Playing to an older audience
Town zoning change gives Blue Point movie complex go-ahead for conversion to condos for those 55 and up
By Daniel Wagner
March 28, 2007

Since its days as a drive-in theater in the 1970s and '80s, the Blue Point site of the UA Theaters at Patchogue has been a destination for moviegoers of all ages from across southern Suffolk County.

But developer Alec Ornstein says he is ready to redevelop the property for a slightly grayer set.

A March 7 resolution by the Brookhaven Town Board changed the 65-acre site's zoning from industrial to retirement community, clearing the way for Ornstein's Vineyards at Blue Point, a 280-unit townhouse- and apartment-style condominium development restricted to buyers age 55 and older.

The plan, approved after more than three years of negotiations, calls for 22 acres of parkland at the south side of the property, off-site wastewater connections that will fund the Village of Patchogue's sewer system expansion and major environmental remediation - all of which helped satisfy civic leaders who had expressed concerns about the project's environmental and traffic impacts.

Ornstein, a principal of the Garden City-based Ornstein Leyton Co., said the delay was a result of Brookhaven's changing political tides - his first zoning hearing was scheduled just after voters elected a Democratic majority - and negotiations to quell local concerns about the project's impact.

The UA cineplex, owned by the Regal Entertainment Group, is still open.

Ornstein is to close on the land before the end of May, and his next step will be gaining site plan approval, which he said could take about a year. He declined to disclose the purchase price.

Town Councilman Timothy Mazzei, who represents the district, praised the developer's responsiveness to concerns about school and traffic impacts. After the community rejected a plan for multifamily housing fearing an influx of schoolchildren, Mazzei said, Ornstein "came back with a plan for senior housing, and that was much more acceptable to me and to the community."

Blue Point Community Civic Association President Thomas Furrer agreed that schools were a key concern in early conversations.

"We've endorsed it at this stage because we felt that it wasn't going to get much better than it is: a decent tax base for the people, no real increase in the school population, no impact environmentally," he said.

But Martin Cantor, director of Dowling College's Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute, assailed this and other school districts' objections to mixed-age developments.

"Long Island can't grow because school districts let their fear of rising expenses dictate settlement patterns," he said, and "no public official wants to hold them to account."

Cantor also objected to the Vineyards' plan to allocate its mandated 10 percent of subsidized housing to area residents because he said it "perpetuates institutional racism" by preventing minority integration into white-dominated areas.

But Warren McDowell, head of the Blue Point Civic Association, said "there's such a lack of senior citizen housing in this area, and [the Vineyards' plan] really gives these people a chance to stay within their community."

The material on this site is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and international conventions, and is the exclusive property of Weber Law Group LLP or any licensee. All rights reserved. © Weber Law Group LLP 2007. Site by Webline Designs.