St. Johnland Development Group Makes Its Case For Whisper Landing Assisted Living Facility

By Taylor Fleming

Part I - Of BZA Hearing On Whisper Landing Assisted Living Facility

Smithtown’s Board of Zoning Appeals convened on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 for a public hearing of eleven legal notices. However, the BZA only heard seven of the notices on the agenda. One notice was adjourned until August 15 and six notices were closed without comments from members of the community.

A majority of the meeting was spent discussing pending legal notice 16943 regarding St. Johnland Development Group, LLC’s variance requests for the building of Whisper Landing Assisted Living Facility at River Heights Dr. & Route 25A. Prior to hearing St. Johnland Development Group, Board Chairperson Adrienne Giannadeo said she would allow each member of the Town of Smithtown one opportunity to speak and asked members of the community for “no applause or outbursts.” 

St. Johnland attorney Rich ScheyerSt. Johnland attorney Rich Scheyer was first to take to the podium. He asked the board to amend several of the variances that St. Johnland had previously requested. The company is no longer asking to increase the maximum building height from 35 feet to 49 feet and will build the 35 feet limit. They wish to amend the variance to reduce the minimum truck loading spaces from 3 to 1 and to amend the variance to increase the maximum height of retaining walls from 6 to 12 feet. 

After the amendments to the variance requests, St. Johnland was left to discuss the original and standing variance request to permit structures within 10 feet of environmentally sensitive land. Scheyer emphasized, however, that with regards to environmentally sensitive land, “only 12.1% of the site will be affected” and the building presents no impact for endangered species populations. 

St. Johnland brought in John Breslin of Breslin Appraisals to discuss his study of the variances. “A bulk of the original site will remain essentially green,” said Breslin. He stressed that St. Johnland will minimize the use of environmentally sensitive lands by pulling the structure towards 25A. In conclusion, Breslin said the “totality of the circumstances” does not violate the variance and does not adversely affect the surrounding neighborhood.

Scheyer then asked Thomas Mazzola, an expert on traffic safety, to speak on behalf of St. Johnland. Mazzola suggested that the assisted living facility would generate very little traffic except for around 20 employees for day and evening shifts, 6-8 employees for overnight shifts and a few visitors around lunchtime. Mazzola believes very few of the residents will drive themselves. Although St. Johnland is requesting 80 parking spaces, Mazzola said, “the actual need will be around half that.”

Finally, Scheyer brought in Thomas Cramer, a landscape architect, to discuss the environmental issues of the site. Quoting the Smithtown Town Master plan, Cramer suggested that there is a greater need for assisted living facilities over nursing home facilities. He described Whisper Landing as “almost like a clubhouse for [seniors].” Cramer discussed the 7 categories of environmentally sensitive lands and rendered all except one irrelevant to the St. Johnland site. “The only issue we have are the steep slopes,” said Cramer. Building on steep slopes presents environmental issues like erosion, but Cramer declared that most likely less than 40% of the steep slope will be disturbed at the site. 

David Flynn, Assistant Town Planning Director, raised several questions for Cramer regarding soil permeability, the visual aspects of the building and the noise impacts of the facility. Cramer was accommodating to Flynn’s arguments, stating that St. Johnland would be open to innovative drainage techniques, and has already suggested a chromoglass self-contained sewage treatment facility. He said St. Johnland was also planning to buffer the noise and compromise on the visual impacts of the structure. “A lot of intention went into the design of this building,” said Cramer. “We want it to become part of the community.”

Part II Residents Comments to follow Saturday June 30