The Farmingdale Village Board of Trustees and mayor denied a special use permit to builders who proposed building senior housing on Main Street, after local residents and business owners at a village board meeting Monday night said the plan called for overdevelopment of the area.

Tom Riccobono, vice president of Westbury-based Intercounty Mortgage, and Mike Difede, a builder with East Islip-based Unique Design Home Builders, proposed constructing the complex at 137-145 Main Street. The design of the structure presented by Riccobono and Difede at Monday's meeting consisted of 24 apartment units - 12 units in each of two buildings. The buildings currently at the site - the vacant Shamrock Inn bar/hotel and a former doctor's office - would have been demolished to make way for the development. The apportioned land for the project totals approximately 23,000 square feet.

"The board felt that it was too intensive a use," Village Clerk-Treasurer John Giordano said Wednesday, explaining the denial of the permit. The board had reserved decision at the public meeting, and after discussing the matter in closed chambers, decided on the denial.

In order to have started the project, the builders would have needed to obtain a special use permit from the village board of trustees, and also obtain variances from the village's Zoning Board of Appeals. The special use permit would have granted a special exception by allowing the builders to construct a multiple residence dwelling in an area of town zoned for business. The variances were needed because the builders' designs did not meet the requirements for minimum space allotment for such a size development as set by village code.

After members of the community complained that the proposed dwelling was too large for the property, the village's Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) reserved a decision on granting the variances at a March 18 meeting. Giordano said the board of trustees' denial of the special use permit now makes the ZBA appeal moot. If the builders want to continue pursuing the plans, he added, they must submit scaled down designs to the village.

Although the village board denied the special use permit request because they believe the builders' plan would overuse the property, Giordano said, the board agrees with the community that the village needs more senior housing.

Mayor Joseph Trudden at Monday's meeting noted this when he said that there is a shortage of housing for seniors in the village. "We need senior housing. We don't have enough spots," he said. The intended use for senior citizens was a major factor in the builders' candidacy for a special use permit.

One resident at the meeting suggested that the village wait for a better proposal for senior housing at the site - one for a smaller complex.

Among the concerns cited by those in the packed audience at Monday's meeting were the lack of parking allotted in the builders' plans, and increased traffic. One local businessman, Frank LiCausi, owner of Farmingdale Music Center at 135 Main Street, even expressed a fear that the resulting parking problem would put him out of business. "This is gross overusage of the property," he said of the plans.

Some others in the audience favored the development of the complex because, they said, it would bring vitality to the village business district.