Long Island/In the Region - A Cautious Step Toward Growth WITH a new master plan for 60 acres approved several months ago, the village of Farmingdale is moving down a path that is often anathema to Long Island towns: development. Recently Anthony Bartone, a developer, was given clearance to replace a blighted warehouse across from the train station with a three-and-a-half-story, 115-unit apartment complex with ground-level retail space. "We knew this would be a project that would change the village and make it a destination again," said Mr. Bartone, a lifelong "Daler." Once the complex, to be called Bartone Plaza, is complete, he plans a four-story, 85-room extended-stay hotel under Hilton's Home2 Suites label. Parking will be built underground. As "smart growth" principles begin to be applied across the Island, Farmingdale's transit-oriented project is poised to become a model community for revitalization. The village has "all the ingredients" to become a vibrant, walkable, mass-transit-friendly destination that will keep young people on the Island, Mr. Bartone said. That can only be a positive factor for the larger Farmingdale area, which includes Farmingdale State College, Republic Airport and the Black Course at Bethpage State Park, just under a mile away. "We are going for controlled change," said Ralph Ekstrand, the mayor. I truly believe for villages to remain sustainable we have to grow, we have to develop. Mr. Ekstrand was a trustee when this village on the eastern edge of Nassau County started developing a master plan three years ago and completed a State Environmental Quality Review study to "support how we will grow in the future." George Starkie, the former mayor who began the push for a master plan, said the hotel and mixed-used development would transform an area that was "horrible" right now. As part of the "social amenities" provided by the developer in exchange for density, Mr. Starkie said, Mr. Bartone will turn a piece of municipal parking lot into a triangular "pocket" park, widen South Front Street to accommodate two lanes, widen sidewalks and install antique-style lamp posts. To link the apartments to other village revitalization efforts, he also plans a pathway to the restaurants, bars and shops along Main Street, two blocks away. Engineering reports commissioned as part of the master plan projected forward to 2035. They showed that "379 dwelling units can be built without taxing the infrastructure" or adversely affecting traffic, parking or the schools. Mr. Ekstrand was elected in April on a platform promoting "change and development into the future." The opposition called it "urbanization." According to the master plan, "if someone wants to come in and build 400 units, we can say no because the village can't sustain it," Mr. Ekstrand said. Not all the places that have the ability to grow will grow. The idea is to keep the village's hometown charm, "even with the growth." The architectural review board rejected Hilton's initial plan for a concrete and glass structure in favor of the less jarring four-story building now envisioned. "The Bartone Plaza mixed-use development will bring a needed injection of built-in customers for Main Street businesses while improving the tax base of the village," said Eric Alexander, the executive director of Vision Long Island, in an e-mail. "These new residents will add life, vitality and needed "eyes on the street" for a well-located town center with a great train station." Such downtown walkable projects "satisfy a market niche that has left Long Island for second-tier cities, older suburban areas and college towns all over the country," Mr. Alexander said. There is more than enough demand to create projects of this type in numerous downtowns across Long Island, provided there is local support. In the village of Westbury, for instance, transit-oriented development has dovetailed with revitalization efforts. In less than a decade, 800 new condominium units, rental apartments and an assisted-living complex have been built within three blocks of the train station, said Peter J. Cavallaro, the mayor. Storefronts have been buffed up and signage changed. The village condemned a gas station in the downtown area and replaced it with a piazza with a waterfall. A performing arts center will open later this year on the site of a movie theater that had fallen into disrepair. With 4,000 people commuting daily through the Farmingdale train station, Mr. Alexander said, the "additional density, design, amenities and the newly approved hotel will create a downtown placemaking experience that will differentiate Farmingdale" from the big-box-store and strip-mall-laden Route 110, a mile and a half away. In Farmingdale, about a dozen businesses have taken part so far in a county-financed program to redo their storefronts and put up hand-carved signage with names painted in gold leaf. The aim was to help the street, with its eight different styles of architecture, look "livelier and more uniform," Mr. Ekstrand said. Another four or five potential projects are "in the hopper," he added, singling out a couple: 16 luxury apartments over three storefronts on Main Street for which preliminary drawings have been filed, and redevelopment of a 1.5-acre lot on which a historic saloon burned down. Mr. Bartone said that his complex, to be built around two interior courtyards, would seek to appeal to young adults who commute to Manhattan. Close to 10 percent, or about a dozen units, will be set aside as affordable housing, with one-bedrooms at $1,425 a month and two-bedrooms at $1,680. Market-rate studios will start at $1,450, one-bedrooms at $1,900 and two-bedrooms at $2,300.