Flurry of projects underway throughout Town of Babylon
by Carolyn James

Above, site at N. Niagara Avenue and Sunrise Highway, formerly an Arby's Restaurant, is slated to be developed for office use.

The site of a former Arby's Restaurant at the northeast corner of Sunrise Highway and North Niagara Avenue in Lindenhurst is undergoing the final plans for development. The site has been vacant for almost ten years, and was once the source of problems after the restaurant was closed and shuttered, becoming a haven for mice and vermin.

Since then, the building has been taken down and developer Lalmir Sultanada wants to construct a one story, 5,780 square-foot retail building. The plan has been reviewed and was approved January 22 by the Planning Board. It will be going to the Zoning Board of Appeals for relief from front and rear yard setbacks. In addition, the applicant needs a variance to reduce the minimum number of parking spaces by two spots.

The curb cut on North Niagara Avenue will remain. Residents had asked the Town to eliminate that entrance and exit to the site, but planners said doing that and placing the entrance and exit on Sunrise Highway would not be safe. Drivers coming out of the site on North Niagara Avenue will not, however, be able to make right-hand turns into the residential area. Instead they will be required under the proposal to go left only, toward Sunrise Highway.

At right, delicatessen at 44th Street and North Wellwood Avenue, Lindenhurst, which has been there for decades, will become site of new housing.

Numerous other projects are underway in the Town, including:

+A proposal to build two single-family homes on a site at 44th Street and North Wellwood Avenue, Lindenhurst. The site is zoned residential but has been a delicatessen for decades, operating as a non-conforming use. Once it closed and remained closed for more than a year, the nonconforming status was lost and the property re- verted back to residential.

"Residents made it clear that they did not want a business there again," said Babylon Town Planning Commissioner Peter Casserly. "And even though these will be homes on substandard lots, they represent a better alternative for the community." Casserly said the homes will face 44th Street.

+A request by the Unicorp company to add a TGIF restaurant to a 100,000 square foot building at the southwest corner of Long Island Avenue and Commack Road. The applicant appeared before the Town Board for a rezoning, which is under consideration.

In Babylon Village, the Knights of Columbus has sold its building to Lake Ronkonkoma realtor John Garcia of Hamlet Realty. While no formal proposals have been presented to the Village to develop the property, Village officials said Garcia was considering a five-lot subdivision to build homes there. The property is zoned Residential A7. Garcia did not return several phone calls for comment

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