Wyandanch industrial park plan moves a step forward amid lingering opposition

A proposed 100-acre industrial park in Wyandanch that would abut a Wheatley Heights neighborhood and has caused tension between the communities is one step closer to reality after Babylon Town accepted a final environmental report from the developer.

Last week the town board voted unanimously to accept the amended Final Environmental Impact Statement from Bristol Suffolk LLC of the San Francisco-based Bristol Group to develop a more-than-100-acre parcel owned by Pinelawn Cemetery.

The proposed industrial park would have nine one-story buildings on wooded land leased from Pinelawn that runs from Little East Neck Road east to North 28th Street and from south of Circle Drive to Long Island Avenue.

The town last fall had two public hearings for the environmental report at which dozens of residents showed up to voice their opposition to the project.

According to the town, the review had to be amended after those hearings because “additional information” came to the town’s attention that clearing the site for development could impact northern long-eared bats and tricolored bats, which are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The town board “determined that it was necessary to take a hard look at this potential adverse environmental impact,” according to a resolution passed at the board’s Sept. 10 meeting. Babylon had Bristol hire Edgewood Environmental Consulting LLC to investigate if either bat species was living at the site.

A state Department of Environmental Conservation report issued last month stated that while several different bat species were found on the site, northern long-eared bats and tricolored bats were not among them.

Next month, the town will officially “adopt” the findings, completing the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR process, according to town spokesman Ryan Bonner.

The proposed industrial park requires the creation of a new zoning code, Bonner said, and the town board will need to adopt that code, approve a subdivision and approve the rezoning of the lot. A public hearing before the town planning board for site plan review approval is also required, Bonner said.

If approved, the industrial park would be the largest development in Babylon Town in decades and it has become a source of contention between Wyandanch and Wheatley Heights residents for more than three years.

Bristol has promised the park, which would border Wheatley Heights residential streets, would generate $5.6 million annually in property taxes with $3.6 million going to the Wyandanch school district, money community leaders said is desperately needed.

Bristol has offered more than $2 million in givebacks to both communities, including $1 million in scholarship money. But Wheatley Heights residents said they are bearing the bulk of the burden for the park and remain vociferously opposed, citing potential noise and air pollution as well as traffic congestion.

Several Wheatley Heights residents spoke out at the meeting last week.

“The study that was done does not adequately indicate the traffic,” Karen Turk told the board, noting Little East Neck Road. “If you’ve driven on that road . . . you would know that it’s not possible to put trucks on that road.”

Resident Phyllis Stewart implored the board to “shut this project down,” saying it doesn’t belong in the community.

“Please protect us,” she said. “We’re being boxed in and it’s just not right.”

Wheatley Heights resident Love Foy earlier this year filed an Article 78 lawsuit against Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer and the other four members of the town board. The suit focuses on the SEQR process, stating that it “disregards the negative environmental impact on the surrounding areas."

The suit was thrown out in June by state Supreme Court Judge Alison J. Napolitano, who wrote in her decision that it was “premature” because the town had not made a final determination on the SEQR, the rezoning or the subdivision.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.