A public hearing before the Village of Patchogue's Board of Trustees met on the night of Monday, Oct. 28th — the room and its adjacent hallway packed to the brim on the heels of a Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series game — over a West Avenue hotel proposal that has divided the community.
“Tell us the village of Patchogue hates its residents without saying the village of Patchogue hates its residents,” Michael Ida wrote on Facebook in response to the latest news developments about the hotel.
That same night, the West Avenue Partners development team behind the Tempo by Hilton Hotel brought forth a revised version of an earlier proposal to appease the skeptical temperature they anticipated.
Now, the plan is to bring a five-story building to the 138 West Avenue site where a bowling alley once stood. This building would reportedly consist of four floors of 96 hotel rooms and 16 apartments, and sport a fifth floor with both a restaurant and a spa.
This is a prong down from what was initially proposed earlier this year: a six-story building with 118 rooms and 16 apartments.
A nautically-certified lighthouse design will accompany the hotel’s exterior design, per the new proposal, giving it that classic waterside overlook and "Patchogue feel" that just may sway some unconvinced townsfolk yet — the developers hope, at the least.
The matter will proceed once more before the Village Board on Tuesday, Nov. 12th, because of a zoning change that would need to be put into effect in order to accommodate additional parking spaces, should the hotel proposal go through.
In the several years that the prospect of a high-scale hotel has piqued the passion for open debate amongst Patchoguians, plenty more residents like Ida have chosen to err on the side of ruing its arrival.
The thought of the traffic impact especially elicits nothing but a negative outlook on what is being sold their way as a community-enhancing agent of vast proportions.
Says Kerry Anne: “I like the hotel idea with shops and a rooftop restaurant … [I] just don’t think the spot is a great location.”
She is not in favor of apartments, and balks at the notion that already horrendous traffic will be improved by the addition of a hotel near an elementary school.
“Are hotels even a good idea by schools? A college yes, but elementary? Parents should be worried. We need to rethink this. Why can’t we have luxury townhouses where people will care and respect the neighborhood? Most renters and hotel guests don’t care about our town. It will be trashed.”
The hotel plan calls for 119 onsite parking spaces, compared to the 101 spaces that village code currently has allotted for the area, as the developers’ attorney Larry Davis informed the town board on Oct. 28th.
The town-owned parking lot at the Long Island Railroad Station across the way from 128 West Avenue can operate as ample parking for hotel employees, said Mayor Paul Pontieri.
If the Village Board approves the zoning change on Nov. 12th, it still requires approval by the Village of Patchogue Planning Board and review by the Suffolk County Planning Commission. The build would be about a two-year process, Davis told the board.
Charlene Richards Santangelo speculates, “Well when they bring in the bus-loads of illegals, they have somewhere now to house them. Free rent, free medical, and a pocket full of money.”
Wielding a subversively glass-half-full vision, Robert Deligiorno, owner of Whiskey Neat on Main Street, pleads for residents to open their minds to new ideas and people.
“Someone wants to invest money into your town, our town. They see what's amazing about Patchogue and are willing to bet their own money to enhance it even further,” he says. “Why not just appreciate the flowers?”