Oyster Bay’s Town Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the final environmental impact statement for a 750-residence condominium project on 143 acres in Plainview.
The town accepted the environmental statement after Jericho-based developer Beechwood Organization tweaked the plan, slightly reducing the number of homes and increasing the amount of open space and recreational area.
Originally proposed to have 890 residences, Beechwood is now seeking to build 750 condos most of which are restricted to buyers aged 55 or over. Ninety of the homes are set as affordable for people aged 62 or over and priced at around $300,000, according to Michael Dubb, a Beechwood principal. The rest of the condos called Country Pointe at Plainview–a mix of semi-attached homes and townhouses– will likely start from the $500,000s.
Beechwood will now provide 57 acres of contiguous open space, which will include 43 acres for sports fields. In addition, the development calls for some office space and a shopping component that would include a 67,000-square-foot Shop Rite supermarket and 40,000 square feet of neighborhood retail shops. The Shop Rite would be relocated and expanded from its current 25,000-square-foot store in the Morton Village Shopping Center, less than a mile to the west.
Beechwood has also offered to foot the bill to widen the intersection at Round Swamp Road and the Long Island Expressway to mitigate any increase in traffic from the plan.
The next steps for the project, rezoning and site-plan approval, could come within the next few months. Dubb said the firm hopes to break ground by the end of the year and have people moving into the new community in the second half of 2016.
The development site on Old Country Road is still owned by Charles Wang. Beechwood is in contract to purchase the land once it secures a change of zone and final approvals for the project from the town.
Once owned by Nassau County, Wang paid about $23 million for it in 1999. It’s now home to soccer fields and a smattering of red-brick county buildings, where a variety of agencies lease space. The wooded campus has the Wang-donated Plainview Chinese Cultural Center, and the offices of the New York Islanders.
Originally a sprawling farm, the property also had a hospital for tuberculosis patients and housing for nurses.
In 2006, Wang pitched a controversial mixed-use community called Old Plainview with 660 condominiums and apartments, a hotel, retail shops and office buildings. But Wang withdrew the application to the town in March 2007 because of vocal opposition from neighbors.
Dubb said Beechwood’s plan has garnered widespread support from the community and an overwhelming response from potential condo buyers.
“We have a waiting list of over 3,500 names,” Dubb said.