Report OKd for mobile home park project

The Town of Babylon has approved a key report on a planned North Amityville development that would displace hundreds of mobile home residents.

The final generic environmental impact statement addresses a long list of questions about the project that came up at a Nov. 10 town hearing, as well as in written comments.

The developer, R Squared Llc, still needs approval for a zoning change at the site, an issue that could come up for a vote at the Dec. 19 town board meeting, said town spokesman Tim Ruggeri.

Sam Kramer, a Manhattan-based attorney for the civic association at Frontier Mobile Home Park, said Friday he had just received the final report and would be reviewing it to see if his concerns were addressed, including the impact of the construction on residents continuing to live in the park as it is developed in phases.

R Squared wants to build 500 apartments on the site, a 20-acre lot with nearly 400 mobile homes that is owned by H. Lee Blumberg, an Amityville attorney.

The developer has said the project would be built in five stages over three to five years. The first phase would include the removal of 64 homes in the park's northwestern area closest to Route 110.

The report assures "there will be no danger to the remaining residents as a result of the phased construction" but acknowledges that there will be "some potential for inconvenience during construction that may include noise and dust which will be mitigated to the maximum extent practicable."

R Squared, in which cousins Gregg and Mitchell Rechler are partners, also plans to build 45,500 square feet of retail space, a pool and and to include green space. It plans to install sewers and has set aside 100 apartments as affordable housing, for which the company would give park residents priority.

Town officials back the redevelopment plans because they say the mobile home park is plagued by health and safety issues.

Frontier residents, who bought their homes for tens of thousands of dollars and pay $635 a month in rent to the park, have protested the plans.

Many have said they will not be able to afford higher rents, and they've balked at leaving homes to which they have made costly improvements and lived in for decades.

R Squared has offered $20,000 to each homeowner in the civic association, and Kramer said he is "surveying residents to see if there's sufficient interest in the proposal to move forward with negotiations with the developer."

In the final report, R Squared stated it will pay more than $850,000 in mitigation costs, including money for landscaping on Route 110 medians and a new fire truck for the North Amityville fire department, which does not have the equipment to handle the three- and four-story buildings planned for the site.

Other potential mitigations -- such as improvements in roadway approaches to Route 110, estimated to cost $450,000 -- may be needed later, said Ruggeri.

He said future mitigation costs would fall on the developer.