Selden mini-golf owner seeks OK for condos

Soon, condos could rise where a miniature Big Duck now keeps watch over the Island Green mini-golf course in Selden.

The facility, decorated with Long Island landmarks and including a driving range, opened in 1996 and has been losing money for years, a lawyer for the facility's owners told a Brookhaven Town Board public hearing Tuesday night.

The owners are seeking approval for a change in zoning that would let them convert Island Green to a multifamily residential development -- a prospect criticized by many local residents.

"One way or another, this will be the last season for the driving range," attorney David Sloan said at the hearing at town hall in Farmingville.

The development would feature townhouse-style condos comprising two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex units of about 2,600 square feet each.

Of the 126 units, 32 would be reserved for workforce housing at a lower price, and two condos would be set aside specifically for returning veterans. Prices would start at $275,000, and $160,000 for the workforce homes.

The plans also call for a 90,000-square-foot public green, with a gazebo and war memorial, and a 12,000-square-foot community center.

Business at Island Green's golfing facilities was hurt by nearby competitors including a go-kart track in Medford, and sports stores cut into sales of golf merchandise, said Michael Kelly, a developer partner and representative of Frederic Rose, the owner of Island Green and former president and chief executive officer of beverage distributor Clare Rose.

Kelly also is president of the Long Island Builders Institute, which supports the plan, as does the Selden Civic Association. The group's president, Deborah Felber, said at the hearing that the community and Longwood school district would benefit from taxes that would be generated by the development.

But dozens of residents of the neighboring retirement community Strathmore Gate East also attended the hearing to criticize the plan's size and its impact on traffic on Middle Country Road.

Carol Reilly, who lives in Strathmore Gate East, said the development would "seriously impact the peace, the security and the tranquility of the environment right behind us."

Sloan urged residents to look at the bigger picture. "I would point out Selden needs this type of development," he said. "You need the jobs. You need the housing. You need the taxes."