Town approves 100-acre industrial park amid local split in Suffolk County

The Babylon Town Board approved rezoning for Suffolk Technology Park, a 100-acre industrial park on the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights line, sharpening a divide between residents who see jobs and tax revenue and neighbors who fear traffic, noise and a heavier industrial footprint.

The project, backed by Bristol Group and Bristol Suffolk LLC, would carve an industrial technology park out of a 111.39-acre parcel associated with Pinelawn Memorial Park and Pinelawn Cemetery. State filings say 100.114 acres would be rezoned to a newly proposed Planned Industrial Park-II category, while 11.28 acres would remain with Pinelawn Cemetery. The plan calls for nine buildings totaling 1,596,921 square feet, a scale large enough to change how this part of western Suffolk functions day to day.

Supporters in Wyandanch say the project could bring jobs, new tax revenue and redevelopment to land that has sat largely undeveloped. Opponents, many of them in Wheatley Heights, argue the industrial park would mean more truck traffic, worse congestion, and added air and water pollution near homes already pressed by noise and heavy road use. For residents living closest to the site, the debate is not abstract: it is about whether the area gains employers and investment or absorbs the costs of an industrial complex next to residential streets.

The rezoning vote also reflected how far the proposal has moved through Babylon’s process. In 2024, the town was already weighing a zoning change because it had no industrial-park code that fit the project. Babylon’s existing Planned Industrial Park 1 designation dates to 1980 and applies to a North Amityville site, not Wyandanch. In 2025, the town accepted environmental findings and later accepted an amended final environmental impact statement, clearing major review steps before the rezoning decision.

The approval does not end the fight. It gives the project momentum, but it also shifts the battle from whether the park can be proposed to how, and whether its benefits will outweigh the burden on nearby neighborhoods. That tension is especially sharp in Wheatley Heights, where a long history of housing discrimination has left land-use decisions carrying unusual weight. For now, Babylon has moved the industrial park one step closer to reality, and the arguments over what that means for Wyandanch and Wheatley Heights are only getting louder.