Zoning OKd for Storage Facility

February 19, 2020

The Brookhaven Town Board has approved zoning changes for a Farmingville ministorage facility and commercial center that could include a bank and a restaurant.

Developers of the Holmesview Commons project at the intersection of North Ocean Avenue and Horseblock Road previously had planned a larger retail center without ministorage at the site, but abandoned those plans because they could not find major tenants.

The new plan proposes a 98,000-square-foot ministorage facility on about one-quarter of the 20.5-acre site, which previously included a nursery and garden center. About 12 acres of the property would be developed as a commercial center, town planning officials said.

The town board voted 6-0 to grant zoning changes allowing ministorage to be added to the site’s proposed retail uses. The project still requires site plan approval from the town planning board and other approvals from the Brookhaven zoning board of appeals.

The new plan should generate less traffic than the earlier proposal, said Hauppauge lawyer Anthony S. Guardino, who represented developers including Art Garratano of St. James.

Ministorage “is a relatively benign use,” Guardino said. “It doesn’t have a lot of noise. It doesn’t have a lot of employees.”

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