Floral Park wants a meeting with Governor Cuomo…
The construction permit is expected to be approved with a ground breaking in weeks…
The village and one other group may file lawsuits against the project before the cutoff for such action in early December…
There is little to no doubt that the project will go ahead….
Floral Park officials want a meeting with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to discuss the Islanders $1.3 billion Belmont project before possibly going to court to stop the development, Mayor Dominick Longobardi said Tuesday night.
Longobardi, speaking at a regularly scheduled trustees meeting, said village officials have left voicemails and sent emails to Cuomo’s staff attempting to set up a meeting “about the detrimental effects” the Islanders’ proposal will have on Floral Park.
“It is in the governor’s court,” Longobardi said. “I’m going to hear from them tomorrow. If we do not, the village board will make a decision as to how to proceed.”
Longobardi said village trustees authorized filing a lawsuit to stop the development at an Aug. 21 meeting. Ever since, trustees have reached out to Cuomo, who has been a champion of the Islanders’ project since the group won development rights in December 2017.
A spokesman for Cuomo said late Tuesday night the governor’s administration has for months been addressing village concerns.
Since 2015, Floral Park has used the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Beveridge & Diamond, to represent it regarding development efforts at Belmont, which has been a possibility for more than a decade.
The Islanders’ plans call for a 19,000-seat arena, 250-room hotel and 350,000 square-feet of retail space on 43 acres of state land at Belmont. Empire State Development, the state agency coordinating the project, approved it last month.
Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the ESD, said the agency does not comment on potential litigation before adding that the project’s development “has adhered to all requirements under state law.”
The window for lawsuits challenging the state’s environmental review closes in early December, but Longobardi said Tuesday night that “time is of the essence” because construction preparation at the site has already started….