Suffolk lawmaker accused of trying to slow Smithtown development

Suffolk County legislators on Tuesday postponed a decision on a proposal to study development of the Route 25A corridor near Stony Brook and Smithtown. 

Sharp debate over the bill from Legis. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) focused on one of the most significant proposals for that area: Former defense contractor Gyrodyne has proposed subdividing its 75-acre parcel in Smithtown near the Brookhaven border for uses such as a hotel, assisted living and offices. 

Hahn said her hope was to promote better planning "so when there are big projects that border town borders, there's more input from adjacent communities."

But company officers and a collection of Smithtown civic and business leaders at Tuesday's hearing described it as an attempt to slow or stop development. The bill would mandate study of vacant and proposed parcels, zoning, possible build-out and current development proposals along the state road, giving county planners six months to compile their analysis and make recommendations to legislators and the county executive. 

County planners said earlier this month that the bill would not affect the environmental review for Gyrodyne’s proposal that is already underway in Smithtown, but company officials were worried enough to send at least three representatives, including chief executive Gary Fitlin, to Tuesday’s hearing. 

“This is only an attempt to confuse issues and wrest control from the Town of Smithtown,” said J. Timothy Shea, a Hauppauge lawyer representing the company. Shea blamed a “well-educated, well-organized” Stony Brook community he’d wrangled with over previous development applications. 

That community includes Stony Brook University professors who have spoken out against Gyrodyne’s proposal in the past and an array of civic and elected officials who chiefly represent Brookhaven residents. 

Justin Bryant, a former New York State Assembly aide, said at the hearing that Gyrodyne planning needed to look more closely at issues surrounding traffic and chemicals that may be left over at the site from prior agricultural and manufacturing uses. Herb Mones, former president of the Three Village Civic Association in Brookhaven, said that company representatives’ promises of community-friendly development rang hollow. “Gyrodyne will not be here tomorrow,” he said. “They will sell. They will leave. Our residents will bear the brunt.”

Smithtown spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo, in an interview, said Hahn’s bill would not stop the town’s review of Gyrodyne’s application.

She said studies of development in the area had already been done and cited the application’s possible benefits, including millions of dollars in tax receivables each year for Smithtown for fire and school districts and Gyrodyne’s promises to maintain tree buffering around its site.

“Preserving open space comes at a cost, and if you do not find a balance between filling empty storefronts and building on a tax base which hasn’t increased for many years … it falls on the taxpayer,” she said. “People need to start looking at the bigger picture.”

 As debate wound down, Legis. Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) said she would not support a measure she viewed as intruding on private property rights. "We can't demand something of a landowner to do what we feel looks pretty," she said.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

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