This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Lake Ronkonkoma Housing Unit Proposal Moves to Next Step After Town Approval

Residents expressed concerns at this week's Town board meeting.

In front of at least 20 residents from Lake Ronkonkoma, the Town of Brookhaven passed a resolution to give developers the go ahead on their plan to build an apartment complex on the seven acres of land near the lake instead of single family homes.

The site in question, formerly the Golden Villa Rest Home on Portion Road in Lake Ronkonkoma, is where developers want to build a 59 unit apartment building, with 10 percent set aside for affordable housing. The Town is requesting that 20 percent be used for affordable housing. The developers did not attend the hearing, but were represented by their attorney, Bram D. Weber of the Weber Law Group in Melville.

The residents who spoke to the board in opposition of the proposed development cited traffic concerns, environmental issues, an increase in an already growing drug problem and additional noise pollution.

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One resident said another apartment complex, Heatherwood House, located on Lake Shore Road, provided enough apartments in the nearby vicinity to preclude another such development in an already overdeveloped area.

The residential homes near the proposed site are already surrounded by several commercial buildings: Windows on the Lake, Phoenix House, Verizon and a crematorium.

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Ideally what we would want would be to have the Golden Villa property deemed a historic landmark, but due to the various renovations over the years it does not qualify," said George Schramm, president of the Lake Ronkonkoma Civic Organzation.

One of the concerns the board mentioned was the amount of waste water an apartment complex would have over single family homes. If the property was developed into single family homes, 11 homes would fit on the site and those homes would use 3,300 gallons of waste water. For 59 units, that number jumps to 14,400 gallons.

Schramm said the developer discussed installing a cromaglass wastewater treatment system for the development, which is a system that can, in essence, recycle waste water into water used to flush toilets or for irrigation. Other than that, no other options were discussed.

"It is privately owned property," he said. "We really can't dictate what they do."

Other notes from the TOB ... 

Another matter on the calender that had a few residents upset was a local law prohibiting the discharge of firearms, including BB guns and paintball guns, within 500 feet of a neighboring property line.

Several residents urged the board not to approve the law, citing it would eliminate small game and pheasant hunting while another resident felt it was better to teach gun safety rather than ban their use entirely.

"I am retired from the Army, and I have been teaching my nine year old daughter about gun safety since she was six," said Gabriel Sallusti of East Patchogue. "It is better to teach them, to be proactive with their safety so they know guns are not to be played with. That will not happen if guns are taboo-they become more appealing, especially to kids."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?