Four Towns civic association represents residents from 4 Townships; Islip, Babylon, Huntington and Smithtown, because they all surround the Pilgrim state property. In March, 2017 this Heartland project was approved by the Suffolk County planning board. Then the Islip Town Board ,which controls local zoning of the former Pilgrim Psych center property, finalized their approval. The full proposal is to build 9100 apartments , 26,000 square feet of office space and 560,000 square feet of retail space on the land . Currently construction has been approved for 3500 apartments to be built between Crooked Hill rd and Commack rd.
Initially, the Islip Town zoning required one house per acre for this land, but this was modified on behalf of the development. HOWEVER THE PROJECT NEEDS A SEWER CONNECTION OR A SEWER PROCESSING PLANT. The Developer requested a reduced fee for the sewerage disposal from the Public works committee of our Suffolk County legislature.
THE HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY
All across New York state, state managed hospitals were closed and the land put up for sale under the guidance of Governor Pataki. The basis for selling them was to recover enough cash to fully pay off the New York state bonds that were used to fund and maintain the buildings. Thus most of the land was not set aside as public space, however the Brentwood campus of Suffolk Community College was created from a parcel of land from Pilgrim State in the 1980s. NY put 452 acres of Pilgrim State Hospital up for bid in the late nineties.A developer bought the property and has developed plans for its commercial use.
Past defeated proposals included an intermodal transfer station for tractor trailers that would pick up freight delivered by LIRR trains running on the Deer Park train lines. The trucks would then have headed out to Commack road and the LIE . The local civics fought this land use and were successful in changing the location.