The Town of Babylon zoning board approved variances and special exception permits Thursday for a new indoor youth sports facility in East Farmingdale, part of a meeting that also modified covenants on a former movie theater's overflow parking lot and approved variances for two Deer Park homes.
The board adopted a negative declaration and approved the roughly 31,000-square-foot Next Generation Sports Complex, allowing a building height of 45 feet instead of the standard 35-foot limit and reduced on-site parking, with conditions including Fire Marshal approval, no outdoor storage and special exception permits limited to three years.
Attorney Anthony Curcio told the board the facility would offer 96 on-site parking spaces plus an arrangement for 65 additional spaces about 0.4 miles away, for a total of 161 spaces against a required 126. Architect William Cohen and traffic engineer Anthony Stancinelli addressed board questions about parking and trip generation.
The board also approved modifying 1998 covenants that had tied a nearly 2-acre, 225-stall overflow parking lot at 114 Bi-County Boulevard to the adjacent movie theater site, after attorney Anthony Guardino said a reduction in theater seating made the overflow lot unnecessary. The board amended the application to add an additional tax lot and approved it with a condition that a Fire Marshal report be received.
Guardino said a hotel application had been filed for the overflow lot site within the past week, and that the theater's 1998 conditions, including a security gate and a 12:30 a.m. last-showing limit, would remain in place on the theater's own lot.
On Deer Park housing matters, the board approved reducing three accessory sheds to two on one property, with a condition that one shed be removed before a certificate of occupancy is issued. Applicant Marlin Lewis said of the sheds, "the three sheds that we have on the property, they were there when we got there."
The board also approved a rear yard setback variance for a Seaman Neck Road property in Deer Park that spans the Babylon and Huntington town lines, with a condition that only a two-piece bathroom be installed in the basement.
The board opened but did not decide several other variance cases, including a Deer Park property where it kept the record open for updated plans, and heard a presentation on a sign-size variance for a new medical tenant in Lindenhurst.