Nassau News

Mayor Wayne Hall says he wants add to the tax base to ease the tax burden of Hempstead Village residents. But Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now chairman Joseph Gill, which works with many Hempstead Village community activists says that any plan must be beneficial to the community.

To view this article as a video, click on the embedded player below. Click here for a script this video.

Read the print version of this article below

Mayor Wayne Hall still has high hopes to have a new redevelopment plan so Hempstead Village's resident do not have such a great tax burden. But hurdles still remain before the mayor’s plan comes to fruition.

Community activists want as much as 50-percent affordable housing in any redevelopment plan. But Hall says that if he adds more affordable housing to the tax roll, it will hurt the village’s tax base.

• This is a video of Mayor Hall explaining why adding more affordable housing will hurt the tax base (7:32 seconds into video)

Hempstead Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) co-chairman Joseph Gill asks “where are people going to live?” if the city does not include affordable housing in its plan.

• Click here to view the Joseph Gill Interview.

Gill and the mayor also do not agree on what is affordable housing. Hall contends that there was 50- percent affordable housing in the last plan, while Gill said that was “not true.” According to Gill, the mayor thinks that federally assisted housing is affordable but Gill believes that only assigned housing, which the federal and state governments have to subsidize, is affordable housing.

Mayor Hall has been trying to pass a redevelopment plan since last fall. But last year's plan failed because he did not have the votes to gain approval from the Hempstead Village Board. Also, the housing market was partially responsible for the plans demise as the city would not realize as much tax revenue from housing included in the plan according to The New York Times.

• Read a New York Times article on the possibilities of tax revenue from housing.

Hempstead Village also has a $10-million lawsuit from a previous construction project that fell through according to the Long Island Business News. The developer is now suing the Village of Hempstead. If the lawsuit goes to trial, an injunction could be put on any redevelopment plan.

The mayor said that a request for proposal will be sent out to all developers by June. The RFP, should take approximately six weeks. Then Hall will go through the offers from the developers and decide which proposal is best.

Redeveloping downtown Hempstead has been the main goal of the mayor's administration for more than a year now. But Hall has been unable to gain traction despite a great effort. Other Hempstead Village mayors have encountered similar problems.

• This New York Times article that tells about past Hempstead redevelopment plans.

Once it was The Hub of Long Island

Hempstead Village was once one of the primary shopping centers on Long Island. But after the Roosevelt Field Mall was built in 1956 many of the stores left Hempstead Village.

• View a Newday article that talks about when the village was the Hub.

Richard Guardino, vice president for business development at Hofstra University, says that while “Hempstead will never be what it once was,” he does think that redevelopment “is a good idea”.

Related Links

• Newsday article by Tara A. Scully, March 3, 2007. This article is about the history of Hempstead. It talks about how Hempstead was founded and who some of its key figures are in its history. It also talks about its history as a shopping center. This aspect of the article was particularly important to my story.
• New York Times article by Annie Correal, September 30, 2007. This article talks about how the mayor had revise the redevelopment plan. Hall revised the redevelopment plan to make some concessions with business owners. It also included quotes from ACORN and other business owners.
  
• New York Times article by Bruce Lambert, August 1, 2007. This New York Times article talks about how the village is divided on the redevelopment plan. Affordable housing was at the center of the debate. The problem with the project was that most of the community opposed it.
  
• New York Times article by Valerie Cotsalas, February 25, 2007. This article gives some background on the Village of Hempstead. It provides details on how the residents of Hempstead would be affected by this redevelopment.
  
• New York Times article Annie Correal, Oct. 7, 2007. This Times article tells why the Hempstead redevelopment plan was left behind. Mayor Hall did not have enough support for the plan, and the housing crisis also may have hurt the amount of taxes the village would have realized from the project.
  
• New York Times article Opinion, June 17, 2007. This article gives some details on what challenges Mayor Hall has before him, and the issues he will face in trying to get the plan to go through.
  
• Ferradino and Associates Consulting site has pictures of Hempstead Village redevelopment plan. This gives people some background on some of the details of the project, and includes plans, and visuals of the now-defunct Urban America redevelopment project.
  
• Blog by Chris Pearson.. This article provides an update on where the redevelopment plan.
  
• Nassau News article By Lindsey Calabrese. This article provides visuals of what was going to happen in the previous redevelopment plan, and shows some models of the types of homes that Mayor Hall wants to put in.
  
• Nassau News article by Kristina Trnka. This article was specifically about the downtown Hempstead redevelopment plan, and what was going on with it. One of the problems with the plan was that there was a lot of controversy.
  
• Epodunk: Hempstead Community profile. This article gives specific facts on the History of Hempstead, and since history is partly the driving force behind redevelopment, this website is important.
  
• LI Biz Blog, by Henry E. Powderly II. This is a blog that talks about what is going to happen next for the downtown redevelopment area. It talks about the problems and the challenges going forward.
  
• New York State Department of Labor: Expansions for April 2007 . This link has provided me with a study on how Hempstead Village would be affected by the redevelopment plan. One of the problems it said the plan had was that a lot of people might be displaced.
  
• Long Island Genealogy Report: James B. York, May 30, 2007. This further provided facts about the history of Hempstead and how it was settled.
  
• Saccardi and Schiff:Hempstead Community Development Agency master plan [PDF]. Hempstead like many other Long Island cities has a master plan that it wants to implement. This will let the reader know where the master plan fits in with what Hempstead is trying to do with its downtown rebuilding project.
  
• Notice Of Acceptance Of Draft EIS And Public Hearing of Hempstead Redevelopment Plan, June 12, 2007. This document tells where the redevelopment plan would take place.
  
• Downtown Revitilization Scoping document, Dec. 13, 2006. This provides with the results of the environmental review that was done on the downtown Hempstead redevelopment project. It provides some guidelines for how far the plan should go and how large the buildings should be.
  
• Health Report From Village of Hempstead, May 14, 2007. This provides a health report from the village of Hempstead, and it incorporates how the new project will affect the lifestyles, and overall health of its citizens.

• NY Times article by Phillip Lutz, January 22, 1989. This article provides some details on how Hempstead has tried redevelopment projects before.

Wayne Hall Interview

Wayne Hall explains why he wants to rebuild downtown Hempstead, and why some people in the community don't want change. Click on the embedded player to view. Here is a script of the interview

Richard Guardino Interview

Long Island Real Estate Expert Richard Guardino gives his opinions on the Hempstead Village Downtown redevelopment plan. Click on the embedded player to view. Here is a script of the interview.

Joseph Gill Interview

ACORN co-chair Joseph Gill explains his concerns about why ACORN is concerned about housing in any redevelopment plan. Click on the embedded player to view. Here is a script of the interview.

More multimedia

View a Flickr slide show on the way the village of Hempstead was and how it became the way it is now.

Read the production memo