LI Towns: Town of Hempstead Flip-Flops on Development; Republican Boards Fight Election Changes

"Five years ago, Hempstead officials began a bipartisan effort to transform a jumble of commercial and residential areas near the commuter rail stations in Inwood and North Lawrence into a walkable, vibrant community. That effort stalled and the town now plans to repeal sections of its zoning code to prevent such mixed-use multifamily housing in the area from being built,"  reported Newsday. "The Hempstead Town Board scheduled a July 2 hearing to rescind the town’s transit-oriented development overlay district for Inwood and North Lawrence as well as a neighborhood business district that allows apartments to be built over ground-floor businesses and a townhouse and row house overlay district... The town board in 2022 placed pauses on projects being built under the zoning codes. The moratoriums were extended in 2023 and 2024, with the latest extension expiring June 18."

Meanwhile, "GOP-led towns in Nassau and Suffolk are the latest municipalities to challenge a new state law that will move most local elections to even-numbered years. The towns, Brookhaven, Islip, Huntington, and Smithtown in Suffolk, and North Hempstead in Nassau, on May 13 formally joined a lawsuit filed by Suffolk County and Hempstead Town," reported Newsday. "The bill's sponsor, state Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall, said it's all about turnout. 'Right now, turnout in these local odd-year elections for town and county offices is often 20-30%. It's abysmal. In the even-year elections for president and governor, you can see as high as 70, almost 80%... The lawsuit's baloney. It's as if they're taking taxpayer funds... and lighting them on fire,"  reported Spectrum News.