Southold chicken farm plan clucks on, but road idea draws ire

The operator of a proposed chicken farm in Southold may be required to build an emergency access road off a residential street, drawing ire from neighbors already irked about the plan.

The request comes as the planning board continues review of a pasture-raised egg farm that could house 6,000 hens on the 16-acre property. The developer, Grant Callahan of Old Westbury, needs Southold Town approval to build a 2,100-square-foot barn.

Southold is a “right-to-farm” community with protections for farms that may generate dust, noise and odors. The proposal has fueled debate over the town’s agricultural heritage and managing conflicts between farms and their neighbors.

Current plans show the barn — which would be used to store farm equipment, wash and pack eggs — set back about 100 feet from Jasmine Lane. But Callahan told town planning officials he’s now considering moving the barn closer to homes on Jasmine Lane. That way, he'd be required to build a shorter emergency access road than if the barn was built farther from the road.

Neighbors, who have already raised concerns about manure odor, rats and dust from the proposed farm, said they don't want to see increased traffic on their street. They decried the notion of moving the barn any closer to the road.

The access road must be 20 feet wide and able to accommodate the weight of emergency vehicles, according to the town fire marshal. It would be near an existing fire hydrant on Jasmine Lane, officials said.

Callahan said he had been planning to access the property from the opposite side, off Ackerly Pond Lane. “We didn't want to disturb our neighbors from the very beginning,” he said at a March 23 planning board meeting. Building a road would be an “enormous additional expense” for the startup farm, he said.

Planning board Chairman James Rich urged Callahan to keep the building 100 feet away from Jasmine Lane.

“We would like to keep this back as much as possible,” Rich said. “If we could stick to 100 feet, it would be appreciated.”

Callahan was asked to research costs for the emergency road and report back to the planning board at its next meeting on April 6.

Restrictions weighed

Heather Lanza, the town planning director, said the board has final say over where the barn goes.

Neighbors have raised concerns about quality of life and environmental issues ranging from dust and odors to impacts to groundwater. Town planners stressed that many of those concerns are beyond their purview.

The board is focused on construction on the barn, traffic flow and potential buffering between neighbors and cannot govern agricultural practices, officials said. Town code prohibits retail sales and processing at the site, which was preserved as farmland in 2007.

Planning board members also balked at the idea of requiring a buffer, noting in a report that it may be deemed “unreasonably restrictive” by the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Sandy Kollen, a Jasmine Lane homeowner, said she left Monday’s meeting frustrated. She had hoped the planning board would recommend that the barn be moved away from her neighborhood and a 300-foot buffer be added to protect their homes.

“If it was smack in the middle of the property, I feel like it wouldn’t have bothered anybody,” Kollen said in an interview. “Price shouldn’t have anything to do with everybody else’s comfort.”

The proposal has also drawn criticism from animal rights groups, including the Riverhead rescue group Humane Long Island. John Di Leonardo, the group’s executive director, called the proposal a “factory operation” that will cause animals to suffer. He said during a recent town board meeting that the number of birds there could pose health concerns amid a bird flu outbreak.

Committee's nod

The town’s agricultural advisory committee gave a nod to the project, writing in a letter to the planning board that it should be approved “in a timely fashion.”

Some farmers said it was discouraging to see opposition.

Abra Morawiec launched Feisty Acres poultry farm on the North Fork in 2015 and raised chickens, ducks and quail before relocating the farm upstate to Herkimer County at the end of 2023. 

Morawiec said in an interview that she and her partner Chris Pinto raised thousands of birds in Southold without complaints.

“We were encouraged to grow, but we just couldn’t grow there because we couldn’t afford to buy land,” she said in an interview. “Young people are not able to afford the North Fork anymore. … If the North Fork wants to retain its reputation for being a farming community, they're going to have to stand by these right-to-farm laws.”