Fun center OKd at former day laborer site

It's all green lights for the Family Fun Center proposed for the former day-laborer hiring site in Huntington Station.

The owner of the property has cleared all the town code hurdles it faced to bring the indoor-outdoor facility with batting cages, virtual sports such as golf, baseball and basketball, and paintball matches to the area.

"When you have something that everybody wants, it's always good and moves quickly," Brad Rosen, owner of the Depot Road property and a building across the street, said Monday.

Last week the town planning board approved the project. The town's zoning board of appeals granted two variances needed for construction, a special-use permit to use 38 parking spaces in the municipal lot behind the public library on New York Avenue and a variance because the game center is too close to the library.

In March the town board amended the code to remove a restriction on where game centers and commercial places of amusement can be located, reducing from 2,000 feet to 200 feet the minimum distance between a game center and a school, library, church, hospital or similar public or semipublic use. The center is 190 feet from the library, so Rosen needed the variance for the 10-foot shortfall.

Rosen is treasurer of the Huntington Station Business Improvement District and will be the developer, owner and operator of the site. The center will span both sides of Depot Road and will include miniature golf with themes that portray Long Island Rail Road stations.

Rosen expects an early summer opening.

"I have two things to prove," Rosen said. "The 'wow factor' . . . and two, security, and I'll have both."

The day-labor hiring site was closed in June.