Public hearing scheduled for proposed development of Gyrodyne site

The Gyrodyne company’s proposal for development of one of the largest remaining open parcels in western Suffolk County is poised to advance, with the release of a draft environmental impact statement last month and a Jan. 8 public hearing in Smithtown. 

The 2,941-page document, released after a Dec. 11 planning board vote to formally accept the document, provides the fullest picture yet of the company’s plans to subdivide a 75-acre St. James site once used for helicopter manufacturing into nine lots with uses like a 150-room hotel, assisted living facility and offices. Existing business space and a catering hall would not be affected.

Gyrodyne “believes the proposed subdivision is not expected to have significant impacts” on the surrounding natural and built environment, according to the draft, prepared for the company by Woodbury-based Cameron Engineering, with scoping guidance from town officials. The proposed uses could provide “synergies” with nearby Stony Brook University and alleviate a demand for housing for Smithtown’s growing elderly population, draft authors wrote.

The draft also considers alternative development scenarios — for example, reducing the size of the hotel or converting the entire site for office or light industrial space. 

The final impact statement, expected later this year, will include comments from the upcoming hearing and from municipalities and agencies that could be affected by the development, such as the Suffolk police and the St. James Fire District. The planning board will use that document when it votes to approve or deny the subdivision, though denial would not prevent development of light industrial uses that are already permitted at the site. 

Some residents and elected officials from neighboring municipalities, among them Brookhaven Town, have already voiced skepticism or opposed the Gyrodyne proposal, which they said would clog roads and threaten the character of an area dotted with historic sites dating to the Revolutionary War. 

"This is the type of development that actually destroys a sense of place," said Cindy Smith, of Brookhaven, who is helping organize residents and civic groups opposed to the proposal. "Nobody wants to live where you can’t get down a road."

She and Justin Bryant, another organizer, said they worried the site's former incarnations as a flower farm and equipment manufacturing plant could pose environmental risks to development. In combination with other possible projects nearby, including offices in Stony Brook and assisted living facilities in Smithtown, the stress on local resources would be overwhelming, they said. 

Gyrodyne president Gary Fitlin and Brookhaven officials did not respond to requests for comment. 

Some of the concerns from Brookhaven officials and others are unlikely to be allayed by the draft, which predicts that the proposed development would support more than 1,000 new jobs and generate hundreds of new vehicle trips during peak drive hours. 

The draft's authors did find, however, that only six of 17 intersections on Route 25A, Stony Brook Road and other roads would grow congested enough to require mitigating measures such as traffic signals or turning lanes. Some of those measures would address existing congestion. 

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.