About 50 people attended a presentation hosted by Rechler Equity Partners and the Island Hills Advisory Committee at True North Community Church, in Bohemia.

The presentation included a description of the committee’s efforts by the committee head Michael Dawidziak, as well as a presentation of the South Bay Village proposed project, which is the developer’s second proposal for the former Island Hills Golf Course in Sayville on Lakeland Avenue.

Following an initial round of community feedback based on its 2017 concept, Rechler Equity set out to foster a productive discourse about a revised vision.

To do so, the developer engaged five members from various communities in the greater Sayville area to host meetings with civic groups, business leaders, and other stakeholders to encourage productive dialogue about the property. The Island Hills Advisory committee consisted of Dawidziak, Mary Lou Cohalan, Tim Dolan, Justin Jaycon and Frederick Welge.

According to Dawidziak, the committee set out for a different approach rather than continuing “contentious” meetings.

“We held meetings by invitation only, with stakeholders from the community in groups with like interests,” he said, including meetings with school districts, civics, and even the opposing Greater Sayville Civic. “Our goal was to create a safe environment to come and speak.”

The committee’s job, he said, was to listen, no to talk, and after doing, so they composed the report, including both the “good” and the “bad” with, he said, “no whitewashing.”

“I’d say we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” Dawidziak added, noting the claims that the committee had no power were true, “unless, of course, you believe in the power of public discourse.”

The report, which was also printed as a link in this publication, was made available to the public without the need to FOIL.

“I am, personally, impressed by the compromised changes,” he said, noting Gregg Rechler’s, co-managing partner of Rechler Equity’s, ability to listen and care about the community input.

The new South Bay Village proposal (previous proposals were named Greybarn, which is also the name of Rechler’s luxury apartment development in Amityville), in comparison to the previous proposal, includes:

• 35 percent reduction in density (From 1,365 units to 890 units)
• 35 percent of living units available for ownership
• 55 percent of living units having age restrictions
• Single-family homes in the periphery of the property

The South Bay Village proposal also includes all 314 for-sale homes and 30 percent of rental homes to be age-restricted.

According to Rechler, they put in the effort to make the homes look and feel more like the surrounding area’s aesthetic, including cottages able to suit single-family homes as well homes with the capacity to hold multiple apartments but still maintain the home feel on the outside. All of the buildings, he said, have also been reduced in size to only include two and a half to three stories.

“We decreased the height and scale of the overall plan, reducing density and the future impact of school-aged children,” he added.

The plan, he said, also redirects traffic from Lakeland Avenue to the Sunrise Highway Service Road, with the main entrance now located on Bohemia Parkway.

“We gathered input from the report, and we worked really hard to break away from the original Greybarn concept; it’s a plan we’re really proud of,” he added. “The design now feels like an extension of the surrounding community.”

The plan, he added, will also include about 10 to 15 homes for adults with autism or other developmental disabilities.

The for-sale single-family homes will border the property, allowing existing single-family homes to only view that across the way, with also a greenbelt buffer and an additional roadway between. Parking has also been reformatted with the addition of small alleyways behind homes as well as on-street parking in front of homes rather than expansive lots.

“This creates more of a streetscape,” he said.

As for apartment price points, though the market is unpredictable, he said, in comparison, at their Amityville location, their one bedroom and three bedrooms are priced at about $2,700 and the low $3,000, respectively. The plan, he said, also includes smaller studio apartments.

Rechler also noted that the idea is to open up opportunities for current residents to downsize to a smaller home or rental, thus opening up the local housing cycle for home buyers to then purchase those buyers’ existing community homes.

The plan also details several community benefits, including 70,000 gallons of sewer capacity and hookup for downtown Sayville, creating a “significant” overall reduction in the nitrogen impact to the local water quality and aquifer, as well as a financial contribution to create a downtown Sayville Arts Center. The project also will generate nearly $5 million in tax revenue for the local school districts, mainly Connetquot.

“The revised proposal was really born out of a great process,” Rechler said. “We cared about what the people in the community had to say; we took that and put it in our blender and came up with the revised plan.”

The developers and committee then took and addressed questions from the audience, including concerns about becoming an extension of the city, traffic, and garbage issues.