South Bay Village developers revise plan

The developers of the South Bay Village project at the former Island Hills Golf Club in Sayville have submitted a revised plan to the Town of Islip, which reduces the total number of housing units and increases homeownership.

The new proposal, which is the third since Rechler Equity Partners took over the former golf course about a decade ago, lowers the number of residential units from 890, as proposed last year, to 568, with 80 percent for sale and the remaining 20 percent rental. The South Bay Village team said they changed their plan in response to feedback from Town of Islip officials and residents following a five-hour town planning board hearing in July 2025, where numerous residents raised concerns about the project’s scope.

“It’s really evolved over this past year,” said Gregg Rechler, managing partner of Rechler Equity Partners. “There’s a strong desire in Sayville for single-family residential, and while it’s not what our kind of core focus is, we really believe it’s needed as part of the overall diversification of housing.”

To achieve this diversification of housing, the latest South Bay Village proposal would include 455 for-sale single-family homes, which include two- and three-bedroom townhouses and three-bedroom homes, with 91 of those units, or 20 percent, being age-restricted. Additionally, there will be 113 rental units, of which 48 are single-family, two-bedroom townhomes, and 65 are one- and two-bedroom multi-family units.

The current plan places rental units on the property’s northeast corner along Lakeland Avenue, and the developers said the diversity in unit sizes should allow for more flexible price points. Ten percent of units would be marked as “affordable.” Five of these 57 units would be reserved for adults with developmental disabilities.

Other features of the revised plan include 22.4 acres of “publicly accessible open space” surrounding the property, which includes landscaping and pathways, along with 1.5 acres of land for a sewage treatment plant that could be connected to the county’s sewer district in the future to serve downtown Sayville. Gregg Rechler said he “endeavors to donate” the sewage treatment facility to the county if the county seeks to expand sewer access to Sayville.

In the new proposal, $250,000 is also designated for the formation and funding of a new Sayville Business Improvement District, which Gregg Rechler said some business owners asked them for. A West Sayville Fire Department substation is also proposed on the property alongside improvements to curb and road widths on the east side of Bohemia Parkway for emergency vehicles.

The developers completed a revised traffic study and are looking to widen Lakeland Avenue between Eastover Road and 11th Street to add an additional northbound through lane and a through road into the property, which they say would eliminate left turns at Chester Road onto Lakeland and reduce road congestion. With the mitigation efforts, the South Bay Village team says conditions should be better than they are right now at most connecting intersections, with the intersection of Lakeland Avenue and South Service Road about the same, and the intersection of Lakeland Avenue and Tariff Street/Johnson Avenue slightly worse.

Despite the lower density and focus on homeownership, members of the Greater Islip Association, which has organized opposition to a zone change at the former Island Hills site, still hold reservations about the latest plan.

“I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction. This is finally a proposal with more homeownership than rentals, but unfortunately… I think it’s still too dense,” said John Tafe, director of the Greater Islip Association.

Tafe also expressed disappointment that the South Bay Village team did not reach out to his organization or other residents in the area to inform them of the changes and work together on solutions, in the year since their last proposal to the Town of Islip Planning Board.

“The one thing that the community would really love is for Rechler to try and build trust and roots in the community,” Tafe said.

The 24-year-old civic leader added that it would be hard for the developers to gain the community’s trust, no matter the proposal, due to years of deadlock on the property’s future. And until residents had access to the 207-page revised plan themselves, Tafe said he could not have an educated conversation on the new proposal.

The South Bay Village team will present the latest change to the Town of Islip Planning Board, which will vote on whether to recommend the zone change to the Town Board. A hearing with the Town Board would then take place before a final vote.

Gregg Rechler said he thinks this should be the last proposal, and that it checks all the necessary boxes.

“Until it’s built, we’re not done. We’re not going anywhere,” Gregg Rechler said. “We think this is a very fair resolution that really hits all the points that were brought up by the community, by the local officials, by the planning board and the planning staff.”