Community Corner

Agreement Reached on Meyers Farm Property

Deal will allow for construction of senior housing, a Hindu temple and a park.

The Town of Huntington has taken title to the 8.1-acre former Meyers Farm in Melville, a move officials said is the latest step in the creation of Sweet Hollow Park.

Recently, Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone signed an agreement completing the $1.325 million purchase from Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam-Northeast (BAPS), a Hindu organization that had originally proposed erecting a temple on the site.

Under the arrangement, the temple instead will be built on a different site that will also include 261 units of affordable senior housing.  

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“The community has sought a park in this part of town for many years, and I am pleased that we can now go ahead and develop this parcel for community use,” said Petrone. “I appreciate the hard work, cooperation and out-of-the-box thinking from all sides that helped make this day a reality.”

As recommended by the town’s EOSPA Committee, officials envision developing three acres for active recreational use and holding five acres as passive parkland. 

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

Under the agreement the development rights for the five acres to be used as passive parkland are transferred to five acres of the 18-acre site on Deshon Drive that had been used by Newsday as a preprint distribution warehouse and for its business operations.

The Town Board changed the zoning on the 18-acre parcel from I1 Industrial to 3M Garden Apartment, a classification that would allow construction of 261 units of housing. The agreement allows clustering that housing on 13 of the acres.

The remaining five acres was sold to BAPS, which will be able to build a temple there. The BAPS temple recently received site plan approval from the Town Planning Board.

Deshon Partners LLC, the developer of the former Newsday site, will build the 261-unit project of affordable senior housing, including a covenant that all of the units will remain income restricted. 


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