by Carolyn James

A residential house on the corner of Deer Park Avenue and Parkdale Drive is, once again, the subject of major controversy. The owners appeared before the planning board to outline a plan to ask the Town Board to rezone the house, and another one next to it, from residence-B to E-Business in order to open a laundromat. The proposal got vehement opposition from residents living in the Parkdale community who have fought the encroachment of commercial property into their residential community for years.

The Planning Board’s role is to review the proposal and to make a recommendation to the Town Board in the event the Supervisor and Town Councilman decide to consider the change, explained Planning Board Chairwoman Patricia McMahon.

"We make no decision in this matter," she told the approximately 50 residents who attended the hearing. "Our job is to listen to the testimony and make recommendations to the Town Board, if and when they decide to entertain this (the rezoning)."

The applicant and property owner, Equitable Enterprises Realty Co., through their attorney Seymour Pienkny of Babylon, said that the homes are in a busy location and that they have been unable to rent them. If the zoning change is approved, he said the applicant would build a "very desirable looking building" that would provide a buffer for the residents from Deer Park Avenue.

Access to the site would be from an existing commercial parking lot north of the proposed building and plans call for no entrance or exit on Parkdale Drive. The applicants own a laundromat in the area, and would close down that operation once the new building is completed.

"That stretch of Deer Park Avenue is commercial and this site is an anomaly," said Pienkny. "My client cannot make use of his property as residential."

If the homes are not desirable to rent, it is because of their condition, not their location countered residents.

"Our opinion is that he (the owners) doesn’t want to fix up his property and make it ‘desirable,’ for people to rent," said Gene McPartland, president of the Parkdale Civic Association.

"People don’t want to rent the houses because of their condition," concurred Jennifer Ferrara, of Parkdale Drive, a real estate professional who told the Planning Board that the rezoning, if approved, will allow business to encroach into residential areas, thus reducing the value of all homes in the area.

Ferrara added that the proposed plan to use an existing parking lot for an entrance and exit to the site is only going to "add traffic and congestion to an already overflowing parking lot that can’t accommodate the current traffic," she said.

Other residents questioned the traffic flow pattern saying that vehicles traveling north on Deer Park Avenue would have to make a right-hand turn from Deer Park Avenue and then another quick right into the parking area. "You won’t be able to do that unless you’re driving a Volkswagen," said the resident.

The site has a long history. In the mid 1980s, it was used for an office by Island Insurance, generating a four-year legal battle between the owners of the site at that time and the Town. The Town eventually prevailed, and the homes returned to residential units.

"The Town spent a lot of time and taxpayers money to fight that case," said McPartland. "They shouldn’t give up now."

Pienkny told the Planning Board that his clients would like to have the laundromat open from 6 a.m. to midnight, but would agree to a 10 p.m., closing, if the town recommends that. The laundromat would be open seven days a week and have staff at the site at all times, he said.

The applicant must also go before the Town Zoning Board of Appeals for a parking variance.

In other business, the Planning Board:

•heard a controversial proposal to subdivide a 40,904 square foot piece of property on Old Farmngdale Road, at Chance Place, West Babylon, and to construct new homes there. The application, presented by Budget Estates, has been the subject of several meetings, which resulted in changes to the original proposal, the latest to maintain an existing home at the site and build two other homes.

Opposition to the proposal came from residents who said the smaller lots would be out of character with the neighborhood and that the subdivision, if approved, would set a precedent for others to subdivide and build homes on smaller lots.

"I purchased a large parcel with the idea of subdividing, but I was told by the Town that I could not do that," said Scott Sasso of Old Farmingdale Road. "Now I understand why, because the area is beautiful, but if you let this pass, before you know it, everyone is going to have a house to the left and right, and another in the back of them."