Legislators to consider bill on impacts of development along Rte. 25A corridor
Some of the open space at the Gyrodyne Company's property along Route 25A in St. James, on Dec. 31, 2019. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Suffolk County planners would study the regional impact of proposed developments like Gyrodyne along the Route 25A corridor in St. James and Stony Brook under a bill the Legislature’s Economic Development, Planning and Housing Committee is scheduled to take up Wednesday.
“I am concerned that this project is moving forward without serious review of the cumulative impact” of possible development at other sites near Gyrodyne's 75-acre St. James property, bill sponsor Leg. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) said in an interview. Several large sites on Route 25A and Mills Pond Road could also be developed.
Former defense contractor Gyrodyne has proposed uses like a hotel, assisted living and offices for its land, which sits mostly in the Town of Smithtown but is near the Brookhaven Town border. Smithtown officials are overseeing environmental review of the company’s application to subdivide its land, and the town Planning Board could vote in coming months on the application. Gyrodyne needs subdivision approval to carry out its preferred development scenario, but the company already has considerable leeway to develop under the light-industrial zoning that covers most of the site.
Hahn and other elected officials primarily representing Brookhaven are skeptical of a development proposal they say would add congestion to Stony Brook Road and have other impacts on their constituents, with little local oversight or added Brookhaven tax revenue. Those would go primarily to Smithtown Central School District and other Smithtown taxing districts.
Hahn’s bill, which could go before the full legislature on Feb. 11 if it passes out of committee, would mandate study of vacant and proposed parcels, zoning, possible build-out and current development proposals along Route 25A. Planners would have six months to compile their analysis and make recommendations to legislators and the county executive.
The bill would not affect the environmental review already underway in Smithtown, but would affect other applications for sites along the corridor, potentially triggering their review by county planning commissioners, county staffers said.
Gyrodyne’s application has already undergone some county scrutiny, winning 10-0 approval in August 2017 from commissioners who heard the application because of the development site’s proximity to municipal borders and Route 25A, a state road.
County planning staff, in a report recommending approval, wrote at the time that Gyrodyne’s application “would provide for a desirable mix of land uses in conformance with the goals of the Town of Smithtown, and encourage the highest and best adaptive use of the property without approaching the maximum allowable density of the property.”
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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