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The plans to develop the RKO Keith’s theater property on Northern Boulevard in Flushing may have to go back to the drawing board now that the developer is seeking to add home businesses to the site.

A special meeting of the Land Use Committee of Community Board 7 was planned for this Thursday night to discuss adding “occupation residences” to the property, a concept that some feel might have an effect on traffic – one of the sticking points in all phases of the plans to develop the dilapidated landmark theater property.

“They’d like to change about 25 percent of the units to make much larger lofts, 2,000 to 2,500 square feet each,” CB7 Land Use Committee Chair Charles Apelian said. “They want to market the spaces as home occupation residences.”

Boymelgreen Developers, who won approval for their plans from the City Board of Standards and Appeals in December, went back to the agency recently to discuss the changes. The BSA sent the developer back to the Community Board, the opinion of which had been instrumental in finalizing the development plans.

The plans had transformed from a mix of retail, business and residential to 200 condominium apartments with a senior center and parking for 229 vehicles. To change the marketing of the property to encourage home businesses to locate at the site could have an impact on traffic patterns and the need for parking.

Representatives of Boymelgreen will be at the meeting to discuss some of the problems they have encountered in the design process.

But the design alone may not be the only problem. Rumors have circulated that Boymelgreen has been trying to unload the property, that the changes necessary would be too costly and cut to deeply into the profit margin.

TDC Development President Michael Meyer, whose firm is developing Flushing Commons on Municipal Lot 1 and whose Queens Crossing on Main Street is already well under construction, said that despite rumors, his company has not been offered the RKO Keith’s property. He did acknowledge that rumors are running around the developers in Queens that Boymelgreen is trying to sell the property.

“I cannot make any comment on somebody else remarks,” Boymelgreen developer Israel Vranaski said of the rumors, though he did not flatly deny that the property was being pitched around.

He said that the change his group is seeking is “something very minor regarding the inside divide of apartments. There is no change in overall square footage or in the number of units.”

He declined to make any further comments.

Local officials who cheered the decision of the BSA in December are still hopeful that shovels will soon be put in the ground and work will begin on the property.

“I’m tired of passing northern Boulevard and Main Street and seeing the eyesore that’s been known as the RKO Keith’s,” Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said. “I was delighted when we finally came to agreement for the variance for the developers proposal. I am convinced that any difficulties can be resolved.”

“Boymelgreen has been making progress toward the point of getting the shovels in the ground,” Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said. “They want to make a modification, and I would certainly expect the community board to think carefully about it.”

As to the rumors of the sale, Liu said he had spoken personally with the head of Boymelgreen, and he “made it clear that he was interested in seeing the fruition of the RKO project.”

“We are all looking forward to bringing this project back from the dead,” Liu added. “I trust that the community board will make the right decision.”