Rezone Of Former Tennis Club OKd

Once art of the Otto Herman Kahn Estate, the one-time tennis club on Woodbury Road will make way for a senior care facility.

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

The Huntington Town Board approved last month a developer’s plan to construct an assisted living facility on the corner of Woodbury Road and East Gate Drive in Cold Spring Harbor.

The board approved the zone change application from Virginia-based Artis Senior Living, which currently operates 14 memory care facilities in nine states. Artis requested a R-20 to R-HS zone change for the 3.96-acre property to allow for the construction of a 30,882-square-foot, one-story building and 63 parking spaces, 19 of which would be landbanked stalls, according to plans received by the Huntington planning department in November.

The zone change resolution, which was sponsored by Councilman Mark Cuthbertson and seconded by Supervisor Chad Lupinacci, was passed unanimously by the town board.

R-HS zoning allows for the construction of congregate-care, assisted-living, nursing home and life-care communities. The proposed 64-bed assisted living facility would be oriented towards “individuals with early to mid stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia,” according to Max Ferentinos, Artis’ Vice President of Development.

The property currently houses an abandoned tennis club with eight tennis courts and a clubhouse, which plans show are slated to be removed.

The town board approved the zone change subject to nine conditions, including limiting hours for deliveries and requiring the facility’s be from Woodbury Road. The town board also required that landscaped buffers of 45 feet in width must be provided along East Gate Drive and Woodbury Road.

The town board required Artis to ask state, county and town agencies to synchronize their traffic signals on Woodbury Road to address traffic concerns raised by neighbors at a public hearing in August.

The current zone change application also requires a building setback variance from the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

Five Cents Can Go A Long Way

Half Hollow Hills High School East senior Janna Zilka collects and redeems bottles and donates the proceeds to charity.

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com 

In an effort to save the planet while helping an organization that is close to her heart, Janna Zilkha started Bottles for Buddies six years ago.

The Half Hollow Hills High School East senior has redeemed over 60,000 bottles since she began, collecting more than $3,000 to donate to the New York Friendship Circle (FCNY), a program that aids special needs children by putting them in groups and pairing them up with teens who participate in fun activities with them.

Zilkha has a personal connection to the organization through her cousin, Roi, who has special needs and moved in with her family in 2011, after natural disasters hit his home in Japan. That’s when they learned about FCNY from their synagogue, the ChaiCenter in Dix Hills.

“We went to the Friendship Circle and they were so good for him and for our family,” Zilkha said. “I learned a lot through the Friendship Circle about kids with special needs.”

The group has little funding aside from donations and after Zilkha’s experience with them, she wanted to help. In elementary school, Zilkha participated in a club called “Earth Savers” that went to classrooms, collecting recyclables and redeeming the bottles. The club would use the money to plant a garden at the school, but was discontinued when she went to middle school. This is when Zilkha decided to continue this work herself and donate to FCNY.

In her six years of running the program, Zilkha has been able to sponsor a program of her own, “A Teen Scene”, along with others. Last year, she invited friends who were in her music classes to play and sing for the kids and have them guess the song.

“With my donations, their program has been able to grow more and have better experiences for the kids,” Zilkha said. “It’s amazing to see how much it’s grown in the last six years.”

Her donations have also impacted FCNY by helping to fund the pay of those who help run the program. With the small amount funding the group has, it means a lot.

“The ultimate goal is to raise enough money so that most of the programs are free,” Zilkha said. “It’s a very long journey to get there, but it’s definitely improved since I started this program.”

Zilkha takes every opportunity to talk about her efforts with community groups like the Chai Center congregation here.

Zilkha accepts bottle donations throughout the year, with many friends and family keeping an eye out for recyclables to bring to her. She also stays after football games to pick up discarded bottles. Anyone who has bottles to donate can get in touch with Zilkha through the Bottles for Buddies Facebook page to organize a drop off.

“My program would be nothing if it weren’t for the community,” Zilkha said. “In my own home we don’t use as much plastic as other families, we try not to use plastic water bottles or anything of that kind so if it were just my family we wouldn’t have much at all.”

Another way Zilkha is hoping to increase her returns is by partnering with the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County who will aid her in collecting bottles in the near future.

“Once it’s up and running it will make a huge impact and grow my program even more,” Zilkha said.

Zilkha is hoping to top her previous years collections with a goal of redeeming 35,000 bottles. Last year, she had a goal of 20,000 and collected over 31,000.

“Whether it’s actually going to me and the Friendship Circle, although I really would appreciate the donations to the Friendship Circle, one big part about this program to me, is educating people about recycling and how it helps the environment,” Zilkha said.

The Bottles for Buddies Facebook page is filled with posts, articles and videos about the benefits of recycling. Zilkha has also spoken about her recycling program to groups as a way to further educate people.

“It’s more than just them bringing me bottles, it’s them knowing about recycling and the detriments of plastic,” Zilkha said. “Some people have been bringing us less, because they’ve been using less plastic which of course is amazing.”

As a senior in high school, Zilkha is hoping to go away for college but does not want her program to stop in her absence.

“Right now, I am trying to find people who are going to be willing to take up my program and make it their own so the Friendship Circle can continue getting the funding,” Zilkha said.

Zilkha hopes a Girl Scout troop will be willing to carry on her program and accept the responsibility of redeeming the bottles.

“What people don’t realize is that it’s actually a lot of work,” Zilkha said. “It’s not just collecting, you need to have the time to take thousands of bottles to a supermarket and put in each bottle individually.”

‘Supermajority’ OK’s Platt’s Plan

By a 4-0 vote the town board approved plans for a 10,000-square-foot commercial building at Park Avenue and Main Street in Huntington.

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

The Huntington Town Board voted last week to rezone a historic property on the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue in Huntington where a developer wants to build a 10,064-square-foot commercial building.

The zone change application was submitted earlier this year by developer Dominick Mavellia to allow for a commercial building “with space intended to be used for medical offices” to be constructed on the 1.06-acre property at 400 Park Avenue.

The property is the former site of the Platt’s Tavern, where it’s said George Washington once dined, and is currently occupied by what has been described by residents as an eyesore, a food pantry that’s painted in bright green, red, blue and yellow colors.

Mavellia’s plans for the property closely mirror his original 2014 plans for the site, which stalled before a prior town board administration in November 2016 when the board did not vote on the zone change application before deadline.

“We are excited to move forward and clean up this corner that’s been a plight on the community for many years,” Mavellia said in an interview Monday. “This is one of the good projects… It should have been approved three years ago when I went in front of the old board.”

The application to change the property, which is located within the Old Huntington Green historic district, from a R-15 residential to C-1 commercial zone was approved by the required supermajority vote of 4-1. Supervisor Chad Lupinacci, who sponsored the resolution, and Councilmen Eugene Cook, Mark Cuthbertson and Ed Smyth supported the zone change, while Councilwoman Joan Cergol voted against it.

“What I see is a building that simply does not comport with the scale of the surrounding historic district, not at 10,000 square-feet or 8,000 square-feet,” Cergol said during last Thursday’s meeting.

Cergol added that she suggested that Mavellia construct two smaller professional buildings on the site.

Paul Warburgh, a neighbor whose home is also in the Old Huntington Green Historic District, who had previously opposed Mavellia’s plan because of the size and architecture of the proposed building, also suggested that there be two smaller buildings of “no more than 6,000 square-feet” on the property instead of one 10,064-square-foot building. Warburg was one of several neighbors and historic preservationists to oppose the project at a public hearing last month.

Mavellia said he worked with three different architects to make sure that the proposed building “fits the style of the other historic buildings in the area.”

“I believed in it three years ago, and I believe in it now,” Mavellia said. “I commend this town board for doing the right thing.”

Lupinacci said the zone change approval is just the first step in the approval process for any construction of the corner.

“Right now this corner is an ugly abandoned gas station, and this is the first step in beautifying that area,” Lupinacci said.

Smyth added that the town board would have another opportunity to vote on Mavellia’s plan before construction can take place.

“This property is in the historic district, so this has to come back before the town board for a second approval just to issue the building permit,” Smyth said. “Whatever is being proposed next time this thing comes around before the building permit is issued… many of the concerns that Mr. Warburgh and others had can be addressed at that time.”

Mavellia said his current plans do not require any variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals, and that the next step is to go before the Huntington Planning Board for site plan review.