Developer seeks covenant amendment to build medical office at Farmingville site

Planning staff brought an amendment application and site plan for Homeview/Holmes View Commons at Horseback Road and North Ocean Avenue in Farmingville. The project, long delayed and previously planned for a grocery tenant, would add a roughly 30,000–37,000 square-foot medical office building and modify the previously required development plan.

Staff said the applicant is seeking to amend a restrictive covenant that had required a village-green area "to get rid of it so that there's no requirement for a village green," allowing the building plan to proceed. Board members discussed conservation-buffer options and indicated they would take a closer look at buffering and whether parts of the parcel could be held as a conservation easement. The item will return to the board at a public hearing where neighbors and the applicant can weigh in.