Babylon to weigh 264 rental apartment community

The Babylon Town planning board Monday night will hold a public hearing on a proposed rental complex in Wheatley Heights.

Gustave Wade and Carol Wade, who own Colonial Springs Farm on Colonial Springs Road, are asking to re-zone their nearly 32 acre property from residence to multiple residence in order to build 264 rental apartments.

The proposal is for 228 one-bedroom and 36 two-bedroom units, as well as a 6,475 square foot community building and two 750 square foot entrance booths. The plans also call for a 228 square foot pump station for a sewer line, which will connect to the sewer line constructed for Wyandanch Rising redevelopment.

The apartments and other buildings would be situated on the southern 16.4 acres while the northern 15.5 acres will be preserved as agricultural land.

Suffolk County Legis. DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) has been working for several years to preserve the property as farmland. Under the county’s farmland preservation program, money from a quarter-cent sales tax is used to buy and preserve agricultural properties.

Gregory said this is especially important in towns such as Babylon, which does not have agricultural zoning. Colonial Springs is the only farm left in the town.

The county made Wade a $5.6 million offer for 15.2 acres, Gregory said, but the offer expired last year and Wade will have to reapply to the program and a new land appraisal will be needed. An application review won’t be done until the fall, he said, and even then, other property acquisitions may take priority.

The hearing will take place at 7 p.m. at Babylon Town Hall in Lindenhurst.