A massive Nassau Hub building project - three hotels, three office buildings and over 700 apartment units, with no provision for mass transit access at the 91-acre Roosevelt Raceway site - promises big traffic and congestion increases, and lengthy and contentious environmental reviews. The plan was announced March 14 by Manhattan-based developer Andalex Group.

"We need the housing and I'm glad it's not going to be another mall," Bertram Donley, president of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce, told the NY Times. "But is this a responsible development or not? This is the center of the county's hub of economic activity, and the town has not yet focused on the transportation problems in the area...unfortunately, municipalities still have not pulled together a transportation plan to alleviate a tremendous amount of congestion."

"To me, and to all the community groups, the critical question is traffic congestion," L.I. Neighborhood Network's Neal Lewis said to the Times. Lewis has organized a civic coalition to advocate for mass transit and pedestrian-oriented development in the Hub area. "How can we approve a massive development like [the Raceway site proposal] …when our everyday experience tells us traffic is already out of control?" The Long Island Neighborhood Network and other groups have called for a central Nassau development moratorium so land use proposals can be brought into sync with a Nassau Hub mass transit "major investment study" that Nassau County planning officials are preparing to launch.

The County is also shopping its Nassau Coliseum property to large developers, so the arena can be rebuilt without county funds. The payoff for a developer is use of the Coliseum's massive parking area for other development, with parking concentrated into new structures. Development here could dovetail with pedestrian- and transit-friendly planning, or could produce another bad disconnect like the one shaping up at the Raceway.

The Town of Hempstead has zoning control of both the Raceway and the Coliseum site. Proponents of a "new urbanist" vision of the Nassau Hub hope the transit major investment study, and discussions that may take place before its launch, can bring town officials into a process of defining the future of the Hub area.