For Immediate Release – September 26, 2023
Significant Progress in Effort to Preserve Flowerfield Fairgrounds as Open Space
State DEC Advises Smithtown It Is Considering Acquisition Using Environmental Protection Fund Supervisor Werheim Says In Response That Town Has No Objection To DEC Acquiring the Property
In a move that may signal a breakthrough in the longstanding controversy over a proposal for a massive development in the Town’s last rural corridor, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has notified the Town of Smithtown that it is considering acquisition of the Flowerfield Fairgrounds property for conservation purposes, and the Town has responded by advising DEC that it has no objection to the State’s proposal to preserve the property using the State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).
“This is a huge step forward in the fight to preserve Flowerfield Fairgrounds for future generations,” said Judith Ogden, a Village of Head of the Harbor Trustee and spokesperson for the Saint James-Head of the Harbor Neighborhood Preservation Coalition. “This progress is the result of a unified community and its elected leaders working together with a clear vision for the future. This area is defined by our last working farms in the Town of Smithtown, narrow two-lane roads, and important historical resources. Our children and grandchildren deserve to have the same quality of life that we enjoy, and that means preserving what’s left of the rural character of Saint James.”
Gyrodyne has proposed a multi-story 125-room hotel, 175,000 square feet of office space, 250 assisted living housing units, a 7-acre sewage treatment plant, and parking for more than 2,500 vehicles on property located partly within the Mills Pond National Historic District. The agreement between the State and Town comes as the legal challenge brought by the Village of Head of the Harbor and 23 nearby property owners opposing preliminary approval of the controversial plan remains tied up in State Supreme Court. Opponents of the project have pointed out the development proposal conflicts with key recommendations in the Town’s Draft Comprehensive Plan. Head of the Harbor Village Trustees have called on the Town to revert the zoning of the property back to residential use, and the Village Mayor has called for the entire property to be preserved as a park.
The Saint James-Head of the Harbor Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, which now numbers more than 1,000 members, was created to protect remaining undeveloped properties in the still rural area around Route 25A and Mills Pond Road, including Gyrodyne and Bull Run Farm. Local residents have contributed generously to fund the Coalition’s lawsuit to block Gyrodyne’s mega development plan from moving forward.
In 2021, the Coalition expressed support for a proposal for the site to become a park but said if that was not possible, it would support a Compromise Plan, under which the undeveloped 48-acre portion known as the Fairgrounds would become open space, with some limited development allowed on the portion of the site that was developed in the 1960s and is already occupied by buildings and parking lots. In a press release issued in April of 2021, Gyrodyne announced that it planned to sell the property and would consider offers for portions of the property or the entire site.
The State’s interest in preserving the property is an outgrowth of discussions involving DEC, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, former Assemblyman Steve Englebright, and the Peconic Land Trust, a conservation organization that completed an appraisal of the property as the first step in the process of establishing the value of the property so that negotiations with Gyrodyne regarding purchase could begin.
The interactions between DEC and the Town regarding the State’s efforts to preserve the open space portion of the site occurred several months after the Town of Smithtown rejected a controversial proposal to develop a congregate care facility on nearby Bull Run Farm, citing the need to protect the rural character of the area.
“We are grateful to Supervisor Werheim and the Town Board for the leadership they have demonstrated regarding both Bull Run Farm and Flowerfield Fairgrounds,” said Ogden. “Through these actions, they have shown that they clearly understand how strongly community residents feel about the importance of protecting this rural area from overdevelopment.”
