For Immediate Release – February 2, 2021
Town’s New Comp Plan Should Thwart Proposed Gyrodyne Development
Coalition Points Out Numerous Plan Recommendations That Would Be Violated by Mega Development
Numerous provisions of the Town of Smithtown’s newly released Comprehensive Plan would be violated if a mammoth and controversial development project proposed to be built on Flowerfield Fairgrounds in Saint James is allowed to move forward, a coalition of local citizens and organizations said today. The new Plan, which is intended to guide future development across the Town, specifically recommends that mixed use developments should only be allowed in downtown areas and away from heavily traveled highway corridors, the Coalition noted. Location of the massive Gyrodyne project along the narrow and heavily traveled Route 25A corridor would be in direct conflict with that recommendation and many others contained in the Plan, said Judy Ogden, a Head of the Harbor Village Trustee and spokesperson for the Coalition.
“The Town Board should be commended for taking on the challenge of advancing the first updated Comprehensive Plan in Smithtown since 1957, and release of the Draft Plan a huge step forward in the process,” said Ogden. “The new Plan sets important goals to guide future development throughout the Town, and keeping density projects away from well-traveled highway corridors is a key recommendation in the Plan that should prevent the Gyrodyne project from moving forward.”
Gyrodyne has proposed to build a 150-room hotel, 150-seat restaurant, 500-seat conference center, 220 assisted living housing units, 130,000 square feet of office space, and more than 2,000 parking spaces on Flowerfield Fairgrounds, which is bordered by narrow, two-lane roads – the heavily traveled Route 25A corridor and Mills Pond Road. A state law enacted in 1997 designated the Route 25A corridor bordering the site as a historic resource of statewide significance, applying special protections that preclude any widening of the highway.
The project site includes part of the Mills Pond Historic District designated by the federal government in 1973 and is separated from the historic district by Mills Pond Road, a rural residential roadway that is home to Bull Run Farm, where another assisted living facility has been proposed. The Village of Head of the Harbor and the Town of Brookhaven have expressed strong opposition to the Gyrodyne plan, arguing that the traffic it would generate would overwhelm local roadways.
“The special protections that the state and federal government have put in place are there for a reason,” said Ogden. “Gyrodyne’s mega development plan could be a real benefit to the economy if it were built on a site bounded on all sides by four-lane highways, but the unvarnished truth is that the highway infrastructure needed to support it simply does not exist here. That’s why the Gyrodyne plan would violate so many of the important recommendations in the Town’s new Comprehensive Plan.”
Specific Plan recommendations cited by the Coalition include:
On page 55, the Draft Plan recommends the specific areas where such developments should take place. It states that “The most appropriate locations for mixed use developments…include all downtown portions of Smithtown Boulevard in Nesconset and selected nodes in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.” The Gyrodyne proposal is in direct conflict with that recommendation, the Coalition noted.
The Draft Plan notes on page 56 that commercial developments “create(s) the need for deceleration lanes which can cause traffic to slow and detract from the roadway’s original intent.” Vehicle trips from the project would overwhelm Route 25A, a winding two-lane roadway designated by state law as a historic heritage corridor, as well as Mills Pond Road and Stony Brook Road, forcing drivers in search of relief onto small streets in the Head of the Harbor, the Coalition noted.
On page 42, the Draft Plan addresses the need for assisted living facilities and states that “The Town should prohibit these facilities from most residential zones, permitting them only in the newly created Mult-family Zone by special exception of the Town Board.” (emphasis added). In direct conflict with this recommendation in the Plan, the Gyrodyne proposal calls for development of 220 assisted living units in an industrial zone. The assisted living units are not a use permitted in the zoning category as of right and would require special exception approval from the Town Board.
On page 71, the Draft Plan recommends that the Town should “support higher density and traditional mixed use development near transit stations…while preserving community character.” The Gyrodyne proposal conflicts with this recommendation, the Coalition noted.
On page 160, the Smart Growth section of the Draft Plan notes that the Town “can take proactive steps to discourage sprawl and to better environmental conditions by reviewing existing zoning codes and policies as they relate to supporting or inhibiting smart growth…” In direct conflict with that recommendation, the Gyrodyne proposal is an example of massive development sprawl into what is essentially a quiet residential area, contrary to both Plan recommendations and Smart Growth principles.
“This massive project is perhaps the largest of its kind ever proposed on Long Island, and it could have a real economic benefit for the regional economy if it were proposed for a site with direct access to the four-lane highways needed to accommodate the traffic that it would cause,” noted Trustee Ogden. “Unfortunately, the highway infrastructure needed to support Gyrodyne’s plan simply does not exist at this location. Plain and simple, it just can’t fit here. That’s why it is important to acknowledge that the Town’s Draft Comprehensive Plan includes so many recommendations that have created new obstacles to it moving forward.”
