Nassau County asks the state to review Belmont Park project impact

Nassau County officials want New York State’s Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) to further investigate the potential impacts of the $1.18 billion Belmont Park arena project, Long Island Business News reported. County officials made the request in a 13-page letter to ESD’s president and CEO Howard Zemsky that also pointed out deficiencies and omissions in the project’s draft environmental impact statement. ESD is overseeing the 43-acre plan to build a 19,000-seat arena, 250-room hotel and 435,000-square-foot retail village. Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, who spoke with The Real Deal earlier this year, previously directed the county’s Department of Public Works to take another look at the project. Curran and others are concerned about its potential impact on traffic, transportation, community character, water resources, open space, utilities and socioeconomic conditions. For instance, the draft impact statement calls for a shuttle to run between the proposed arena and nearby Long Island Rail Road stations and county officials want to know whether the LIRR will pay for the service and run it after hours. The developers behind the project, a group called New York Arena Partners, had hoped to break ground in the spring, but with the final environmental impact statement now expected in June, construction likely will not start before the end of the summer. [LIBN]