Vote another step toward Mount Sinai mall

Over the objections of one council member, the Brookhaven town board voted to accept the final environmental impact statement for a proposed outdoor mall in Mount Sinai at its board meeting Tuesday night.

The Village Centre project is a proposed 228,000-square-foot development with a clock tower, village green, retail and office space, and restaurants on Route 25A.

After community opposition during public hearings, developer Soundview Realty agreed to reduce elements of the plan including the size of the major “anchor store” from 90,000 to 75,000 square feet, expand the buffer between the property and nearby residences, and increase the amount of preservation land.

Councilwoman Jane Bonner, who represents Mount Sinai and has asked that an environmental plan for the Route 25A corridor be finalized before the development is approved, voted against accepting the Village Centre environmental impact statement. The other six board members voted in favor.

The Route 25A corridor environmental plan includes stricter limits on development than Village Centre would have had to follow.

“I was asking my colleagues to have the corridor study on environmental impact move in tandem with the Village Centre application, and not have one move out in front of the other,” Bonner said after the meeting. “It makes for good common sense and good planning to do it that way.”

The development proposal will now be reviewed by Suffolk County’s planning department.

Photo: An artist's rendering of Village Centre, a proposed 228,000-square-foot development with a clock tower, village green, retail and office space, and restaurants on Route 25A in Mount Sinai.