report containing data that we began collecting almost eight years ago. Overwhelming support for the Lighthouse was shown to this Board. We have reviewed all the comments sent in to the Town as a result of the SEQRA process. We have done an enormous amount of work and expended an enormous amount of financial resources and manpower to get to this point. We have worked with the Town through this process and are almost complete with negotiating a lease with Nassau County Executive, Tom Suozzi. We have proposed mitigations. We have done everything in cooperation with the community, the Town and the County. We are approaching the need for certainty.
As we move towards a decision point, certain significant events still have to occur. The Town Board, which is the Lead Agency, has to file a Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement or FGEIS and issue a Findings Statement. SEQRA regulations provide that the FGEIS be complete by September 18th, a few days ago. To my knowledge this was not filed and I submit to you today a 4,159 page FGEIS which you should accept and adopt. Thereafter, the Town Board should conclude the SEQRA process by promptly issuing its Findings Statement. I respectively request that the FGEIS, the transcript of this public hearing, the video tapes shown today, the DGEIS, the DGEIS public hearing transcript from August 4, 2009 plus the video tapes shown at that hearing be incorporated in the record of today's proceeding as they demonstrate that the creation of the PDD zoning district by the Board takes into account the needs and desires of our community.
[IMAGE: SITE MAP]
In order for the Board to make an informed decision on our zoning application, I would like to explain our Master Plan--the components and why they work together within our 150 acres and with our neighboring communities. I will then give a brief overview of a few of the significant areas that we have addressed to ensure that the Lighthouse Site Plan is proper and adequate.
The Lighthouse site plan went through many iterations before the current design was finalized. As we met various community groups, civic groups, chambers of commerce, and elected officials, etc., we adjusted our design for some of the suggestions we received. One thing that never changed and was well received in our meetings was the desire to create a true destination for Long Island and for that destination to have an iconic structure as its centerpiece.
[IMAGE: DISTRICT MAP]
We have submitted to the Town a conceptual site plan for approval. Our site plan is broken into 3 Subdistricts-Core, Residential and Office. The Core district allows for the Coliseum, the Sports Complex, Celebration Plaza, hotel, convention, residential, retail and restaurants. The Residential district allows for residential, retail, restaurants and a cinema. The Office district allows for mixed use buildings combining office, retail and restaurant uses within a single building.
Our site plan consists of:
[IMAGE: COLISEUM RENDERING (CELEBRATION PLAZA)]
• 831,500 square feet of a completely transformed Coliseum. This facility is over 400,000 square feet larger than the current facility. The transformed facility will have, among other improvements, multiple concourses (in contrast to today's heavily congested single concourse); new seats (in contrast to today's mix and match seats from the early 80s), the latest in technology advancements (in contrast to today's facility, where the roof can't support some of the entertainer's equipment), sufficient restrooms (in contrast to today's insufficient quantity and to obviate the need for the current outdoor facilities), and varied food options (in contrast to today's limited game or event offerings). This transformation will take 2-3 years and will be the first building started.
[IMAGE: SPORTS COMPLEX SIDE SHOT]
• 371,500 square foot Athletic Complex that will be a component of the transformed Coliseum structure. This facility will have 4 sheets of ice, 4 basketball courts and a 25,000 square foot fitness facility. The New York Islanders will practice and train there. The facility, like none other on Long Island, will provide opportunities for residents as well as attract teams and events like the NCAA tournament to bolster Long Island tourism. This Complex will be done as part of the first Phase.
[IMAGE: DISPLAY RETAIL/LOFTS/CANAL SHOT]
• 500,000 square feet of complementary retail is part of our overall site plan. This retail is not designed to compete with the large shopping malls like Roosevelt Field and the Source, or with the type of retail space found in nearby downtown areas like Garden City and Hempstead, but will primarily address the needs of the residents, tenants, and patrons of the property offerings. Examples would be boutiques, cafes, a grocer, movie theater/live stage venue and a sporting goods store. Excluding the grocer, movie theater/live stage venue and restaurants, the site will only have about 300,000 square feet of other retail.
• The retail locations will be in stand alone buildings, base floors with residential above and within the Coliseum structure. The retail works well within our master plan because of the foot traffic created by residential units, hotel, convention center, Coliseum, Sports Complex and office tenancy. The retail offerings at the site will not affect the surrounding community current retail locations. Our studies clearly show that the Lighthouse site will create purchasing power from outside the region and will have a positive impact on the surrounding retail community. Additionally we will promote local businesses to our tenants.
[IMAGE: PORTS TECHNOLOGY OFFICE SHOT]
• 1 million square feet of Class A office space is located in 4 buildings. The office buildings range from 110 feet (8 stories) to 135 feet (9 stories) which fit in with existing office structure in the area. The main focus for these office buildings will be to attract companies to bring their corporate headquarters to Long Island and focus on creating a sports technology industry for the area. Long Island needs another growth area that can provide well paying jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs to create tomorrow's growth companies.
[IMAGE: RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT SHOT]
• There are 2306 residential units. These units are comprised of 426 one bedroom units, 1362 two bedroom units and 518 three bedroom units. The residential units are housed in 21 buildings which range from 3 stories to 36 stories. There are two 36 story, 450 foot buildings that will house the site's luxury condominiums. This structure, although, not as tall as I had originally hoped, will present views to Manhattan and Connecticut and be the icon that our area so desperately needs. 20% of the units will be set aside for price controlled next generation housing. 5% of the units will be rentals to be evenly split for students and the 55 and older.
• To truly create an environment that is active and safe, adding residential units is vital. And creating residential units that have a broad variety of sizes, product types and locations will meet the demands of a broad cross section of the housing market. The number of units is important to maintain as the residential component is a key factor in being able to financially support the less economically viable components such as the Coliseum and convention center.
[IMAGE: TOWER SHOT]
• 300 new 5 star hotel rooms will be located in the lower floors of one of the 36 story towers. These hotel rooms add a completely different product offering to our Long Island community, and with the Long Island Marriott will serve the office space tenants, Coliseum entertainment and patrons, Convention and Exhibition center participants and attendees plus travel teams using the Sports Complex.
[IMAGE: CONFERENCE SHOT]
• The current Coliseum has 82,000 square feet of exhibition space and does not allow us to compete for many small to mid-size shows. The current location is below ground and is very difficult to utilize since concrete columns are placed every 30 feet. For your information, only once during my career at Computer Associates were we able to do a conference here on Long Island due to the lack of proper facilities. Every year we had to go to places like New York City, Atlanta, Orlando, Las Vegas, and New Orleans.
• Our site plan creates a mid size convention and exhibition center of approximately 250,000 square feet with the ability to expand by using the floor space of the Coliseum and the Sports Complex. This facility is desperately needed to keep our local companies from going off the Island for their events and provide Long Island the ability to attract more tourism business.
[IMAGE: ICE SKATING SHOT]
• There will be significant public benefits offered at the site including a public outdoor skating area, water features such as canals, and acres of green space called Celebration Plaza plus bicycle and walking paths.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC SHOWING COLLECTION POINTS]
Transportation has been of utmost importance since the Lighthouse project was conceived in 2003. We have been collecting traffic data since the project inception date and have information from an unprecedented 279 data collection points on roadways as far as 5 miles away. These data points included local roadways, the Meadowbrook Parkway and parts of the Northern State, Southern State, Wantagh Parkway and the Long Island Expressway.
As you know, my partner and I are heavily invested in the immediate area with our ownership of RXR Plaza, the Omni, the Long Island Marriott and the New York Islanders. We have every incentive to make traffic and transportation initiatives work in the area. As the Lighthouse site plan was drafted, changed through community input and finally submitted for approval, traffic and transportation have constantly been addressed. Today, we have a plan that the agencies that control all the surrounding roads have reviewed, and have accepted our methodology (and even noted that we were conservative in some areas) and mitigation plans with some added minor suggestions.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC OF ALL MITIGATION PROPOSED INCLUDING PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES AND BUS CONTRIBUTION]
The Lighthouse organization will be providing $55 million toward transportation initiatives and improvements. This contribution will go to improving the existing bus service that serves the site and building pedestrian bridges from RXR Plaza and the Omni so that these key locations are accessible to the Project core.
The Lighthouse organization has had extensive communication with our Federal, State and County elected officials on securing Federal funding for the mitigation projects such as adding a 4th lane to a portion of the Meadowbrook Parkway, rebuilding and redesigning the Meadowbrook Parkway on/off ramps to the site and changes to some of the local roadways. This proposed funding will have many benefits for Long Island in making the Lighthouse and all of its economic attributes a success.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC OF TDM TECHNIQUES]
We will also be implementing proven Transportation Demand Management techniques to minimize and efficiently process single occupancy vehicles.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC OF SHUTTLE BUS AND TROLLEY]
Finally, the Lighthouse will be providing a privately owned Shuttle Bus service that will transport site residents and patrons to and from key transportation hubs like the Mineola and Hempstead train stations. A privately funded Trolley service will also be implemented to take site residents and patrons not only around the Lighthouse project but to key neighboring locations such as Hofstra University, Nassau Community College, and Museum Row.
We recognize that there is a concern about bringing a rail connection to the Lighthouse site or activating the limited use rail existing today. We are not proposing either in our plans and as I just mentioned we have made significant commitments to improve the existing bus service and to implement a private bus and internal trolley system.
Based on the advice of our traffic and transportation consultants, and the input received from the NY State Department of Transportation and Nassau County Department of Public Works, we believe that the traffic improvements and mitigation plans, and other transportation improvements and initiatives will adequately accommodate the additional traffic generated by the project.
[IMAGE: PARKING SITE MAP WITH PARKING BREAKOUT}
Providing sufficient parking locations appropriately located without creating an aesthetically unpleasing site due to an overabundance of parking is the goal of any developer. The Lighthouse parking plan was created using proven principles of "shared parking" which is being done successfully all over the world.
Shared parking occurs naturally in mixed use projects like the Lighthouse where Project components such as office building and an entertainment venue like the Coliseum have different use periods and/or site patrons may visit multiple project components without re-parking. This means that one parking spot effectively serves many businesses and the goal mentioned above is achieved.
The Lighthouse parking plan shows a total of 19,926 parking spaces primarily in 4 structured parking only locations. These tiered locations have varying levels below ground and the largest structure will be 4 levels above ground. By providing the 19,926 parking spaces the site will have a surplus of over 1,500 spaces during a peak event.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC OF WELL LOCATION AND A WELL DESIGN]
From the first day we ever discussed the Lighthouse Project with the Town of Hempstead and even before any water studies were undertaken, our organization was alerted by Town officials that there was insufficient water availability for our project and thus we would have to address adding infrastructure capacity to the Town's system. Lighthouse conducted a complete survey of the Uniondale Water District based on information provided to them. Lighthouse also worked with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Nassau County Health Department to develop the strategy that deals with this issue.
In summary, our studies have found that there is plenty of water in Nassau County since the impact to Nassau County's water resources would only require approximately 0.8% of available surplus groundwater. Based on initial data furnished by the Town, our studies also concluded that the Uniondale Water District needed a well site to access the available water.
Last week, we received new capacity data from the Uniondale Water District. The Water District has recently completed an updated assessment of its actual peak maximum daily water demand that actually resulted in a surplus capacity of water of approximately 1 million gallons per day. This is obviously great news for the Lighthouse project and all customers in the district.
This surplus along with other Hempstead water department interconnected systems could carry the Lighthouse water demands into phase 2 of development before additional supply infrastructure is needed. Lighthouse is currently committed to securing land and a well for the Uniondale Water District to operate after phase 1. The new well would not only serve the project but would also add to the surplus of potable water by almost 1 million gallons per day. This will provide welcomed redundancy and reliability to the entire system which is a great benefit to the Uniondale Water District and its customers.
In looking for the most suitable location for the well, there is a consensus among the Lighthouse, Nassau County, Nassau Community College, Nassau County Department of Health, Uniondale Water District and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that the new well is best situated at a limited use location on the Community College property. Our analysis of this location shows that a well would have negligible impact to the aquifer and surrounding surface water bodies. As this is a complicated issue, Lighthouse will continue to work with all of the appropriate agencies to ensure a sufficient amount of clean water is available at the appropriate development timeframe.
[IMAGE: GRAPHIC WITH ALL BENEFIT NUMBERS]
The Lighthouse Development will be its own stimulus package for Long Island. As we stated many times, our project can be a catalyst for tax generation and job opportunities.
Our projections show that the Lighthouse site will generate 71 million dollars of incremental total property, sales and entertainment tax revenue. The biggest beneficiary of this will be the Uniondale School District which is estimated to receive more than 25 million dollars of new tax revenue in addition to the 11 million dollars the school currently receives from the project site. We recognize that other communities believe that this school number is unfairly distributed but we, as developers, generate the revenue and are not involved with the distribution of funds. This is and has been a State issue.
As far as jobs opportunities, there will be 75,000 construction and construction related jobs over the 10 year build-out period. We are working with Labor to craft a Project Labor Agreement. This agreement will address using local labor and an apprenticeship program. There are approximately 19,000 permanent jobs necessary at full build out. In order to promote local residents for these opportunities, we will be working with existing governmental departments and local recruitment agencies. Although we cannot guarantee who will fill the jobs, we can use the existing structure to make sure they are informed.
[IMAGE: A LOOP OF RENDERINGS AND FINISH WITH LOGO]
As you know, we can't get back the time that has been spent, and time is of the essence. There is an expiring lease on the Islanders, and the future of the team is of critical importance to the Lighthouse project as well as to Long Islanders.
We can make this happen, I believe in this project and the overwhelming support from Long Islanders.
Supervisor Murray, Councilman Santino, Councilwoman Goosby, Councilwoman Cullin, Councilman Hudes, Councilman Ambrosino, and Councilman Darcy: We are at a defining moment, one that will determine Long Island's future. The decisions you make, don't make, or delay making will be what our legacy is. You must make the decisions Long Islanders need, and want you to make. There is no perfect solution to the challenges that face Long Island. But it certainly is not perfect to let things remain the same. Thank you.
