August 11, 2008:  During the past two weeks representatives from the Manhasset Preservation Society, Manhasset Arts and Cultural Center (MACC), the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations and SPLIA (Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities) have conducted meetings and research into the possible preservation of the Parish House.  SPLIA and the NY State Preservation Agency considers the building and site worthy of landmark designation.  Many local residents familiar with the 1930's Gothic Revival Style Parish Building agree and like SPLIA and NYSPA see the high degree of architectural merit as one of the reasons to preserve it.

In the late 1980's SPLIA conducted a state supported survey in the Town of North Hempstead for buildings and sites to identify those contributing historic resources.  Based upon those findings the NYS Office of Historic Preservation  identified the Christ Church Parish House and Site to be eligible for listing on the state and federal register of historic landmarks. Unlike local town or village landmark designation, the state and federal landmark designations do not burden the owner with upkeep, restoration nor renovation rules and regulations unless grants are obtained that require certain provisions to the contrary.  However the state and federal listings of a historic structure or site opens grant opportunities for the owner.

Our focus now turns to an event that occured on November 7th, 2000.  During May Newburgers term as Supervisor a townwide referendum was held on that date to establish the Town of North Hempstead Environmental Legacy Fund.  By an overwhelming 75% majority the voters of North Hempstead including Manhasset approved the referendum.  Readers can learn more about the landmark referendum by visiting www.northhempstead.com go to link Town Code and enter "chapter 20D" The Environmental Legacy Fund or ELF.  In short ELF sets aside $8 million dollars of approved bonding for the acquisition of real estate by the Town of North Hempstead.  The fund was established for both the preservation of natural, cultural and historic properties within the Town.  The ELF law specifically addresses the need to preserve open space and to preserve neighborhoods.  Your author served two terms as an advisor to the TONH ELF Advisory Committee and can add that eligible sites that promote the preservation of open space, preservation of cultural amenities, preservation of historic structures, sites that are located near public transportation and sites that are endangered- collectively represent sites of a very high rating for real estate acquisition.  The Christ Church Parish site qualifies for all the above.  SPLIA commented to us that "the community of Manhasset should learn more about the importance of this historic site and the consequences of losing it. Since most of the Parish Building is occupied by long term tenants such as the Childrens Orchestral Society, MACC and others and because the building is structurally sound these aspects work in favor of the Manhasset Communities chances to preserve it.  The community must work hard and be heard by the Town, only then can a solution be worked out to preserve the building and property".  To this date ELF property acquisitions have been approved by the Town Board for small sites in Port Washington and Roslyn, perhaps it's Manhasset's turn to benefit from a law we supported back on election day, November 7th, 2000.  For more information on some of the historic preservation qualities of the Christ Church Cemetery please visit www.nsaai.com and follow the link to the Town of North Hempstead Historical Society.  Learn where a Revolutionary War African American hero who served as General George Washington's Doctor is buried.

Conclusion; The size and cost of upkeep of the Parish Building by the Christ Church Vestry may very well be unmanageable.  Landmark eligibility should not be associated with burden.  ELF is a solution because the Church doesn't want the building and the current developer doesn't appear to be interested in adaptive reuse. 

August 8, 2008: The Manhasset Preservation Society has received unconfirmed reports that the Christ Church Vestry has extended the contractual sale of the Christ Church Parish Building and property to December of 2009 in return for funding to help Christ Church with the renovation of the main church building.  Since May 23rd the Manhasset Preservation Society has not received any updates nor have had any meetings or presentations with either the Church nor Developer in regards to revised site plans or proposal to rezone the property.

May 23, 2008: Bruce Migatz, Esq. of Albanese and Albanese LLP representing MAPS on behalf of the 16 most affected families from George Street and Onderdonk Avenue confirmed by email today that the Town of North Hempstead has received a letter from the developer Gothic Church Properties LLC requesting that the application to rezone a portion of the Manhasset Christ Church property be withdrawn and that the applicant plans to revise the drawings and resubmit them to the Town at a later date.  Therefore on May 27th the Town Board will not be hearing the application to rezone Christ Church from Residential B to Multiple Residence. 

Last night the Church and the Developers met with the 16 Families and their Attorney at the request of the Church.  The Church and the Developers stated that they would be redesigning the site plan in response to the concerns brought forward by the 16 families and the community.

May 22, 2008: In light of comments we received from two independent members of the Christ Church Parish stating they were informed by the Church Rector earlier this year that the proposed 61 unit apartment building would be basically the same size as the existing gothic style Parish House, a detailed comparison of the two structures reveals contrary information:  Existing gothic style Parish House footprint: 11,355 square feet.  Proposed 61 unit apartment building footprint: 31,045 square feet*.  Existing floor area of the three story gothic style Parish House: approximately 25,000 square feet.  Proposed 61 unit apartment building floor area including parking level and 4 story residential super structure: 155,000 square feet.  *Source; Gothic Church Properties LLC zoning calculations, sheet C01 obtained through FOIL and verified by author.

May 20, 2008: Ann Marie Fruhauf, President of The Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations (which represents all 16 greater Manhasset Civic Associations) released a report today that was sent to Supervisor Jon Kaiman and the Town Board regarding the proposed rezoning of Christ Church by Gothic Church Properties LLC, Mike Puntillo of Sands Point and Marty Soja of Plandome Heights.  The report reads as follows:  According to the NYS Guide to Planning and Zoning Laws, Town zoning laws must be designed to, among other things, lessen congestion, promote the safety, health and the general welfare of the subject community, provide adequate light and air, and prevent overcrowding of land and undue concentration of population.  In addition, such laws are to be made with "reasonable consideration, among other things, as to the character of the district..." See Section 263 "Purpose in View", NYS Department of State Guide to Planning and Zoning Laws of the State of New York, August 1998.  Since its inception, Manhasset has and continues to be a suburban community comprised primarily of single family residences.  Current zoning laws are consistent with this premise.  It is our view that a change of zone for the Subject Property would be in stark contrast to the character of Manhasset and fails to support the underlying intent of our local zoning laws as they pertain to congestion, overcrowding and undue concentration of population, among other things.  It is for this reason that the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations has voted unanimously to recommend against the Applicant's request for change of zone for the Subject Property from Residence B single family dwellings to Multiple Residences and that this recommendation be communicated to the Board of the Town of North Hempstead.  We thank you for your consideration of our position on this matter.

The Greater Council represents the following Civic Associations:  Bayview, Flower Hill, Manhasset Park, Munsey Park, Norgate, Plandome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, Plandome Mills, Plandome Park, Shorehaven, South Strathmore, Strathmore, Strathmore Village, Strathmore Vanderbilt and Terrace Manor.

May 15, 2008: A moderate crowd attended a public hearing sponsored by Supervisor Jon Kaiman on May 14th at the Great Neck South High School auditorium.  The purpose of the hearing was to open a discussion as to whether the two sewer districts should consolidate or whether the sewage should be pumped to the Nassau County Sewage Plant at Cedar Creek in Wantagh.  On hand were the members of the GNWPCD, Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees, the DEC, Nassau County DPW, Town Board members Kitty Poons and Fred Pollack, County Controller Howard Weitzman, Jon Kaiman and many other public officials.  Most of the local residents spoke in favor of consolidation on the grounds that the new facility would provide (unlike Cedar Creek) state of the art nitrogen free terciary clean effluence which could replenish local aquifers contaminated by salt water intrusion. In addition many residents believed that the sewage treatment tax rate would be higher if treated by Nassau County and response time for repairs would be much slower.  The cost of consolidation versus redirecting waste was debated but both would cost anywhere between 35 to 50 million dollars.  A representative from a Wantagh Civic Association argued against redirecting waste and promised considerable local community protest because the Cedar Creek facility is next to an elementary school and is considered by those residents an environmental hazard to health.  In a conversation I had with Commissioner Deena Lesser of GNWPCD afterwards, she stated that if the districts consolidated they would still be able to handle a sewer connection for Mike Puntillo's proposed 61 unit apartment building at Christ Church.

May 12, 2008: 50 residents from the North Strathmore Civic Association filled the living room of the historic Onderdonk House this evening to hear from Councilwoman Kitty Poons.  Filling in for Kitty was Eleanor Lange who works for Kitty and is a local Manhasset resident.  One local resident questioned Eleanor as to whether the Town Board had detailed knowledge about the contractual relationship between Reverend Lowry of Christ Church and Mike Puntillo/Marty Soja.  Eleanor said she does not believe the Board has this information.  The resident then stated that the contract should be made public as an exhibit to the public hearing on the grounds that the Church claims the developer needs rezoning of land to which the Church has never paid taxes on, this is a sacrifice the adjacent families and the Manhasset community is asked to make in order to rescue the Church from financial hardship.  "It would only be reasonable to allow the community to see all of the contractual details before even considering to ask for a sacrifice such as this, this may even provide insight to determine a better solution that would be just as financially equitable for the Church while not creating severe adversity to the adjacent families and the Manhasset community".

Another resident suggested that an effort be made to reach out to the members of the Parish and Vestry and hold an informal meeting without the Developers to see if their view mirrors that of Reverend Lowry, Mike Puntillo and Marty Soja.  The names of the Vestry members were read by the author from public information aquired throught the freedom of information law. 

As in all other meetings regarding this subject since April 15th, a majority of the residents spoke out against every aspect of the proposed rezoning with some growing emphasis on the Developer's and Church's apparent selfish disregard of; the adjacent families, increased traffic congestion, increased school enrollment, speculative precedence and well being of the "small town" Manhasset community.  No residents spoke in favor of the proposed rezoning or even demonstrated a neutral position.

May 9, 2008: The Great Neck Record today (Thursday May 8 2008 Edition) ran an article by Carol Frank, Editor- Sewer Showdown the news article focused on a sewer upgrade quandry in Great Neck on East Shore Road.  Two existing sewer treatment plants which are the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District and the Village of Great Neck Water Pollution Control District have two independent sewage treatment plants on opposing sides of East Shore Road and approximately 1/8 mile apart.  Between now and 2012 they are required by the EPA and DEC to reduce nitrogen discharge into Manhasset Bay by 60% or face stiff fines, this requires a major plant reconstruction and a treatment upgrade facility at a cost $53 million dollars or reroute all waste to the south shore.  Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman rejected the bond requests for $53 million dollars and favors district consolidation as do Governor Patterson and County Executive Suozzi.  The only problem is that the larger of the two plants GNWPCD can barely accommodate both districts after the upgrade, however according to Deena Lesser Commissioner of GNWPCD, "a third engineering firm that the district consulted concluded that with some creative scrunching, space could and would be found to accommodate the village flow". 

For the very same sewer district to now simultaneously agree to a substantial out of district sewer hook up for a 61 unit apartment building in Manhasset without research and conclusive knowledge of long range capacity needs that a consolidated plant may require, may violate the State Environmental Quality Review Act- SEQRA.  The Town of North Hempstead acting as lead agency could also violate SEQRA by approving the rezoning without a full Environmental Review Impact Statement.

This article is not available on the antonnews.com website.  You must purchase a copy of the newspaper to view the article in it's entirety.

May 7, 2008: Despite speculation that the developers of the proposed apartment house would be proposing scaled back plans due to growing community opposition, no such plans were presented at the May 6th Manhasset Chamber of Commerce.  To the surprise of many there was only a brief question and answer session.  The developers did not win their new argument that the proposed 61 unit luxury condo will reduce overall traffic presuming the occupants would most likely walk and not drive their cars if it were built.  In response to a comment concerning 20% affordable housing Mike Puntillo stated that the Nassau County Planning Commission cannot legally enforce that requirement.  Most of the Chamber members who spoke were visibly opposed to the rezoning.  In response to a comment that the proposed rezoning would start a precedence the developers argued that no legal precedence could occur.  One chamber member who identified himself as an Attorney stated that it could however start a "speculative precedence".  No chamber members spoke in favor of the proposed rezoning.

May 6, 2008: The 14 Families living on George Street and Onderdonk Avenue adjacent to the Christ Church proposed rezoning property who would be most affected by the proposed rezoning voted unanimously against any proposed rezoning even if it were scaled back to Northern Boulevard and scaled down to 35 units.  Among some of the reasons were that they were not aware of previous offers for the property for the construction of a new church.  They also stated that other uses, not requiring any rezoning, variances or sewer hook ups, such as a recreational field and community house would be less adverse than an apartment building and more beneficial to the community at large. 

May 5, 2008: It was confirmed by a high ranking Town Official that the application to rezone submitted by the developer did not list all required variances when the application was filed last year.  Article XXVII Amendments, Section 70-238 (A) (1) (b) of the Town of North Hempstead Code requires that the application to rezone be filed in the Building Department, Permit Division and contain a "Zoning/Site data anlysis clearly identifying any items in which the proposed development plan will not conform to the standards of the proposed zoning designation;"  Although the official stated that the Town did determine that some required variances were not indicated on the application the official did not disagree that at least three following variance requirements were not indicated on application: insufficient buffer zones to protect adjacent residential lots and dwellings, see Town Code Section 70-69; underground parking that did not reduce adverse visual impacts to adjoining residential properties/ reduce surface paving nor was necessitated by existing topographical conditions (the proposed surface parking depicted an existing grade elevation increase), see Town Code Section 70-203 (U); and insufficient outdoor recreational area, see Town Code Section 70-72. Anyone wishing to view or print the Town Code can do so by going to www.northhempstead.com and click "Town Code" then enter the word "zoning" in search box.     

May 2, 2008: There is speculation that at next Tuesday's Manhasset Chamber of Commerce meeting Mike Puntillo may be presenting revised site plans for the proposed rezoning of Christ Church property.

May 1, 2008: The Nassau County Planning Commission issued resolution 9366-08: 

Prior to rezoning approval for the proposed higher density development, the applicant should negotiate with the Sewer District to provide a sewer hook up.  Without this connection, the development is unfeasible. 

A cross access agreement would need to be effectuated to ensure continued access onto NY-25A for the proposed residential development.

NCPC recommends that as a condition for approving 61 units at a density of 34 units per acre that 20% of the total number of proposed units be set aside for affordable housing.

May 1, 2008: A high ranking TONH official provided the following clarification to NCPC resolution:

"The Town Board still has multiple options available:"

1. Approve the application incorporating the County's recommendations.

2. Approve the application while disregarding the County's recommendations.

3. Approve the rezoning while capping the density at some number lower than 61 units.

4. Disapprove the application outright.

All are possible according to the official at this point, but not all are equally likely.  To approve the application while disregarding the County's recommendation would require five affirmative votes (super majority), not the usual four.  In this case, the County's resolution implies that an agreement for a sewer connection should be in place prior to a vote, the actual text only says that negotiations should take place, so I'm not totally sure what the requirement is."

May 1, 2008: A Manhasset Park District Commissioner has confirmed that there is a continuing interest in aquiring the Christ Church property for the creation of a new athletic field due to "a real shortage of recreational fields" in Manhasset for the children in local schools.  However the Commissioner stated that of the three commissioners on the board, one has proposed to weigh community support for the acquisition before presenting a formal position. 

Editors note: The 14 Families on George Street and Onderdonk Avenue support the aquisition of property for open space recreation on the condition of certain specific requirements, citing that this is a better solution than the current proposed rezoning, for the 14 families affected and for all Manhasset families with school age children as well.

May 1, 2008: A prominent local Architect provided detailed site plans and building plans depicting a modest church in lieu of the 61 unit 4 1/2 story luxury condo for the Christ Church property.  According to the Architect who is himself a member of the Scottish based New Apostolic Church, these plans were presented with a substantial financial offer to Christ Church when they tendered bids for the property, but Christ Church favored the luxury condo developer.  "The offer is still on the table" according to the Architect and representative of the church. He explained that currently the New Apostolic Church is located in Bayside, however most of the parish has moved to Nassau County.  The fourteen families and supporters of MAPS previewed the plans and all were in agreement that the Architect's design, site plan and proposed use are very well suited for the site and blend in with the character of Manhasset.  

May 1, 2008: Four local residents opposed to the proposed rezoning of Christ Church have had "letters to the editor" published in todays Manhasset Press. Appearing after one of the letters written by James Pritsiolas (who lives with his family adjacent to the proposed development site) is a lengthy "editors note" in which the editor of the Manhasset Press stated that the developer "met" with many residents and organizations prior to the April 15th Town Board hearing.  According to a resident we spoke to living in the Shorehaven section of Manhasset, she found this editors note to be objectionable on the grounds that it is not accurate.  The resident stated that the developer presented final presentation drawings and booklets to the residents before the hearing.  This should not be confused with a "meeting" as stated by the editor.  "The editor should not editorialize personal letters to the editor in accordance with fair journalism".

Editors note: At approximately 3:30 PM today Mrs. James Pritsiolas, while walking on George Street, noticed an elderly man in a folding chair with a hand held vehicular recording device at the entry of the Christ Church driveway.  According to Mrs. Pritsiolas, "he was sleeping".

No local residents provided letters to the editor of Manhasset Press supporting the proposed rezoning.

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The members of the Manhasset Preservation Society offer their heartfelt condolences to the family of Commander William A. Baxter.  He remains in our hearts as an American Hero and a Manhasset Legend.