Assisted Living Code Tweaked Again; Another Public Hearing on the Way

After a public hearing just over a month ago that determined there was much work to be done on the legislation, Town Board members agreed on Thursday morning that it will be holding another public hearing on legislation allowing for the creation of assisted living facilities in town.

Last month's public hearing illustrated several problems with the legislation, so much so that none of the Town Board members agreed with the draft form in front of them at the time. A third public hearing on the code will likely take place sometime in April.

Members of the Long Island Farm Bureau spoke out against the legislation in February, saying it didn't require enough transfers of development rights - commonly known as TDRs - in swapping the proposed density for preservation elsewhere.

LIFB Executive Director Joe Gergela said on Thursday afternoon that he had yet to see the most recent draft, though is planning to sit down with town officials and the Long Island Builder's Institute to discuss it.

Planning Director Rick Hanley said Thursday that one of several changes to the code since Feb. 7 included changing the density requirements to purchase TDRs. Affordable housing would require twice the amount of TDRs as non-affordable housing proposals.

The town's Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2003, calls for the creation of assisted living units - albeit in hamlet centers and downtown - and  to bring the code addition to fruition.

As the town works toward developing the assisted living code, Melville-based Concordia Senior Communities is proposing to build a 100-unit “continuum of care” community on 25 acres that run north along Mill Road behind Home Depot on Route 58 and east to a farm on Middle Road.

Ronald DeVito, Concordia’s president, has stated in the past that he is already in contract to purchase the property but that the sale is contingent upon approval of a zone change that would allow him to build the complex he has in mind.

DeVito, who was present at Thursday's discussion, said he was pleased with what he heard. As far as particular improvements go, DeVito said - which Hanley expressed as well - that several terms that are defined at in state law were removed from the legislation.

"To the board's credit, they have assimilated a lot of information that has taken me 30 years to understand," he said. 

Larry Oxman expressed confusion with the Feb. 7 draft as well, and said on a personal note, when he tried to find an assisted living community for his mother-in-law after she moved from Westchester County to Long Island, has witnessed firsthand how badly assisted living facilities are in the area. No such facilities, he said, are in Southampton or Riverhead. His mother-in-law eventually went to live at a community in Islandia.

"This is the type of facility that is badly needed," he said. "From what I heard at the work session the town board took into consideration public comments. So I'm absolutely pleased with the progress and speed the town board has been addressing this."