Residents facing eviction fill town hall

Developers upped their offer Thursday night to residents they plan to evict from a North Amityville mobile home park, but that did little to quell emotions during a highly charged public hearing.

Dozens of Frontier Mobile Home Park residents and their neighbors packed Babylon Town Hall to voice concerns about the development, during a hearing to address rezoning for the development and a draft generic environmental impact statement that laid bare the park's health and safety issues.

Developer R Squared LLC's plans would displace the more than 500 residents and nearly 400 homes in the 50-year-old park, which is owned by H. Lee Blumberg, an Amityville attorney, who could not be reached last night. They hope to build 500 apartments and 45,500 square feet of retail space on the site.

But their initial refusal to offer compensation for the homes in part prompted more than 160 park homeowners to form a civic association and hire Manhattan attorney Samuel Kramer.

At the start of last night's hearing, Supervisor Steve Bellone announced a new deal had been struck with the developer, who promised to pay $20,000 for each home in the association, as well as the legal fees the residents pay to belong to the association.

R Squared had previously pledged several thousand dollars in relocation assistance. It set aside 20 percent of the apartments for affordable housing and promised park residents priority, as well as six months' credit on their current monthly rent, about $635. Residents said they would not be able to afford the expected rents and could not move their homes.

Bellone said the situation with Frontier was the "most difficult and complex of any we've had to deal with as a town."

R Squared partner Gregg Rechler said the property "cannot continue to exist as a trailer park" and that they have worked with the town "to come up with the best alternative to simply closing the park."

But even after Bellone's news, residents expressed anger and sadness at losing cherished homes, some after more than a decade. Residents spoke of being laid off, disabled or seniors on fixed incomes, who would likely be left homeless or have to move out of state. They also questioned the wisdom of building a new development when others have gone bankrupt in recent years.

Laura Zilinski has lived in the park for 23 years and said that at 58 years old, she can't afford to take on a mortgage on her nurse's salary.

"I paid $30,000 for my home, and now I'm going to forfeit that?" she told the town board. "We have lived and worked in this community for 50 years. We had every right to think this was our forever home."

Kramer said afterward that he is encouraged by the new offer but needs to see if it meets residents' needs.

The town plans two information sessions in the next two weeks. Comments on the environmental report will be accepted until Nov. 21.