Oyster Bay town board considers proposal for Massapequa park

A long-stalled plan to expand a park at the end of Alhambra Road in Massapequa may move ahead if the Oyster Bay town board approves issuing a request for proposals for architects and engineering services.

The board is expected to consider the action at its meeting on Tuesday night. Parks commissioner Joseph Pinto said the town expects to use $4.1 million of state grant money awarded under the New York Rising program primarily to bolster the bulkhead at the park — which today is a sliver of beach — and possibly other amenities that could include a playground.

“It’s all got to be storm resistant,” Pinto said of the park. The firm that gets hired would help the town decide the best use of the grant funding, Pinto said.

In 2014, a proposal under the New York Rising program, which granted money to municipalities for storm recovery and mitigation after Superstorm Sandy, envisioned expanding the park with a playground, a gazebo, a kayak-launching area and a new bulkhead.

The proposed expansion of the park to include two vacant lots the town seized through eminent domain in 2010 and 2011 garnered mixed opinions from neighbors on Monday. They were concerned about traffic and teenagers using the park to play loud music at night, smoke marijuana and engage in sexual activity.

“We get too much traffic up and down this block,” said Gilbert Velez, 55, who owned a body shop before he retired and lives near the park. “You put a park in there and it’s just going to get worse.”

Jonathan Miller, 27, a real estate agent who bought a condo across the street about a year ago, said the future park is part of what brought him there.

“I think it would increase the value of our units, as long as it doesn’t become a hangout for teens,” Miller said. While he said he doesn’t want a park to draw a lot of people, it would “nicer to look at than a fenced off, overgrown vacant lot.”