Dear Friends of the Coalition,

For nearly three years your Coalition has been hard at work to protect and preserve the historic character and bucolic open spaces that make our community special. While we have had our “heads down” dedicated to our mission, we wanted to take this opportunity to say “Thank you” for your ongoing support and update you on our progress:

Flowerfield Fairgrounds

Our work to lay the groundwork and secure professional legal and environmental expertise enabled us to file a lawsuit that has frozen Gyrodyne’s rapidly advancing massive commercial development plan. This has bought us the crucial window of time to show and convince government officials and other influential parties how critical it is to preserve Flowerfield Fairgrounds. Subsequently, The State Department of Environmental Conservation recently ordered an appraisal of the property with the intent of purchasing it for preservation, an action supported by County Executive Bellone and other current and former elected officials. The Smithtown Supervisor has advised the DEC in writing that the Town has no objection to such a purchase. While there is still a way to go, we remain encouraged.

Bull Run Farm

Thanks to our mobilization of a huge number of neighborhood residents who packed a public meeting on the second floor of the St. James Firehouse, it appears that an application for construction of a large assisted living facility that had been proposed for the nine-acre Bull Run Farm property on Mills Pond Road will not move forward. The Smithtown Town Board recently amended the town code so that assisted living facilities will not be permitted in residential zones.

The Town of Smithtown Comprehensive Master Plan

We have urged the Town to use the proposed Comprehensive Master Plan as a vehicle to protect the rural character of the Mills Pond National Historic District and North Country Road/Route 25A historic corridor, and to address the gross imbalance in the percentage of open space left in St. James hamlet (1.6%) compared with the average 18% in the other town hamlets. We have pointed out that the obvious answer to this problem is to preserve the open space in Flowerfield for passive park use.

Please join us and donate.

Your donations fuel the necessary legal work, expert analysis and efforts to inform the government and the public. We are all volunteers and, with your help, we will continue to advocate for these causes. While we remain humble and watchful, we believe that we are well on our way to preserving the character of our community by preventing these massive development projects that would forever change our way of life. This includes some extremely negative consequences, among them intolerable traffic increases, groundwater and Harbor contamination, and the destruction of the North Country Road historic and scenic corridor.

We expect that our efforts will leave a legacy you can be proud of when you and generations to come see the natural beauty saved from illogical and irreversible development. Your support is critical to our progress. We’ve made great strides but still need your help.

Sincerely,

Judith Ogden, Board Member
Joseph Bollhofer, Board Member