Amityville to combine trio of hearings on transit-zone plan

Amityville Village has changed the date of a public hearing on a proposed transit-oriented zone and will now have three hearings on the same date related to the proposal.

The village had originally scheduled a hearing on the zone, as well as for a related draft generic environmental impact statement, for March 26. A third hearing also must be held for a zoning change request from GreenTek/R & S Realty Corp., the developer seeking to build apartments in the proposed zone.

According to village attorney Bruce Kennedy, an environmental consultant who is helping the village with work related to the proposed zone, strongly advised that all three of the public hearings be held on the same date.

“The problem is, the applicant’s attorney couldn’t be here on the 26th because he had scheduled a vacation; he was going to be out of town,” Kennedy said. As a result, he said, all of the hearings have been moved to April 9.

The hearings are at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall, 21 Ireland Place.

The proposed zone would apply to 48 acres of property near the Amityville Long Island Rail Road station, bound by Broadway, County Line Road, Sterling Place and West Oak Street. To apply for the proposed zoning, a property would have to be within those parameters, be zoned for industrial use and exceed 1.5 acres.

GreenTek is seeking to take 2.4 acres of land owned by its affiliate, LandTek, at 235 County Line Rd. and 124 Greene Ave. and create 115 luxury multifamily rental units. Amityville’s current zoning does not allow for more than 12 housing units per acre.

GreenTek has applied to have its property rezoned from industrial to the transit zone, should the proposed zone be approved by the board of trustees.

The board on April 9 will not vote on the zoning, rezoning or environmental impact statement — which examines both the proposed zone and apartment complex — as there is a mandatory 10-day public comment period following the hearing on the environmental impact statement.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.