Court denies town's Army base plan

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Development of the abandoned 17-acre parcel has been in dispute since the base closed in 1996. After deliberating for six months, the state Appellate Division ruled in favor of the developer, BLF Associates, on Dec. 23, saying the town had no authority to stipulate the exact number and type of homes at the proposed development in a zoning ordinance.
In 1997, the Town of Hempstead formed the North Bellmore Base Reuse Planning Group to develop plans for the property. At the time, the town had the chance to buy the property from the Army and develop it for public use, but chose not to. In 2004, the Department of the Army offered the property for sale through a competitive bidding process.
After holding a series of public hearings on the use of the land, the town approved a mixed-use rezoning plan for it in 1997. The town set out to enact the reuse plan in 2005, a decision that was upheld by the town zoning board in 2006 in an appeal by BLF Associates, which purchased the property in November 2005 for $6.6 million. The town had intended to include its reuse plan in BLF's deed, but did not.
The plan called for a maximum of 34 single-family homes and 40 semi-attached "golden age" price-capped homes on the property. Part of the site, at least 1.25 acres, was to include a community recreation center owned by a homeowners' association, with a swimming pool, a picnic area, a minimum of two tennis courts, an exercise room, no fewer than two shuffleboard courts, a kitchen, an office and a community room.
In the December ruling, the appellate court said that while certain sections of town law "empower the Town to regulate and restrict lot sizes and permitted uses, there is nothing in these sections which empowers the Town to create a zoning ordinance that specifies the exact number and type of dwelling allowed." The ruling went on, "Nor do the applicable enabling statutes purport to allow the enactment of a zoning ordinance that requires construction of a 9,000-square-foot community recreational facility, with specified amenities, on no fewer than 1.25 acres of land."
"Zoning ordinances may go no further than determining what may or may not be built," the court ruled, "and [the town's plan] is unnecessarily and excessively restrictive, [which] leads us to conclude that it was not enacted for legitimate zoning purposes."
Also considered beyond the town's authority, the court said, were the proposed requirement that the recreational facility be owned by a homeowners' association, and a requirement that the homes for seniors were to be cooperative units. The court said these requirements were "void since zoning deals with land use, and not with the person who owns or occupies it."
Also at issue was BLF's knowledge of the town's zoning plan before it purchased the property. The court disagreed with "the town's contention that BLF cannot be heard to complain because it knew about the reuse plan before it closed title." The court said, "Knowledge of a restriction does not bar a purchaser from testing the validity of the zoning ordinance, [because] the zoning ordinance in the very nature of things has reference to land rather than to owner."
The property is on Maple Avenue south of Jerusalem Avenue. It was an Army Reserve base from the 1950s to the late 1990s. The next steps by the property owner or the town remain to be seen.
Comments about this story? NHiler@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 234.