Speaking Out Against Smithtown's Master Plan "A Love Letter To Density"

By Stacey Altherr

*Updated March 5th

While the Town of Smithtown is forging ahead with its master plan, some in the community are concerned with what they see as a future of overdevelopment and a loss of the town’s unique historical and suburban character.

Especially worrisome is the development of sites such as the Gyrodyne property and the Hauppauge Industrial Park, which have been thorny issues for years.

The master plan is a forward-looking document that looks at zoning regulations and future development of the town. Smithtown has not updated its plan since 1960. It hopes to have it finished by the end of the year.

James Bouklas, President of the We Are Smithtown organization, called the master plan as it is drafted now  “a love letter to density.”

“The plan is dedicated to apartments and large, tall buildings that are completely out of character for the town,” he said. 

Bouklas says the town doesn’t need apartments, because those would be priced around $2,000, out of the range of entry-level jobs anyway. He also says the idea of walkable areas, where people don’t use cars as often because people will shop and run errands within walking distance is “parochial.”

“Route 25a is already highly trafficked,” he said. “Add 200 units here and 300 there… We live in suburbia. We are being sold a pipe dream.”

Instead, members of We Are Smithtown would like to see smaller more affordable single-family homes built for starter homes, something Bouklas said is under-stocked in the town, and have downtown support small consumer-driven shops.

THE GYRODYNE PLANS

The Gyrodyne property, located on the Brookhaven town line and currently zoned light industry, is under consideration to be divided into seven different lots. Bouklas and others would like to see that property reverted back to residential, as it was in 1960s, and made into half or one-acre properties.

Judy Ogden, head of the St. James/Head of the Harbor Neighborhood Coalition and a trustee in the Head of the Harbor village board, says her members would like something similar.

“One of the other elephants in the room is the sewer treatment plan has been used to sell Gyrodyne as a savoir of Lake Avenue,” Ogden said. The Mills Pond Historic District is on the edge of the 5-acre defunct plant, and Head of the Harbor residents worry the wrong type of development there would change it. (Lake Avenue Smithtown’s 8.2 Million Dollar Road Part III Gyrodyne Problem)

“It is part of the last vestige of farmland, it’s historic… Once the change is made, there will be no turning back.”

Town officials say that reverting back to residential after decades, and with a current owner in place, would not be feasible, and would most likely trigger lawsuits. Instead, said Nicole Garguilo, town spokeswoman, the town is working with the Gyrodyne board to work within the zoning guidelines. The one thing the town wants there is a sewer treatment plant, which would allow St. James’ business district to hook up to it. 

“Something with a residential component is not off the table,” Garguilo said. “They may want to do something like Jefferson Ferry (a senior citizen assisted living facility in Port Jefferson), but single-family homes on one-acre lots? Not going to do that.”

Residents against the project site worry about the treatment plan emissions into the bay, but the town says single family homes have more issues because they have their own septic system which leaches into the ground, a heavier impact than a newly constructed treatment plant.

WAIT ON BIG PROJECTS, THEY SAY

Until these issues can be fleshed out, Odgen says a moratorium on all large developments should be in place until the town residents can digest the comprehensive plan. Then, she said, “you can look back at the projects and see if they fit what they are putting in the plan.”

But Garguilo says that could cause a spike in developers filing plans before the time it would take to put a moratorium in place, which could cement plans too early in the process. Instead, town officials say they are working each case individually and personally.

Ogden says that is “hogwash.” “Town governments doing comprehensive plans use moratoriums all the time to make sure projects don’t move forward that conflict with their comprehensive plans and have absolute authority to make sure bad projects don’t sneak through,” she said.

MORE MEETINGS NEEDED

Residents are hoping the town hold more meetings- as well as with the individual stakeholder groups -to listen to all concerns. Many residents did not know about last month’s Zoom meetings. Garguilo said the town is still in the process of listening to concerns. “The town is 100 percent dedicated to keeping Smithtown as Smithtown.”