Sayville Property Added to Town’s Blighted Properties List

On Wednesday, Town of Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan announced the first six properties to be added to the Town’s new , which seeks to punish landowners that allow their properties to fall into disrepair.

Included on this list is the former Lamplighter Inn, a now abandoned and severely blighted building located at 465 Montauk Highway in Sayville.

Standing in front of the dilapidated property, which is currently for sale, Nolan explained a point system used to measure what properties, both commercial and residential, should be included on the list.

The main component of the “Community Preservation and Anti-Blight Enforcement Local Law” is a scorecard that has a list of criteria that includes if the property is attracting illegal activity, is a fire hazard or if it’s in significant disrepair to determine if a parcel can be rated as blighted. A property will be listed as blighted if its meets or exceeds a point value of 100.

“This property scored a 175 on our checklist,” said Nolan. “This was a major Sayville attraction some time ago and has fallen into disrepair. This problem property has affected the neighborhood for quite some time. This was one of the properties that we were thinking of when we decided to pass blight legislation.”

The former Lamplighter Inn was added to the town’s Blighted Property Inventory List, which carries a registration fee of $2,500 for residential properties and $5,000 for commercial properties.

“The fees collected will be added back to the general fund to offset costs of code enforcement, fire marshals and the fees to board up buildings,” Nolan said.

As part of the effort to persuade developers to redevelop neglected properties, the by as much as 50 percent and expedited processing of permits.

“My sister and her husband own the located next door and they were dropped from their insurance company and now they are paying higher rates because of this property,” said Chris Hellmers. “I also live down the street and it is impacting my property values. It has been at leas 17 years. Something has to be done.”