Congratulations to Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone and the entire Town Board for its wise and brave decision to establish a moratorium on senior citizen and multiple residence housing in the town. This breather will obviously allow the town to stand back, review what we have, what we need and what we don’t need, and come up with a comprehensive, long-range plan to ensure that we don’t become the multiple residency-senior capital of Long Island.

Developers recognize the financial benefits of building such projects, as well as the political pressure on public officials from those who advocate senior housing in particular. So it’s no wonder they’ve been so successful in Babylon at filling up almost every nook and cranny. In West Babylon specifically, the number of these housing units has reached a point where it has changed the character of the community. That, has led to many questions. What is the impact on fire and rescue services, for example, in a community with a significantly disproportionate number of seniors? And, how will those numbers be reflected on things like school budgets?

There is no question that the senior population on Long Island is growing at an accelerated pace and that the high cost of single family homes has placed a burden on young families. But we cannot abandon the importance of the suburban character of our Town. We have to come up with better and more creative solutions to the housing problem. Babylon’s moratorium will give us the time to review the issue and come up with a well thought out comprehensive plan that will ensure we will have a diverse population in every community where the benefits of each age group will flourish because of the strengths of every other.