Smithtown's Master Plan Moving Forward Despite Setbacks

By Stacey Altherr

Despite Covid-19 and other setbacks, public commenting is still ongoing while the Town of Smithtown continues the process of creating a new Master Plan for its hamlets.

The town has not had a comprehensive master plan adopted in more than 50 years. The town board, under the new administration of Edward Wehrheim as supervisor, funded $700,000 for studies to come up with a plan.  H2M of New Jersey was given the contract to work with the town planners and put it together.

While the town says the response has been better than it expected, some in the town felt it could have been more widely advertised.

Last fall, before the pandemic locked down of the town and country, the town officials held “scoping” meetings in each of the hamlets – Smithtown, Kings Park, Nesconset, St. James, Hauppauge, and Commack – to find out what residents saw in their community’s future. The town also took comments and questions on its website, and asked residents to fill out a 15-page survey on issues of traffic, environment, open space, and other land use issues. Some questions targeted specific communities, according to town spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo.

After that first set of meetings, H2M compiled the information, and using it, came up with a draft. 

The plan was to deal with outdated business zones and land use issues, said Wehrheim. Because the residents have vested interests in what happens in their towns, he said, the town advertised and held online Zoom meetings with the major town planners. Residents could comment there or send in comments after watching it live or on youtube.com.

“We took the basic parts of opposition to it in each hamlet so we can work on those issues,” he said. “It was 12 or so issues. So now we are working with our planning officials to work on those.”

The town supervisor pointed to Northport Road as an example. H2M suggested that the light use area be changed to heavy use since many of the businesses are heavy industrial use, even if done so illegally for decades. But civic groups and other residents complained, so the town is working with each of the owners to “clean up” environmental issues and revert new and some existing businesses to comply with light use, and encouraging less hard use. New applicants include a new soccer field complex by Agape Inc., a solar farm, a medical facility, and a new daycare center.

“We may just keep [most if it] light industry,” Wehrheim said. “We think the residents’ concerns had some validity… We are going to each one [of the businesses] to have them clean up. We’ve been successful. That being said, there will be some we may need to zone heavy industry.”

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Most important to residents, according to survey results, were downtown revitalization, traffic, and overdevelopment of certain business use areas.

Town officials say they used many different avenues to announce meetings; social media, press coverage, its own website homepage, and GTV ads. Residents say that it should have considered a mailing to each home, but Garguilo said the cost would be prohibitive; about $50,000 for printing and mailing.

Instead, it piggybacked on annual tax mailings and recycling calendars with an informational insert, mailings were given to schools to bring home to parents, flyers put in the town’s libraries, and large posters were taped in businesses across town. About 100 residents have called to ask for a copy of the survey to be sent to their homes, and the town obliged.

According to the town’s count, 577 residents went to one of the six town meetings in 2019 pre-Covid for the scoping meetings; 921 watched the zoom meetings, 1,259 participants filled out the online survey, and 77,278 residents did not fill out the full survey but used the link to answer the some of the questions (usually the area concerning their town) and an additional 2,034 comments were sent via the link who did not fill out part or all of the survey.

When the next public input meeting is yet to be determined. The sudden death of H2M project leader, Jeffrey Janota, last month will stall the project until a new project manager is put in place, Garguilo said.  Next will come the Environmental Impact Plan which addresses traffic, water usage, and other environmental issues, which will mandate another round of public input and meetings, and then the final draft of the plan. Wehrheim says he believes it can still get done by the end of the year.

Residents still have time to voice their opinions, questions, and concerns she said, on the town website; smithtownny.gov (look halfway down on the right and click on “Smithtown Draft Master Plan” to read the plan and comment). 

“It’s fluid,” Wehrheim said. “We want to hear how they want their town to move into the future.”

Lake Avenue Smithtown's 8.2 Million Dollar Road Part II

By Stacey Altherr

It was a long time coming, say many residents and business owners. And although the Lake Avenue project in Saint James’ business district may be on budget and on time (actually, much earlier), there are roadblocks that could mean it may not reach its full potential for a while.

Part one of Lake Avenue Smithtown’s 8.2 Million Dollar Road Part I

Project’s Early Completion

Despite the arduous task of digging underneath railroad tracks (and the multi-governmental approvals that it took), the project is 90 percent complete and Lake Avenue is open for business six to seven months ahead of schedule.

Drone shot of Lake Avenue (September)Minor tasks still need to be done, including the installation of the new streetlamps, and some concrete curb and sidewalk work.

The road right now is bumpy, but that will be fixed when the new road settles down and can be re-milled and repaved, which will happen in the Spring, according to town officials.

The Project’s Cost

In all, the entire cost of the project was $8.2 million. About $2 million was already in the highway department budget from 2017 for the anticipated road work. A public hearing in December added $812,000 to replace hydrants and transfer water service to the new main.

Another $3.9 million was secured through the state’s Dormitory Authority (called DASNY) to pay for the sewer line by former Senator John H. Flanagan who left the senate in June to take a job with Northwell Health. That, along with expected economic budget tightening in the state due to Covid-19, means that the money allocated by vote and signature, but not yet received by the Town of Smithtown, could be in jeopardy, although Town Supervisor Edward Wehrheim says he believes the money will be there.

“We’re on a wait-and-see right now,” the town supervisor said. “I believe we will get it. It has already gone through the process. Otherwise, we have to lay it out from our fund balances.”

Much of the cost of the water main will be paid through customers of the Smithtown/St. James Water District, according to its superintendent Chris Nustad. The town estimates that cost to be $54 annually per customer for the water main alone.

The town also is betting that the additional businesses that will flock to the Lake Avenue area will also shore up the tax base, easing the cost of the $4 million capital costs.

Overall, the town expects the additional costs of the capital project to cost $18 per average household assessed at $5,500.

Lake Avenue Smithtown’s 8.2 Million Dollar Road Part III Gyrodyne Problem