Town officials to discuss plan for North Amityville mobile home park

The Babylon Town Planning Board Monday night plans to discuss the application of a developer who wants to build an apartment complex on the site of a North Amityville mobile home park.

Developer R Squared Real Estate Partners of Plainview is looking to build 500 apartments with retail space at the site of the 20-acre Frontier Mobile Home Park on Route 110. The town has said that if the park is not developed it will be condemned by the county for health and safety reasons.

The hundreds of residents who live in the park pay a monthly rent of about $600 to owner H. Lee Blumberg, who notified residents in 2011 that the park was being sold. They responded by forming a civic association and filing three lawsuits to stop the redevelopment. Those lawsuits are pending in State Supreme Court.

Park residents said their homes, which they purchased for tens of thousands of dollars, are too old to relocate. Residents -- many of whom are young families starting out, seniors or the disabled living on fixed incomes -- have been offered $20,000 over three years from R Squared once they vacate the park.

The Babylon Town zoning board has approved variances for the project, and the Babylon Town Industrial Development Agency has granted a tax abatement expected to save R Squared $12 million. If the planning board approves moving ahead with the project, the developer could start work on the site as early as March, said town spokesman Kevin Bonner. However, the project would still need building permits, he said.

The planning board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at Babylon Town Hall.