Bethpage-Tribune_1970-04-23

              •B.T OB
BE.THPfc'-»L L» *
, ETHP»OE NY 11714 oflt^i luitqe
Island Trees
Vol. 4 No. 27
Serving Bethpage - Plainview - Island Trees - Plainedge - Seaford Old Bethpage
Thursday, April 2 3 , 1 9 70 10c per copy
Powell Ave. Downzoning
Draws Opposition Crowd
Some 75 Bethpagers attended a
night hearing Tuesday/ at Town
Hall in Oyster Bay, asking the
TownBoard todeny downzoning of
a land parcel near the corner of
Powell Ave. and Broadway.
After two hours of testimony,
the Board voted to delay a
decision until May 5. This was
done to allow the petitioner's
attorney to present expert wit­nesses
unavailable Tuesday
night.
Supervisor John Burke assured
the crowd, mostly residents of
areas adjoining the site, that a
conclusion to the hearing and a
night hearing had,
I after 240 residents
signed a petition requesting it
(see TRIBUNE,4/16/70).
A procession of witnesses
appeared against the downzoning
request, which would alter the
plot from "D" (multiple
iwellings) to "F", which would
allow erection of a three-story
office building there.
Calling Powell Avenue "a tree-laden
country road heavily taxed
by traffic", Dexter Reed,
spokesman for the residents,
claimed they would be "ad­versely
affected and seriously
hurt" if an off"*e building were
constructed on t'.e site.
Reed alleged that the Powell-
Broadway intersection is so
narrow that a truck held up
traffic there for an hour and a
half last week when it could not
negotiate the. turn. Besides the
many trucks that run this risk
coming off the nearby Seaford-
Oyster Bay expressway, (rte.
135) on their way to Grumman,
Reed pointed to school busses and
library traffic as other sources of
congestion.
In addition to fears of increased
traffic, Reed asked the Coun-cilmen
to "picture yourself next
to this 40-foot high stone edifice"
(the proposed office building). He
asserted it would be an eyesore,
while its parking lot might en­courage
"holliganism." Finally,
he warned that downzoning
might lower property values in
the
everyone who works in this
building will go on rte. 135"
Conroy also noted that the
entrance to a bank is on the
opposite corner of the Powell-
Broadway intersection. "When
good old Grumman pays off" on a .
Thursday night, argued Conroy,
the intersection is almost im­passable.
Coffey pointed out that there is
no official traffic study for Powell
Ave. He offered to provide a
traffic expert at a later meeting.
At the morning, session of
Tuesday's hearing, Coffey had
asked for a postponement
i s real estate expert
i the
nor land values
John Coffey, attorney for the
Garden-City based company,
estimated that the building would
generate 700 more cars per day.
He contended that most of the
traffic would be between the
building and the expressway,
along Powell Avenue "where
there does not appear to be any
traffic congestion at present."
Coffey also asserted that the
building would not increase the
drain on municipal services.
The audience frequently denied
Coffey's statements by assorted
laughs and grumbles. One
resident was a little more
specific. Introducing a 350-name
petition against any downzoning
of the site, John Conroy main­tained
that Coffey's estimate was
only a guess which "assumes that
plenty of time "to prepare his
case", he claimed, stating that
there are a great many real
estate witnesses who could have
been available Tuesday night.
Traffic, privacy, and real
estate values were issues con­tinuously
repeated thruout the
hearing. Ed Dukich of Powell
Ave. reported that his son was
one of four children seriously
hurt in car accidents on that
street. Another resident, John
Michaelson, contended that the
only "solution" to the increased
traffic of an office building would
be an access road between
Powell Ave. and Barbara St., the
other side of he plot.
Mrs. Edward Conway disputed
the need to build along Powell
Ave. in order to gain access to the.
expressway. 'There's plenty of
BLOCKADE RUNNER: A Bethpage youngster takes advantage of a brief
pause in the action at the busy corner of Powell Ave. and Broadway
Photo Credit - Donald Coquelin
LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER: (1. t o r . ) Mr. and Mrs.
Edward Conway and group spokesman Dexter Reed
listen as Town Councilmen question the attorney for
t h e p e t i t i o n e r . Photo Credit - Donald Coquelin
downzoning would be easier to
accomplish that a direct "D" to
"G" process. .
When testimony was finished,
the Board assured the audience
that their testimony would be
considered in the Town's final
decision Although he promised
that the downzoning request
would be the first order of
business May 5, the crowd fur­ther
pressed tto Board to grant a
hearing at iO that night before
voting.
Reed commented that the
Board was wise not to overturn
(Continued on Page 4)
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
We have had a few problems
this week because people have
apparenUy misread some recent
articles 4
First, some readers thought
that a parent group complaining
about the Bethpage reading
program had "harassed" school
officials in the process. Readers
may have come to this belief by
confusing POSSIBLE charges of
harassment with the AC­TUALITY
of harassment. These
are two different things, and we
ask readers to look at a letter
from the parent group on page 4.
We hope this will clear up any
misinterpretation.
The second problem was in the
names of the "Ad Hoc" members
(in an accompnaying article). As
of press time last week, aoly one
person could be confirmedSrs^g
member of this group. This was
Jack Murphy, a junior high
school teacher and president of
the Bethpage Federation of
Teachers.
A few hours after we printed, a
flyer came out from the Ad Hoc
Committee, listing their
leadership. Among these was a
"Mr. E. Murphy." Perhaps the
other Murphy has resigned; at
any rate, at the time the article
was written last week, he said he
was one of its leaders. In short,
we did not "mix up our Mur­phy
8.''
stated.
'there?*
The residents presented their
own real estate expert witness,
Mrs. Joan Cable of Bethpage. She
confirmed that any downzoning
would depreciate property
values.
Mrs. Cable also discussed a
possible complication in the
downzoning- a further down-zoning
the "G" and the erection
of a gas station on the corner of
Powell and Broadway.
Some confusion arose over the
land parcel being discussed.
Dukich had contended earlier
that the Board's legal notices
were inaccurate, since they did
not include the site's frontage on
Broadway, back some 100 feet on
Powell Ave. <
The Board explained that the
Broadway strip was already
zoned "F". The strip was not
included in the plans Coffey
presented for the office building.
Mrs. Cable, meanwhile, had
presented evidence indicating
(hat an oil company wished to
build a gas station on the site.
Coffey responded that his client
had once thought to seek a "G"
zoning, and leasing the land for a'
gas station, but said the plan had
been abandoned because the
parcel is less than 200 feet from
the Bethpage library.
Town law prohibits a gas
station within 200 feet of public
buildings.
Mrs. Cable reported that the oil
company was still interested in a
gas station in that area. She later
speculated that such a station
might be built on the corner of the
"F" zoned Broadway strip,
which is far enough away from
the library.
She also urged the Board to
change its zoning requirements
to insure that petitioners build
what they promise at public
hearings. Under the present
system, she maintained, there is
nothing to prevent a petitioner
from asking for a downzoning to
"F", promising to erect a
business establishment, and then,
waiting to petition for a further