Construction Begins On Seasons At Elwood

Long Islander News photos/Jano Tantongco
Pictured is a bulldozer operating at the site of the Seasons at Elwood housing complex in East Northport.

By Jano Tantongco
jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

After years of tussle, including a dismissed lawsuit and negotiations with the local community, shovels are in the ground for the Seasons at Elwood senior housing complex.

“I think people are really happy that we’re finally under construction and have our start. We look forward to providing this community with an opportunity for seniors to sell their homes and continue to live in the communities that they built,” said Steven Krieger, partner at developer Engel Berman, adding that preliminary site work is now underway.

The 55-and-over, 256-unit community is being built at the site of the 37-acre Oak Tree Dairy property in East Northport.

Krieger said that the first set of 43 buildings is expected to be completed within a year’s time. He added that even before the sales trailer was recently installed, they solicited 40 signed contracts for spots in the incoming development.

The Huntington Town Board approved in 2014 a zone change for the project, allowing it to move forward. That eventually led to the filing of an Article 78 proceeding in an attempt to stop it. That suit was later thrown out by a Suffolk Supreme Court judge.

That zone change came with a swath of conditions, including a cap of 256 units; requirement that up to 45 affordable units be built; and an order for the developer to pay for traffic improvements.

Initially pitched in 2012, the plan once called for 482 units, but it was scaled down over the two and a half years of concessions and discussions.

Jim Cameron, president of the civic group The Elwood Taxpayers Association, said that a meeting was scheduled for this week with a “consortium of stakeholders” in the area, including the Elwood Board of Education and the PTA.

Cameron said, “The taxpayers understand that it’s going to happen. We just hope that the soil remediation and everything that’s supposed to be done is being done.”