Amphitheater, Other Public Benefits Negotiated With Mt. Sinai Village Center

After many discussions, changes and developments a Public Benefits Package has, for the most part, been negotiated to go along with the Mt. Sinai Village Center Project.

After an original proposal in 2005, the Village Center project was finally, and along with this comes a Public Benefits package which will include $300,000 towards Heritage Park, which will be used to construct an amphitheater, and more donated to the Nature Center at Cedar Beach.

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Mt. Sinai Civic Association President Ann Becker spoke at Monday's meeting about the develop of the benefits package, which originally included the construction of another "community center building." Becker explained that she spoke with Town Supervisor Mark Lesko's office to dissuade the building of another center.

"I was able to rather forcefully make my point known that it was rather foolish…that you’re going to use upwards of $300,000 to build a building when you have no plan of who is going to run it, staff it or who is going to pay for oil and electricity," she said.

The community center building was removed, while a farmer's market was retained along with amphitheater and Cedar Beach donations.

"The supervisor's office I think finally understood...overall the concept is very nice…but as you can see it’s hard to get volunteers," Becker said as she motioned toward the vacant chairs beside her.

Becker also said that Developer Paul Elliot of Soundview Realty confirmed there are no tenants set for the Village Center at present time. While the , Becker believes the benefits package will bring positives.

“There’s a good amount of positives that’s going to come from this development," she said. "Even though some have been opposed to it and remain very opposed to it, the town approved it...and the town ultimately did negotiate the public benefit."

Construction of the ampitheatre would begin in concert with development of the Village Center. Click here to watch the entire Mt. Sinai Civic meeting on civicmeetings.com.