Apartment projects on Long Island have become so difficult that a developer who sought to build 44 units in Suffolk County might instead do a handful of single-family homes — if that.
Bay Shore–based MR Property Builders is trying to chart a path forward after the Babylon Town Board voted against a rezoning proposal, Newsday reported. The unanimous decision was another setback in a project that has been steadily shrunk over a five-year period.
The firm had high hopes for the site on 45th Street between Pacific and Prospect streets. In 2017, the developer proposed a 44-unit apartment complex. It reduced the scope in May 2018 to 40 units, and the planning board seemed to be on board as it advanced the upzoning application to the town board.
That’s when things started to go off the rails. Opposition to the two-acre development led to the town board sending the developer back to the drawing board. MR did, proposing a 30-unit condo in 2019.
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The planning board recommended the rezoning once more, but the town still wasn’t on board. In 2020, MR Property Builders proposed a 24-unit development instead. Then, for two years, crickets.
Finally, a special town board meeting last month brought the vote to take no action on the rezoning request amid concerns, including the location of the proposed entrance and exit. MR Property Builders was left hanging.
Rich Rauff, a partner with the developer, expressed disappointment with the outcome.
“We were kind of discouraged because if you want to provide affordable housing, really the only way to do it is through density,” Rauff told Newsday.
There’s still a chance MR Property Builders gets something going at the site. Instead of a multifamily development, however, the firm is eyeing eight or nine single-family homes, which would do little to alleviate Long Island’s affordable housing shortage.
The single-family proposal has yet to be submitted as the developer admits to being “gun-shy” about its prospects in the area.
— Holden Walter-Warner