The future of housing on the North Shore may have been told by two recent events.

The first was the demolition of The Richardson House, a nearly 300-year-old home in Plandome Manor.

The 2,700-square-foot house, which was built in 1730 in Massachusetts, was moved by George Richardson to 149 Circle Drive in Plandome Manor in 1923, 8 years before the village was incorporated.

To do so, the house had to be dismantled, moved to its Plandome Manor location and rebuilt.

Village officials attempted to save this slice of Manhasset history by proposing, in a unanimous vote, a bond that would have authorized Plandome Manor to relocate  Richardson House and use it as a new village hall.

Voters rejected the bond 119-87.

Opponents of the bond cited concerns over traffic created by employees and the public visiting the new village hall – notwithstanding the findings of a well-respected engineering firm that showed the village hall would have little impact on traffic.

So on Aug. 4, the house was torn down. A developer who purchased the home in December 2021 had filed for a demolition permit and a building permit for a new house.

In history-rich Manhasset, which was first settled in 1623, it seems remarkable how easily a building going back so many years could be so easily destroyed.

Much credit goes to village officials who developed a creative and financially responsible way to preserve the property.

But we wonder why there was no effort by the Town of North Hempstead or Nassau County to do something, anything to preserve the house.

Unlike neighboring Great Neck, Port Washington and Port Washington. Manhasset does have an active historical society dedicated to preserving and protecting their community’s heritage.

So perhaps this was an anomaly limited to a small village in Manhasset. Perhaps not.

The second project is a proposed 176-unit, multifamily, mixed-use community with a public marina and promenade along Hempstead Harbor. The proposed project’s location at 145 West Shore Road in Port Washington is located on a lightly traveled road.

The developer, Southern Land Company, would operate a shuttle to and from the Port Washington LIRR station and downtown Port Washington.

Southern Land Company, which has a long record of successful developments across the country, has requested a zoning change to permit the project to move forward.

It is hard to imagine that Southern Land Company will not eventually get approval for a project with such obvious benefits.

But that is now in the hands of the Town of North Hempstead.

The proposed $130 million project will have its draft environmental impact statement accepted by North Hempstead on Sept. 1 and a hearing date scheduled for Sep. 28, Town Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte announced last week.

On Sept. 28, Southern Land will summarize its findings and conclusions at the hearing. The rest of the session will be open for public comments.

Dalimonte said most of the comments will be logged to be addressed in the final environmental impact statement.

Thousands of residents have signed petitions opposing the project, citing overpopulation, traffic congestion, stress on school, water and sewer district and police and fire departments, and the environmental health of Hempstead Harbor and Manhasset Bay.

If nothing else, the residents have provided a comprehensive list of objections that developers can expect whenever they try to build on the North Shore.

This is not necessarily bad. All the issues raised should be addressed by the Town of North Hempstead, which has jurisdiction over the West Shore Road project, as a matter of standard procedure.

But standard procedure often takes too long. Government at every level should take a hard look at streamlining the approval process for new construction – without sacrificing the public’s concerns.

And local officials will sometimes be guided by politics rather than good public policy.

Both developers and some public officials have called for the construction of buildings near train stations with stores on the bottom floor and apartments above to aid struggling downtown business districts and increase housing.

But rather than identifying and rezoning those areas where that type of development makes sense – as good planning would dictate – village and town officials in North Hempstead say they will only consider them on a case-by-case basis.

This means developers must face the extra time and expense of an often contentious hearing process for variances with no confidence that other similar projects will support the stores they bring in. Many developers are unwilling to do so.

The New York City area has a shortage of more than 700,000 housing units. This has driven up rents and housing prices across the region and helped create a homeless problem in the city.

We don’t expect the North Shore of Long Island to single-handedly correct this problem, but shouldn’t it at least play a part to combat high housing prices that prevent young married couples from buying a first home and allow older residents seeking to downsize to find a reasonably priced place to live?

If you go by the criticism of the proposed West Shore Road project, the answer would be no.

This raises the question of just when did the North Shore reach full capacity?

One can assume that many opponents of the proposed West Shore Road project are living in homes whose inhabitants increased the population, traffic congestion, the demand on school, water and sewer districts as well as police and fire departments.

Somehow that demand was met at some point in the past. So why can’t it be met now?

The residents of Plandome Manor have already answered how much they appreciate the past.

It’s now up to Town of North Hempstead council members to tell us what they think about the future.