Smithtown updates its 1967 master plan to guide development in the 21st century
Completion of the master plan was “a monumental task” that's “going to bring Smithtown into the future,” said Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Smithtown has updated its almost six-decade-old master plan that will guide future development in the North Shore town.
The Town Board voted 5-0 at its April 18 regular meeting at Town Hall to adopt the comprehensive plan, marking the first time the plan had been revised since 1967.
The plan addresses a number of issues, including the town’s population, transportation, economy and natural resources. It also makes recommendations to guide and direct planning efforts and economic development in Smithtown “for the next decade and beyond,” according to the final version of the document posted on the town’s website.
At the meeting, Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said the completion of the plan was “a monumental task and it’s going to bring Smithtown into the future.”
The plan was completed by using input from “hundreds, if not thousands of Smithtown residents,” Wehrheim added.
No members of the public spoke at the meeting at which the plan was approved.
However, residents have provided input on the plan for several years through a series of surveys and public workshops that were held between March and April 2019 in various Smithtown communities, including Kings Park, Commack, Hauppauge, Nesconset, Smithtown and St. James.
At the last public hearing on the plan on March 21 at the town’s senior center, residents made several suggestions for the final plan. Some Kings Park residents spoke against the revised plan’s recommendation that certain parts of Old Northport Road in Kings Park be rezoned from light industrial to heavy industrial.
Others from Fort Salonga recommended that the plan prohibit any additional heavy industry in an industrial area north of Bread and Cheese Hollow Road, and for the town to consider a 10-year moratorium on rezoning residential property behind Glen Lane from Sunken Meadow Parkway West.
Smithtown has updated its almost six-decade-old master plan that will guide future development in the North Shore town.
The Town Board voted 5-0 at its April 18 regular meeting at Town Hall to adopt the comprehensive plan, marking the first time the plan had been revised since 1967.
The plan addresses a number of issues, including the town’s population, transportation, economy and natural resources. It also makes recommendations to guide and direct planning efforts and economic development in Smithtown “for the next decade and beyond,” according to the final version of the document posted on the town’s website.
At the meeting, Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said the completion of the plan was “a monumental task and it’s going to bring Smithtown into the future.”
The plan was completed by using input from “hundreds, if not thousands of Smithtown residents,” Wehrheim added.
No members of the public spoke at the meeting at which the plan was approved.
However, residents have provided input on the plan for several years through a series of surveys and public workshops that were held between March and April 2019 in various Smithtown communities, including Kings Park, Commack, Hauppauge, Nesconset, Smithtown and St. James.
At the last public hearing on the plan on March 21 at the town’s senior center, residents made several suggestions for the final plan. Some Kings Park residents spoke against the revised plan’s recommendation that certain parts of Old Northport Road in Kings Park be rezoned from light industrial to heavy industrial.
Others from Fort Salonga recommended that the plan prohibit any additional heavy industry in an industrial area north of Bread and Cheese Hollow Road, and for the town to consider a 10-year moratorium on rezoning residential property behind Glen Lane from Sunken Meadow Parkway West.
