North Amityville housing project public hearing
Alexis Gadsden stands on the lawn of her North Amityville home, overlooking the 50-year-old mobile home park directly across the street. Gadsden and other residents are worried about a planned development that will replace the mobile home park with 500 new apartments. (April 10, 2012) Credit: Newsday/Danielle Finkelstein
The Town of Babylon Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing Monday night on a developer's plan to tear down a North Amityville mobile home park to make way for apartment buildings.
The hearing could be one of the final steps of town approval for R Squared Real Estate Partners of Plainview, which seeks to build 500 apartments on the site of the Frontier Mobile Home Park. The town's zoning board has approved variances for the project, and earlier this month the town board voted to enter into a partnership with the Long Island Housing Partnership, which would administer a relocation plan for residents.
The 50-year-old park has more than 300 homes, which the nearly 500 residents purchased, some paying tens of thousands of dollars. They pay about $600 per month to rent the park land for the mobile homes, many of which are too old to relocate, residents have said.
Park owner H. Lee Blumberg notified residents in 2011 that the park was being sold, and they responded by forming a civic association and filing three lawsuits to stop the redevelopment. Those lawsuits remain in court, and the association's attorney said he plans to ask for a stay on construction until the cases are decided.
The developer has proposed dividing the 20-acre site into five parcels for five phases of construction for the 500 units, 20 percent of which would be affordable housing. R Squared is submitting phase one of the plan to the board Monday night for review. The phase includes the building of 22 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom apartments and 42,000 square feet of retail space.
The hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Babylon Town Hall, 200 E. Sunrise Highway, Lindenhurst.
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Sarra Sounds Off, Ep.16: From Island to island, how football helped overcome tragedy Newsday's Gregg Sarra talks to Carey football player James McGrath about how he has persevered after losing his parents at a young age, and to the Lahainaluna (Hawaii) High School football coach about how his team persevered after the Maui wildfires of 2023, plus a behind-the-scenes look at the All-Long Island teams photo shoot.
