As Smithtown designs new master plan, residents make case for more open space and less building

As Smithtown officials prepare to update the town's master plan, which is intended to guide development for future decades, residents from different parts of the community said they want to slow down building and protect open space.

Last adopted in 1957, the plan analyzes issues such as population, transportation and economic and natural resources.

Records show the revised master plan's overall recommendations for the town would include encouraging transit-oriented development near Long Island Rail Road stations in Kings Park, Smithtown and St. James and revitalizing downtown areas. 

The proposed revision also recommends working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and county agencies to reduce congestion and improve rail service, establishing a fund for open space and repairing or redeveloping existing buildings in Smithtown hamlet's downtown to preserve its historic character.

The earliest the town board could vote on the plan's adoption is at its Thursday  meeting, according to Supervisor Ed Wehrheim's spokeswoman, Nicole Garguilo. Last month town officials held a final public hearing on the proposed revision.

Tim Small, president of We Are Smithtown, asked the board to make sure a 13-acre Smithtown school district property on New York Avenue that houses the district’s administrative offices is maintained as open space. The district in 2016 agreed to sell the property due to falling student enrollment.

Small told the board there had been “numerous attempts” to develop that property over the years, but community feedback at past public hearings showed residents want to avoid developing the property to “maintain as much green space as close to the downtown business district as possible.”

Keith Macartney, president of the Fort Salonga Association, recommended the revised master plan prohibit any more heavy industry in an industrial area north of Bread and Cheese Hollow Road. He also asked for a provision recommending a 10-year moratorium on rezoning residential property behind Glen Lane from Sunken Meadow Parkway West.

Four people spoke at the hearing in opposition to a proposed plan revision that recommends rezoning parts of Old Northport Road in Kings Park from light industrial to heavy industrial where developer Tony Carlson wants to build a 5,000-foot rail line that would haul ash and construction debris.

The proposed project from Townline Rail Terminal LLC calls for constructing a freight rail facility at his CarlsonCorp.property on Old Northport Road and building a rail spur on 82 acres near Town Line and Pulaski roads. 

Because the project is under federal jurisdiction, the project wouldn't need rezoning to go forward, according to Garguilo. She pointed to a planning board report that recommended rezoning that area to meet the town's need for heavy industrial acreage “to provide necessary and desired community services.”

But George Husted, co-president of the Townline Association, a nonprofit that focuses on quality-of-life issues and opposes the rail project, objected to the proposed master plan rezoning recommendation.

He said at the hearing that since the proposed rail project's location is close to a sole source aquifer, the town would be “responsible for destroying” drinking water quality if a zoning change was made.

Other residents, including Timothy Micca, 59, of Kings Park, said while commenting on proposed plan revisions that the town shouldn't allow any heavy industrial activities in that area due to environmental concerns.

A rezoning recommendation “does not take into consideration quality of life around there,” he added.

The federal Surface Transportation Board, a regulatory agency, is considering whether to authorize the rail line.