[0:00] Supervisor Weihard. Here. Council member Carpy. Here. Councilwoman Norwick. Here. Councilwoman

[0:08] Inzarela. Here. Councilman Lonley. Yeah. Okay, we are going to start today's board meeting

[0:16] with the presentation on the draft, the town's draft intensive plan of folks from H2M, engineering

[0:26] and architects will be joining us as well as our planning and environment waterways department

[0:31] before we start. Nicole, would you please read the note that we have?

[0:35] Yes, Supervisor. So today, the Town Board is hearing the presentation of the draft comprehensive master plan.

[0:42] This is literally the very first time we're all seeing this, but in the interest of transparency,

[0:47] we wanted the public to hear it first in the same fashion. This is not a public hearing.

[0:52] Today, we are simply here to listen.

[0:55] Please refrain from asking any questions regarding the comprehensive plan until the community

[1:00] workshops or during the public comment period.

[1:04] Our planning department will make those dates and live stream information available as soon

[1:08] as they have been scheduled.

[1:10] Thank you.

[1:11] Okay.

[1:12] Thank you, Nicole.

[1:12] Thank you.

[1:13] And ladies and gentlemen, you could begin your presentation.

[1:25] Jeff is muted.

[1:32] Jeff?

[1:34] Are you ready?

[1:35] Yeah.

[1:36] I just wasn't sure if I was going to be pulling up the PowerPoint or so now I'm doing that.

[2:04] I'm just pulling up the PowerPoint.

[2:35] Can everybody see the full version of that or are you getting the kind of the screen, half screen?

[2:41] I see two of us.

[2:44] What are you seeing in front of you right now?

[2:46] I see everything.

[2:48] So it's a full screen?

[2:51] No, it's two slides. It's a side by side.

[2:57] It's showing the first slide and it says next slide.

[3:01] Yeah.

[3:02] But I also see, yeah, in the next slide, right, Peter?

[3:05] Yeah.

[3:06] I'm just trying to, I have two monitors here, so I'm just trying to set it up.

[3:40] That looks good.

[3:41] You got the full slide screen.

[3:43] Yeah, this looks like what you're probably looking for.

[3:46] Okay.

[3:46] You have the full screen?

[3:47] Yeah.

[3:47] With all the tabs on the left?

[3:49] Yeah.

[3:49] Yeah, and I'm just trying to get you the full screen so you don't have the tabs on the left,

[3:53] but for some reason or another it's just showing you where you want to go.

[3:58] If you go on top, along the top, auto-save, you see the one thing with the green arrow?

[4:02] I think if you click on that, that should normally bring you to full screen.

[4:07] Or control-L.

[4:09] I'm trying both.

[4:13] I love starting presentations like this, by the way.

[4:15] It's great.

[4:22] Yeah, it's not letting me do it.

[4:23] Yeah,

[4:30] yeah, no, I clicked on that but what it is is that I have two monitors

[4:36] So it's showing on my other monitor as a full-size

[4:44] Can you bring that screen over?

[4:47] trying

[4:48] Make it your primary

[4:50] I'm just trying to get

[4:55] That's not for easy is it?

[5:05] Let me just try getting it as I apologize now

[5:15] Yes full screen

[5:18] All right.

[5:26] Sorry for the delay. Now that we've got it all worked out. So I'm going to be

[5:29] looking a little bit to the right. So we have two people on the call today from H2M, Paul

[5:36] Concia and Constance Lovillis, who have worked on this project with us. Constance,

[5:42] just by way of introduction, is our secret expert who will be intimately involved in

[5:47] in the next step of the master plan process.

[5:50] So I also wanted to start off by saying,

[5:54] the development of this plan could not have been done alone.

[5:59] Your planning staff in the town of Smithtown is,

[6:02] and you're gonna think I'm just saying this,

[6:04] but really is one of the best group of planners

[6:07] I've worked with in my 26 years plus.

[6:10] It's been an enjoyable project.

[6:12] Whenever we needed any information,

[6:14] they were there for us.

[6:15] And I also want to thank all the residents who have come out during the public outreach portion of this master plan process.

[6:22] So now that I have all the thank yous out of the way, I'll just begin the presentation.

[6:30] So I think we all know what a comprehensive plan is.

[6:34] I should mention that the last comprehensive plan was not done in 50 years.

[6:38] So this is a pretty big undertaking for the planning department and for our H2M team.

[6:45] H2M team being members of Tim Haas who do the parking analysis and study, and AKRF who do the traffic and transportation aspect.

[6:52] So as part of this master plan presentation we did, we looked at the land use, we looked at the circulation, community facilities, sustainability element, capital improvement, and the six community plans.

[7:06] So the way that the master plan is set up

[7:08] is that we have an overall land use,

[7:09] we have all elements discussed,

[7:11] but we also broke them down into community plans.

[7:14] That way making it easier for the residents of these areas,

[7:19] these Hamlets to kind of access their particular recommendations

[7:22] or discussions about those own changes

[7:25] or just overall changes

[7:27] that may or may not happen in their community.

[7:31] You know, one of the things that we like to do

[7:33] as part of any master plan,

[7:35] besides having them pretty graphically intensive

[7:37] It's also providing an implementation recommendation screen where who's responsible for it?

[7:45] Is it a short-term, mid-term, long-term kind of project and what those recommendations are?

[7:49] That way, the board, the planning board can use this yearly to kind of go through and set forth their policy objectives for the year.

[8:00] So it's a report that we want people to use.

[8:02] We just don't want it to be put on a shelf.

[8:04] So, in general, the town law 2772-A, which is the powers and duties granted by the legislature

[8:16] for a town to undertake its own comprehensive master plan and regulate land use for the

[8:22] purpose of protecting health safety and the general welfare of its citizens.

[8:27] And also the town code 272A8, you know, when the Comprehensive Plan is accompanied by a

[8:36] generic environmental impact statement pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act,

[8:42] no further compliance with such law is required.

[8:45] So we're going through the effort of completing, you know, the master plan and also the

[8:49] secret component here.

[8:50] So it's all kind of encompassed once.

[8:53] So you're going to have one document that as applications come in for the most part can

[8:57] kind of be reflected in the master plan recommendation.

[9:25] We maintain a public website for the master plan process, a clearinghouse for information

[9:30] for everybody.

[9:32] And you'll see the master plan really reflects throughout the document the concerns of the

[9:39] community.

[9:39] So when we make a recommendation where we talk about a landing section, we're talking

[9:42] about, you know, what percentage of the people wanted to see, you know, additional building

[9:48] typologies, which were more in support of preserving open space.

[9:51] So you'll see kind of examples throughout the project.

[9:54] And I think it's important to reflect that in the document because, you know, the

[9:59] public came out, they met with us, and, you know, spent a great deal of time, and

[10:04] we want to make sure that their concerns are heard, and that they're reflected in

[10:07] the document itself.

[10:11] People, you know, residents live in the town as hamlets because they love its neighborhoods,

[10:17] because they have access to local and regional jobs.

[10:20] It's very interesting that, you know, every single hamlet has kind of its own identity.

[10:25] And we can see that from day one.

[10:27] As the project progressed, we more and more saw the distinct characteristics

[10:34] and the enthusiasm that the residents and business owners and property owners had for their individual area where they live or work.

[10:42] Some of the guiding principles. So we base these guiding principles on input from the public, but also from just developing the overall master plan and our recommendations.

[10:52] I'm not going to read through all of them, I'll kind of scan them.

[10:55] We realize that citizens are active participants in the process.

[11:00] We strive to preserve the attributes of our unique hometown character and community identities.

[11:08] We value open space and parks as an integral part of a community's fabric.

[11:13] We support vibrant concentrations of retail, office, service residential and public space in Smithtown's downtown locations.

[11:22] Maintaining a strong and diverse economy and provided business climate that retains and attracts locally owned companies.

[11:28] We'll provide a – promote high-quality development that reflects aesthetics, and the

[11:33] architectural and land use design is fundamental to great places, advanced sustainability practices

[11:39] that promote social equity, environmental health, and economic prosperity.

[11:44] One of the big key factors since day one was that we will preserve our single-family

[11:50] neighborhoods while providing alternate housing choices in appropriate areas.

[11:54] You know, the master plan is, you know, for all intents and purposes, leaves the residential

[11:59] properties or zones alone.

[12:02] They're built out of communities, so a lot of the constructions you'll see is kind of

[12:06] the commercial, the mixed-use area.

[12:09] Encourage a variety of employment opportunities and promote a multi-modal transportation

[12:14] network, which is roadways, bikeways, walkways, and public transportation.

[12:20] Just a little image of one of our outreach meetings.

[12:23] So, we engaged the public. We also had committee meetings from the beginning, kind of setting

[12:28] the framework and timeframe for how the project is going to move forward, you know, where our

[12:33] public meetings were going to be and kind of coordinating elements and giving the committee

[12:37] updates as we prepared the plan. You know, things change over time, so it was important

[12:43] to kind of meet with the committee to see if there were new projects or new policy

[12:46] changes that needed to be incorporated into the plan.

[12:49] We developed the comprehensive plan website, which is part of the publicinput.com.

[12:53] It allowed us to outreach for questionnaires.

[12:57] It allowed us to kind of put together a comprehensive list of participants in the process that wanted to be contacted throughout the process.

[13:07] As I mentioned, we ran a nine-month public input survey.

[13:11] We had a great turnout for that, which is, as I mentioned, is incorporated throughout the plan.

[13:15] Then we had our six public community workshops in March through April.

[13:20] And now we're here tonight going through the draft with, you know, the draft of the Comprehension

[13:29] of the Secret.

[13:30] And then ultimately in the spring the town board will approve, look to approve the

[13:37] master plan and the secret document since spring 2021.

[13:42] Community engagement and public participation, when I asked to rate a specific list of issues

[13:48] affecting Smithtown, property taxes, no shock to anybody, were very important.

[13:54] The conditions of parks and recreation were 66% said it was very important for people.

[14:00] Access to parks and recreation and environmental quality were just as important.

[14:04] Traffic and pedestrian and bicycle safety.

[14:07] And in all the communities that I've worked in over the years, Smithtown really does have

[14:12] one of the most comprehensive, you know, park networks in terms of, you know, local parks

[14:17] and also county parks.

[14:19] And the connectivity between them is pretty significant.

[14:26] At the back of the document that you'll see is the draft document.

[14:29] We have a summary of all the feedback from the public.

[14:32] It's, you know, it's there for you to references also for the public to reference

[14:35] as well.

[14:36] You know, one of the most important things for us in using public input is to be able to see that we've tried to reach out to every kind of community within Smithtown.

[14:45] And this, as we had our public meetings, we asked people for, you know, where they live, general locations.

[14:51] So this gives us an idea if we needed to reach out or to do Facebook ads or through social media to see if we can get additional input.

[15:00] So just a map showing where all the responses were and where they were concentrated.

[15:07] You know, when we come into a community, you know, that we don't live in, we like to, first

[15:11] question we ask is, you know, why do you live in Smithtown? Why do you like it here? Why

[15:15] did you move here? Why have you stayed here? The school system was important, the quality

[15:19] of life. They found a home that they liked, you know, close to family and friends, and

[15:25] there's a sense of community character.

[15:30] So land use issues. As I mentioned before,

[15:34] the master plan had not been updated in 50 years. And throughout those years, zoning

[15:40] ordinances have been amended kind of, you know, on an as-needed basis. There's been,

[15:47] you know, zoning change requests. There's been variance requests. So we do look at those issues

[15:53] when preparing the plan. So there's an antiquated zoning ordinance. What we heard from the public

[15:58] luck is that they feel there's a lack of housing diversity. Some of the downtowns are struggling.

[16:06] Most downtowns, I should say, across the country are going through a change in how they incorporate

[16:13] retail and mixed use together. So, you know, we call it the kind of the damage from Amazon.

[16:20] But there are different uses that are coming into downtowns, more experiential retail

[16:25] tail uses and poses straight up normal retail.

[16:29] Strategic siting of new and infill development.

[16:32] So we're looking, you know, one of the first things

[16:33] we also do is look at vacant lands.

[16:36] Where are vacant lands available?

[16:38] Who owns them?

[16:39] Are they developable?

[16:41] What should be there?

[16:41] Should they be preserved as open space?

[16:44] And then it's important to look at the natural environment,

[16:46] the natural versus the built environment.

[16:49] And, you know, as you'll hear me mention

[16:52] throughout the presentation is that

[16:54] community-specific issues are important, and you have a very active community, as I mentioned.

[17:02] Residential, just giving you some snapshots of some of how Smithtown is kind of composed.

[17:08] 51.16 of the acreage is single-family homes.

[17:12] The residential districts are still desirable and maintained.

[17:17] There's no need to make any substantial changes to the existing sections of the zoning code that regulate the single-family homes.

[17:25] One of the changes that we're talking about is prohibiting nursing homes and assisted living facilities in single-family districts.

[17:31] And to also, you know, propose a new multifamily zone were applicable.

[17:37] Now, multifamily zones are not proposed in this plan as being incorporated in and or relatively adjacent to single-family properties,

[17:47] as I meant we're trying to keep the single-family areas alone.

[17:52] Future housing types. When asked to the public, you know, what should the town encourage or discourage? Single family strongly encouraged senior housing and town home development.

[18:01] So as we go down that table, we look at apartment, mixed-season affordable housing is 40 to 39% are strongly encouraged.

[18:11] accessory dwelling units. We start to see that a lot of people are not looking

[18:16] for additional accessory dwellings, duplexes or more assisted living facilities.

[18:27] So 5.48% of the acreage is office and business.

[18:32] There's no substantial changes to office districts or shopping center districts.

[18:38] When looking at all these downtowns and looking at all the zones,

[18:42] You know, we need to concentrate retail and restaurants in downtowns and the neighborhood centers as opposed to putting them on a highway corridors

[18:49] by group 25 and 347 and that's reflected in some of the changes that we've suggested in terms of the

[18:56] definitions in the plan

[18:59] We're gonna have changes to the proposed neighborhood business zone and then kind of the biggest one of the biggest items that stood out to us was the

[19:07] But replacing the central business district with Hamlet-specific downtown districts.

[19:12] The downtown districts had uses such as animal husbandry uses and agriculture and allowing

[19:23] single-family homes in their gas stations.

[19:26] So typically that's not what you see in there.

[19:29] And in fact during the process some of these ordinances were actually changed ahead

[19:34] of the master plan to reflect not having those uses in your typical downtown.

[19:42] Future office strongly encouraged restaurants, commercial recreation, high-end retail stores

[19:51] and offices.

[19:53] As we all know, sewers are the primary issue with bringing in restaurants and different

[19:59] types of uses because of the capacity.

[20:01] You know, so a lot of people during the public process that they would go to surrounding communities for dinners or, you know, or looking for entertainment reasons.

[20:09] So, you know, one of the goals here is to change that. We want to keep people in Smithtown.

[20:14] I'm not saying they all go out to other areas, but it was a general sentiment from a lot of people.

[20:20] I strongly encourage businesses and homes or discount retails, only 36, 37%, and then gas stations, which is only 14% really one of them in downtown areas and commercial areas.

[20:36] So as I mentioned, the current central business zone regulates traditional downtowns in Smithtown, Kings Park, St. James, and some locations on commercial corridors.

[20:48] So downtowns and commercial corridors should not be regulated by the same zoning district that they were going into this master plan.

[20:57] So downtowns as we all know, we want them to be walkable. We want to be pedestrian friendly. We want shopping. We want dining.

[21:04] We want the kind of community service and outdoor events that could be held in downtowns.

[21:09] commercial corridors are more supported by automobile-related convenience shopping and services.

[21:22] So the recommendations are transform the central business district zone into specific zones in

[21:28] downtown or core areas, which we'll see in the next slide. And existing central business zones

[21:35] outside of downtown and core locations should be re-zoned by rightsizing the zone to the

[21:40] existing location with both of that.

[21:45] So community business, for example,

[21:50] we had mentioned it.

[21:51] So we're looking at Lake Avenue here.

[21:53] If you can see on my screen here, I'm just looking at Lake Ave.

[21:57] So we're changing.

[21:59] Before this, they were all downtown zones.

[22:02] So we're making the distinction

[22:03] with creating the neighborhood business zone

[22:08] up here,

[22:09] and then creating, what we'll talk about a little bit later,

[22:14] two different distinct Lake Avenue districts.

[22:17] So we're rezoning North Country Road from central business to neighborhood business.

[22:22] And I should say right off the top, whenever we're talking about rezoning and potential for rezoning,

[22:29] any of the nonconform, any uses that may become nonconforming

[22:35] would be still grandfathered into their use.

[22:38] They would allow it to be maintained.

[22:40] So I just want to, that's always kind of a concern

[22:42] about a lot of property owners

[22:43] that think does get rezoned, that their use goes away

[22:47] and they let it misinformation about whether or not

[22:50] they're still able to be operable or maintained.

[22:53] So I want to make that clear

[22:54] if they'll be grandfathered in.

[22:57] So our downtown strategy.

[22:59] Let me make the central business zone

[23:01] and replaced with the transit villa zone

[23:02] for downtown Smithtown.

[23:03] the Lake Avenue district in downtown St. James, and then the Kings Park plan was

[23:12] done by another firm, but they are recommending the transition district,

[23:17] core district, and transit-oriented development district. And then Wisconsin

[23:21] Corps. Wisconsin didn't have a true kind of downtown core area. It did have the

[23:28] armory and the park there, and we think a possibility of potential

[23:32] redevelopment or infill for the shopping center located right directly across the street.

[23:37] So we're really trying to create through this zoning, not like a typical downtown, but we're

[23:42] calling it the Wisconsin core.

[23:47] So when you think about downtown, there are centers of places where people congregate.

[23:51] They go out to dinner, they meet people.

[23:54] They are developed as transit-oriented development.

[23:59] I spoke to the evolution of retail and how the internet has kind of changed things

[24:04] for retail, so it's never evolving. So, you know, we looked at different uses to incorporate

[24:09] different uses permitted in these downtowns. And crucial to any kind of downtown, it's

[24:14] allowing for that mixed use and potential downtown office space. Office space is important

[24:21] because it supports the local businesses during the day, as well as at night. If

[24:27] you go to a downtown that does not have a core kind of office component where

[24:32] where people can walk or at least drive very close to,

[24:35] you know, you talk to the business owners

[24:37] and you'll see that during the week,

[24:39] business is probably half of what it is on the weekend.

[24:41] So bringing these types of uses in

[24:43] will encourage them to use local businesses

[24:46] and support them.

[24:49] So we talked about the appearance and convenience ratings

[24:51] for the downtowns and the perception

[24:54] of what people thought of the downtowns.

[24:56] So downtown Smithtown, 34% photos average,

[24:59] 32 below and 17 poor. Downtown Kings Park was 30% average, 28 below average, 16 poor,

[25:09] and downtown St. James was 32, 27, and 12 respectively. So you're seeing it's very,

[25:14] very similar across all downtowns, you know, maybe for different reasons. Downtown Smithtown and

[25:20] maybe, you know, it's the roadway with. It's the presence of what people may perceive downtown

[25:27] downtown Smithtown, but actually not being downtown Smithtown is the larger kind of strip

[25:32] centers there, the big shopping center that are adjacent to the downtown. Downtown St.

[25:37] James is probably one of the factors is, you know, lack of parking, lack of, well,

[25:45] the lack of sewers contributes to the lack of diversified kind of uses out there. So

[25:51] So these are, this is what the public was saying about the downtown area.

[25:55] So our downtown recommendations, appropriate mixed use development, the enhancement of

[26:04] existing as well as a creation of limited new commercial space, a parking plan that

[26:09] takes into consideration structured parking integrated into any future development.

[26:13] Now that's kind of a broad recommendation, but it's more specific to downtown Smith

[26:19] You know, we don't envision any kind of structured parking on Lake Avenue, and we don't envision

[26:26] any kind of structured parking, at least at this point, for a municipal owned.

[26:32] Any kind of structured parking would more or less be a company with any proposed development

[26:37] in the future that should be integrated into it.

[26:41] High-tech office space to support downtown viability, creation of public spaces for

[26:46] residents and visitors, embracement of arts and culture

[26:50] as it draw to the community, the creation

[26:53] and implementation of a streetscape improvement plan.

[26:55] So we know that Lake Avenue has gone through that process

[26:58] right now.

[27:00] And streetscapes along with rezoning and having a plan

[27:05] will make a big difference.

[27:06] Architectural design guidelines and standards

[27:08] for future development.

[27:09] So we have a cohesiveness along the street.

[27:12] Encourage construction of apartments in downtowns.

[27:16] We talked about the need or the want from the residents for diversification of types

[27:21] of units from single family to town homes to multi-family buildings with smaller apartments

[27:28] that are walkable within the community and provide people with a transition from single

[27:34] family homes to living in a downtown.

[27:36] town. And also, you know, the population in Smithtown, the majority of it is about 45 and older.

[27:45] And, you know, throughout the community process, it was like, well, how do we get our kids to move

[27:49] back there? How do we get our kids to stay here? So one of the ways is to, you know,

[27:53] construct apartments in the downtown. And then pedestrian safety and amenities

[27:57] always goes along with kind of any downtown recommendations or improvements.

[28:01] Specifically, downtown St. James. Rehabilitate and redevelop, encourage transitory to development,

[28:09] residential, activate the pedestrian realm, placemaking and Main Street historic character,

[28:15] and encourage shared parking. Now, I know the planning department has met with a lot

[28:21] of property owners out there and have worked to kind of come up with cross-access agreements

[28:26] for, you know, encourage shared parking behind structures as opposed to having them, you

[28:33] know, everybody having their own parking lot. It allows for additional parking as opposed

[28:38] to just having individual lots. And I think there has been some success in the process

[28:42] and, you know, based on the roadway with there, we think we fully support that suggestion

[28:47] and the progress that the Planning Department has made in working with the property

[28:52] owners there. So with Lake Avenue, we think there's two distinct areas. We do

[28:59] have the rail stop, so we're calling it the TOD sub districts. This is the area

[29:03] where we envision a little bit higher density in and around the train. So it's

[29:09] the food store and it's also the parcel that is a landscaping parcel.

[29:15] So if you're looking on my screen, we're talking about these two areas

[29:19] here and the transit parking lot.

[29:23] So there, we're allowing or suggesting

[29:26] that we can go a little bit higher.

[29:27] We can go a little bit higher along the rail line.

[29:31] The rest of it kind of has a softer feeling to it.

[29:36] We want to maintain that two and a half stories.

[29:39] There's a lot of one stories out there.

[29:40] So if we can promote people to go the two and a half

[29:42] stories 35 feet in the other areas,

[29:45] I think there's opportunities there.

[29:47] I had mentioned integrating parks and open space.

[29:53] I think it was made apparent to us a couple of weeks ago that there was a structure torn down.

[30:00] That's going to be a parking, kind of a little park area. So these are the kind of things that

[30:04] are integral to any kind of downtown. It's a balance between a lot of different uses.

[30:10] And then downtown Smithtown, the largest of the downtown areas.

[30:17] We're suggesting to

[30:18] rezone the Presbyterian Church as residential to discourage redevelopment. East Side are

[30:24] landing as a professional business. There are businesses up there, so we're looking

[30:29] and just to enhance the kind of zone in that district

[30:31] that can support the downtown.

[30:34] Resone Lawrence out from office business

[30:36] to professional business

[30:38] and Resone as transit village zone with three sub districts.

[30:42] Resone west of the railroad as neighborhood business.

[30:47] Right zone is shopping center as a shopping center business.

[30:53] You'll see it throughout this presentation

[30:55] is that a lot of it is kind of right zoning,

[30:59] existing zoning that's out there.

[31:01] There are a lot of shopping centers

[31:03] that were never zone shopping centers.

[31:04] They were zone neighborhood business.

[31:06] So we're trying to consolidate everything

[31:08] and make them fit into kind of their categories.

[31:12] And then also possible TDR program

[31:16] with a New York Avenue site in the school

[31:19] between New York Avenue and the Breslin site.

[31:22] There are soccer fields on New York Avenue site

[31:25] and there's, you know, we've talked about what type of development should go there, you know,

[31:29] and whether it should all be developed or not be developed, but there's a possibility if it is

[31:32] developed fully that we can go through a TDR program and maybe move the soccer fields and or,

[31:39] you know, park facilities to the Breslin property. So the core area in the downtown

[31:48] is obviously in and around Main Street, and the master plan has a couple of concepts in here

[31:53] to, you know, for realignment of streets to kind of activate some of the inner

[31:59] areas of downtown. You know, Route 25 is a busy road, you know, there's been some

[32:06] changes to the turning areas of the roadway widths over the years. We thought,

[32:10] you know, one of the good suggestions was to be maybe to try to integrate some

[32:13] internal kind of retail and commercial that goes along with some mixed-use

[32:16] buildings.

[32:20] So here we're recommending, in the transit village, let me see here

[32:25] The business district, excuse me.

[32:29] So we have here on the left is the existing schedule.

[32:32] And then on the right,

[32:33] we have the three distinct transit village zones,

[32:35] the transit village TOD,

[32:37] which is allowable for three stories.

[32:41] Then we have the transit village core.

[32:43] So the TVC is the core area,

[32:46] where we have allowable 40 feet.

[32:49] And then we had the transit village transition.

[32:51] So transition what it sounds like.

[32:53] It's making the transition to other zones

[32:55] where we're allowing to go back to two and a half stories.

[32:59] So it's not a great increase along Main Street area,

[33:04] but we are providing for some opportunities

[33:06] in and around the rail line,

[33:07] because we think it's an area that you can go

[33:10] a little bit higher

[33:10] and not have any kind of negative effect to that.

[33:14] Excuse me, I forgot to mention these properties up here,

[33:17] which is the municipal parking lot

[33:22] the transition part. Downtown Kings Park was broken up into a downtown core and

[33:31] downtown traditional.

[33:34] So this is all part of a downtown study that was done I

[33:37] think by VAE and they had gone through or are going through the secret process

[33:42] with this now. So it's you know when you look at this and you compare it to

[33:46] Smithtown, it's very similar in terms of heights, similar in terms of

[33:50] of the overall properties, just on a smaller scale

[33:55] than downtown Smithton.

[33:59] And then we have the Wisconsin core.

[34:04] So we're suggesting that we rezone portions

[34:06] from neighborhood business and shopping center

[34:09] and professional business in this Wisconsin core area.

[34:12] That combines land uses policies

[34:15] of both the traditional downtown

[34:17] and the neighborhood business area.

[34:19] Zone remainder, we're gonna be suggesting

[34:21] that we rezone the remainder

[34:22] We have a quarter of a neighborhood business, including portions that were once professional

[34:28] business areas.

[34:30] And we're looking to right-zone some of the professional business and residential areas.

[34:35] Some areas that were in the past zoned as office and the residential, we're suggesting

[34:43] you go back to residential in these areas.

[34:49] And if I'm speaking too fast, let me know.

[34:51] 65 slides to go through so just trying to go through them.

[35:00] So here we just talk

[35:01] about so we changed some of the the the

[35:07] gross floor areas we kind of combined

[35:09] them so we're still maintaining the same height we're still maintaining the

[35:13] same stories but we've made some changes to the setback we've made some

[35:20] changes to the the like I said the front and rear yards we're trying

[35:25] incorporate not a traditional downtown feel, but kind of a mix. And if we look at where,

[35:31] you know, my mouse is up on the screen. This is the armory over here in the park system

[35:37] in the park over here as well. You know, we see this as an area that has the potential to be kind

[35:44] of a core area. You know, initially we talked about for downtown Wisconsin creating a true

[35:49] traditional downtown. And we got a little pushback from the public about really not wanting it there.

[35:59] So we went away from that and tried to come up with kind of a hybrid situation here.

[36:08] So changes to the neighborhood business are modifying the current neighborhood business

[36:13] zone to better reflect its stated intent. So we're expanding neighborhood business. We're

[36:21] conditions, simplifying the regulated land use system in the tables.

[36:28] So when we do a master plan, one of the first things we do is memorize the zoning and get

[36:35] into the zoning and see what needs to be changed or tweaked.

[36:38] So there was a lot of use tables that were kind of cumbersome.

[36:43] So we made the recommendations throughout the planet kind of consolidate.

[36:47] For example, under existing land use character, we had permitted uses where appliance, office

[36:54] machine, reference repair, bank, shipping centers, and a whole list of things.

[36:57] So we're suggesting that we could consolidate those into retail services or personal services.

[37:03] So you'll see it's just a consolidation of a lot of the zoning content in intent

[37:08] down there.

[37:08] It makes it a little bit clearer, I think.

[37:13] And then we have the commercial corridor zone.

[37:15] So we're rezoning portions of Smithtown Bypass by Terrier Road to Southern Boulevard as a commercial corridor zone.

[37:23] The intent is geared towards an auto-dominated corridor.

[37:27] These uses out here, we're kind of calling them a hybrid between the WSI zones and the neighborhood business.

[37:35] They permit contractor showrooms, filling stations, hotels, personal services, retails and restaurants.

[37:40] And those are really the uses that are out there now.

[37:43] You know, we do not want to permit residential uses or retail shops, repair garages or commercial public recreation or outdoor storage.

[37:52] You'll see throughout the master plan that we're really trying to promote a lot of the kind of sit down restaurants more in your downtown areas as opposed to some of the highway commercial core areas.

[38:05] But so we looked at some of the existing zoning and we're recommending that we reclaim some of these areas as residential zoning.

[38:12] And you also see it throughout the report is that we are proposing a park zone.

[38:18] I'm just bringing it up because there's a large park zone recommended there.

[38:27] So not many changes here.

[38:29] We just went into kind of consolidate the commercial core area, which is a blend.

[38:35] We reduce the lot area, we reduce the front yard step back and maintain the rear, kind of reduce the side yard step back as well.

[38:45] So whenever we look at making zone changes, we've gone through the exercise using mapping and GIS to kind of see how many properties that we may affect when rezoning properties.

[39:01] So we don't make these kind of recommendations kind of, you know, pulling them out of the air.

[39:05] We spent probably 30, 40 hours sitting down with the planning department kind of going through

[39:13] lot by lot, you know, what would, you know, what would be affected by this.

[39:19] So, you know, we're making, it's not an educated guess. We've gone into great detail

[39:23] to see how properties would be affected. And, you know, based on our recommendations,

[39:28] were comfortable with these recommendations.

[39:32] And then Route 111.

[39:34] Route 111 was kind of another area that we initially contemplated as a downtown core area.

[39:40] You know, it didn't, Hophawk didn't have a kind of a commercial core downtown.

[39:46] We backed off that as well.

[39:48] We see this as an opportunity, well, to right size the creative proposed shopping center business there,

[39:57] to rezone properties as a neighborhood business

[40:00] because they're more in line with what that is.

[40:03] And then also we looked at these very, very deep locks

[40:07] right off of Route 111.

[40:08] It's kind of a mix of a decent amount of vacant properties.

[40:12] And I know that kind of changes month to month,

[40:13] but during the process,

[40:15] there's probably these three or four vacant parcels there.

[40:19] We didn't know why, maybe because of the location.

[40:21] So we're recommending the town board

[40:24] may consider multi-family use there along the eastern side of Route 111 because they

[40:31] back up to residential properties to begin with.

[40:38] And then Cricut Hill Road, we're going

[40:40] to right-zone to conform with existing conditions. So we're expanding the shopping center business

[40:44] zone and rezoning neighborhood business, excuse me, to use that kind of meet that

[40:52] criteria, and then rezoning two parcels as office business based on current existing

[40:57] use is there.

[41:01] Call my corners. We're going to right-zone it to conform to the existing conditions.

[41:05] It was never really called a shopping center business, so we're designated a shopping center.

[41:10] And then we're also right-zoning the other area. So propose a neighborhood business that can form

[41:17] with the uses that are within the neighborhood business zones. And then we're also recommending

[41:22] the expansion of the shopping center business zone over here on the left-hand side.

[41:28] The existing shopping center, I forget what it was zoned.

[41:32] I don't know if it was RMGA, but it's a shopping center, so it made sense to kind of rezone that for shopping center business.

[41:41] Industrial, I was, you know, in the beginning of the process, I was very impressed to hear that the Light Industrial Park was the second largest in the country.

[41:49] I did not know that.

[41:50] So it's pretty impressive, and it's a driving factor for the community of Smithtown.

[41:56] It's only 5.2% of the acreage, but it is a large industrial park.

[42:00] So, you know, with the Regional Planning Association report that came out,

[42:05] there's a number of recommendations in that report for changes.

[42:10] And I know there's been changes over the course of the past years in terms of the overlaid district

[42:14] and trying to incentivize some additional kind of development.

[42:18] Recently there was the, I think the initial, I don't know if it was ever officially voted upon,

[42:23] about a mixed use zoning ordinance for the industrial park, you know, allowing mixed

[42:28] use in specific areas and parcels that make sense. And then we made changes to the whole

[42:35] sale and WSI zone, kind of separate them into two different zones. These are the recommendations

[42:41] that we pulled and put into the master plan. So expanding the list of use groups, adopt

[42:49] the mixed-use overlay zone, allow micro-brews, bar-steaters, daycare, and laundromats.

[42:55] And top-end FAR to remain at 0.42, but offer 0.5 potentially as a bonus in exchange for

[43:01] pre-identified improvements,

[43:05] reduce the minimum side yard requirements while building

[43:09] configurations compatible with a more pedestrian right-of-way, examine reducing parking ratios

[43:16] for select uses. So the RPA report had specific recommendations in there that we're kind of

[43:24] moving forward on. So this is just a sketch that was part of the RPA report I think it

[43:29] was.

[43:31] Now we have the changes to the WSI zones. So there was two different areas. So the

[43:37] West Jericho Turnpike area and the Middle Country Road. Middle Country Road is more

[43:45] Well, let me start out here.

[43:47] The WSI zone on West Jericho,

[43:49] we're recommending to rezone rename actually,

[43:53] as WSI one and prohibit motor vehicle sales.

[43:57] Middle country road will be WSI two

[43:59] and allowing for vehicle showrooms.

[44:04] We're prohibiting or suggesting

[44:05] that we prohibit restaurants

[44:06] but permit food retail in both those zones.

[44:10] Now the middle country road, you know, allows outdoor storage and there's a number of auto related or motor or vehicle sales that are out there now.

[44:19] And that was kind of the driving force behind, you know, one of the main differences between the areas.

[44:27] You know, I mentioned here we're going to prohibit restaurants but permit food retail.

[44:32] We want restaurants to concentrate in the downtown areas and the core areas.

[44:35] Doesn't mean we're not encouraging food retail.

[44:39] So there's probably about four or five, if I remember correctly, definitions of what a restaurant was or retail or counter service kind of retail.

[44:48] So we consolidated them into several different, or two different categories.

[44:52] So restaurants and eating establishment are prepared and served for patrons, you know, seated at tables.

[44:58] And food retail is generally what...

[45:00] You consider more of a fast food type drive-through. There are seats, but are generally not, you

[45:05] know, foods aren't generally taken out to the consumers, but at a counter instead.

[45:12] Gyrodyne, one of the bigger projects, you know, it's a 75-acre. We're all very aware of it.

[45:21] It's an ongoing review for subdivision. It includes a senior care facility, office space,

[45:28] hotel, open space, and a sewage plant. So recommendation is that we maintain a

[45:36] 200-foot buffer for parkland along the western side of the property as well.

[45:45] Old North Park Road. We were looking to right-zone the heavy

[45:50] industrial properties.

[45:54] Recent proposed projects may change future land

[45:56] uses in this area, for instance, the solar farm or the OWPF

[46:01] sighting.

[46:02] So it's kind of like the Wild Wild West out there

[46:06] a little bit in the heavy industrial area.

[46:10] But you are seeing kind of a non-intrusive use,

[46:13] such as the solar farm being used out there.

[46:16] So we need to keep an eye on what's going out there.

[46:20] So we'll continue to monitor the heavy industrial in the area

[46:23] around Northport Road for potential change in the future.

[46:25] And then we all started looking to permit transfer stations, excluding municipal solid waste transfer stations, as a town board special exemption in the heavy industry zone.

[46:40] So, future land uses, when asked, should the town encourage or discourage the following types of potential development?

[46:48] Everybody wanted agriculture, 70%.

[46:51] And then people wanted institutional uses as well.

[46:57] So one of the main recommendations is we thought the best way to kind of separate all these park uses by creating a new park zone in the zoning map.

[47:06] And then we talked about TDR before when we're looking at Smithtown, downtown Smithtown, the potential for creating and extending and receiving districts for these two areas

[47:15] if the Newark Avenue property is to be redeveloped in the future.

[47:22] So the future land use plan that's in the master plan.

[47:27] You know, there was one overall map that you see on the screen,

[47:30] which when you're looking at an 8x11 report,

[47:33] it's probably a little bit hard to see in a lot of cases.

[47:35] But our neighborhood plans have small blown-out versions,

[47:38] which you'll be able to read a lot better.

[47:41] So this table here is just to show you the consolidation

[47:45] of our uses and to show you what we've added.

[47:48] for instance, we've added the multi-family zone for residential. We didn't consolidate the

[47:54] central business district. In fact, we made it very distinct to each hamlet's core downtown area.

[48:03] We updated the WSI one and two and then we created the park zone.

[48:11] So key land use recommendations

[48:12] amend the zoning regulations for use of use and for a change in permitted uses as appropriate.

[48:19] maintain, definitely maintain the existing single family neighborhoods and

[48:23] consider establishing a TDR program. Provide for mixed use structures where

[48:27] appropriate and by appropriate we generally meet in your downtown core

[48:31] areas. Encourage the diversification of housing stock in appropriate locations

[48:35] and then encourage DOD development in your stations as well. Transportation

[48:41] issues. 58% thought it was very important. It was the fourth most

[48:46] important issue facing Smithtown. Bicycle and pedestrian safety is important, rank the fifth

[48:51] most important.

[48:55] So when asked how Smithtown should improve mobility, improve biking and walking

[48:59] conditions, add more parks, or excuse me, more parking in the downtown, you know, you got any

[49:04] downtown that's first thing people are going to say is we need more parking in the downtown.

[49:08] A lot of cases, it's not knowing where the parking is located for wayfinding signage needed.

[49:13] many cases there may not be enough parking.

[49:17] Streetscape amenities.

[49:19] You know, streetscape improvement plans work when they're in line with proposed zoning changes.

[49:27] They want to make it easier to drive around, improve technology,

[49:32] better traffic and signals, and the timing of the actual signals.

[49:37] In a lot of cases, that's through the county.

[49:42] So transportation, new issues and trends, you know, there's always going to be the trend of the issue of traffic congestion and road safety for all users.

[49:52] Bike and pedestrian mobility, walkable commercial areas, better chain and bus schedules.

[50:01] Key transportation recommendations, you know, a lot of them these are semi-broad but they get into a little more detail in the plan is maintain a safe and transportation network,

[50:10] improve bus service, remedy congested intersections, enhance pedestrian accessibility, promote active

[50:18] lifestyles, and better Long Island Railroad service. A lot of people go to, and I forget

[50:24] the other rail service, but they kind of bypass using Smith Town in a lot of cases, and go

[50:28] to surrounding communities to park and use trains. And I think a lot of it has to

[50:32] do with also the timing of the schedule of the railroad.

[50:35] So the community facilities element is what we talked about there in the document is parks, recreation and open space, historic and cultural resources, and community facilities and services.

[50:49] So this is a pretty big element. It kind of encompasses a lot of different aspects.

[50:55] As I mentioned at the beginning, open space and access to it was very important to everybody. People use the parks constantly.

[51:04] And it was very important for them to be able to access these parks, you know, on the weekends

[51:09] or whenever they want.

[51:10] So definitely a priority.

[51:15] We did, you know, as part of a park's metrics, what we use is what's called a national recreation

[51:20] and park association standard.

[51:22] We look at the population, we look at the density, we look at the amount of parkland

[51:28] that's available.

[51:28] Then we break it down into whether it's a town owned or whether it is owned by the county or the state.

[51:37] And according to this, there is a deficit of town owned parkland based on the population.

[51:44] And there's actually a surplus of county and state owned parks.

[51:51] So it doesn't mean that you have to go out and start buying up property for town parks.

[51:57] You know, if you see the opportunity to integrate them into any kind of plan, any kind of downtown plan, or maybe linking existing parks together if there's an opportunity.

[52:08] In the past there's been discussion of the town purchasing properties to adjacent county parks.

[52:16] So, as I mentioned, the facilities per capita, these types of park facilities, the amenities they provide have been and remain very important to the town.

[52:28] We heard that there needs to be an exploration for opportunities for community center or recreation center and possibly integrating that into a senior center as well.

[52:39] Access to town parks and ensure park maintenance and diversity of park amenities. We'll talk about that next.

[52:48] Access to town parks, special purpose parks and town beaches. They serve a town-wide population.

[52:53] The neighborhood parks, when you're talking about neighborhood parks, they serve the population

[52:58] within a half mile, which is typically what people consider a walkable half mile.

[53:05] Community parks serve a population within two miles.

[53:08] So the conclusions are major.

[53:10] The majority of the neighborhoods have adequate access to parks.

[53:15] There's really no need to fill in gaps where they exist.

[53:18] So we map all these parks and how they relate to the neighborhoods here.

[53:22] give you a snapshot of the relationship.

[53:26] I'm not going to be able to read this on the screen, I'm sure, but it's quality of the facilities.

[53:33] You know, we asked why residents go to parks for the survey,

[53:37] and they, you know, 19 use of beaches and bog walks, walking and running,

[53:41] use of playgrounds and swings.

[53:43] The town should enhance existing park amenities by adding additional

[53:47] existing play elements like swing sets and jungle gyms.

[53:51] You know, they're exposed to the elements 24 hours a day,

[53:54] so they need to be maintained.

[53:56] Attractive residents who use parks for walking,

[53:59] running, and enhancing this popular activity

[54:01] if you're building and improving trails

[54:02] and installing fitness zones along these walkable trails.

[54:08] An examining why users may not frequently use a facility

[54:11] such as a lack of public comfort stations,

[54:14] for example, restrooms.

[54:15] So, we went through this kind of an inventory of a snapshot of all the parks and all the amenities that are included in each park.

[54:28] So, the metrics and maintenance and summary of that.

[54:31] Consider additional metrics and review all metrics on a regular basis.

[54:36] So, the town's greatest needs based on the recreation survey responses.

[54:42] Water and boating access, additional soccer across some football fields.

[54:46] every town always has the need for additional soccer or ball fields or

[54:51] hybrid fields. Expand in modernized playgrounds, modern playground amenities,

[54:57] more diversified amenities, for instance walking loops, dog parks, or fitness

[55:02] zones. Activities for all seasons, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, ice

[55:06] skating. A lot of these uses may be permitted or there may be areas to do it

[55:11] but maybe it's just a matter of kind of reaching out to the public to

[55:13] to let them know how to access that.

[55:15] So support facilities that existing parks

[55:18] and enhancement of parking in restrooms.

[55:21] And then a non-vehicular connections between these parks

[55:25] and open spaces, for instance,

[55:26] sidewalks and bicycle facilities.

[55:29] And then facilities that support a range of ages

[55:33] and abilities and potential for any indoor facilities

[55:37] that are related to the town's parks.

[55:42] And by indoor facilities,

[55:43] whether it's a pool,

[55:47] whether it's an indoor ice hockey, whether it's indoor lacrosse,

[55:51] so looking at the possibilities for kind of all season, all weather facilities.

[55:57] Future open space, opportunities, undeveloped town parkland,

[56:02] half hollow road park in Comac, Donald Drive park in Kings Park,

[56:08] hillside Gramercy Park, excuse me hillside Gramercy Gardens in Kings Park,

[56:12] 3rd Street Park in St. James and Aster Avenue Park in St. James, Kings Park

[56:18] Village Green at the parks department property, Parkland Swaps and then

[56:24] look to Suffolk County Acquisitions. So these are all opportunities for

[56:29] enhancement of the parks of the parks and open space.

[56:34] Historic preservation, majority of the historic properties that are listed here, as you can

[56:42] see on the map, located up here right outside of Brookhaven.

[56:47] So when asked the public, 79% said they should protect historic structures and districts.

[56:54] That historic preservation is important.

[56:57] The town does have a historic society and historic advisory board.

[57:01] I think the Historic Advisory Board is inactive, but you do not have a historic board or commission

[57:08] in town.

[57:10] Chapter 185 is the Town's Local Historic Preservation Ordinance, recommendations that

[57:15] needs better protection on sites outside historic districts, as confirmed in the

[57:20] recent LWRP.

[57:29] Historic preservation recommendations expand protections of historic resources.

[57:34] Update the townwide historic resources survey, which has not been done in a number of years.

[57:40] Encourage adaptive reuse of historic structures.

[57:44] The town I live in right now, where actually somebody is actually lifting an historic structure

[57:49] and integrating it into a new multi-family building development.

[57:53] So there's all possibilities out there.

[57:55] We hate to see historic structures taken down.

[57:59] You know, one of the biggest problems with historic preservation is just the lack of knowledge of what is out there.

[58:06] So it's important to educate the property owners on the benefits of historic designation.

[58:10] You know, there may be tax credits involved and then for helping preserve or restore facades or buildings.

[58:17] And then reconstitute the historic advisory board.

[58:23] I just want to reiterate, I mean, there's a lot in this master fund, so we're going over kind of the basics of it.

[58:28] You get into a lot more detail when you start looking through page by page.

[58:33] Community facilities issues. Discuss the town's jurisdiction over the town government services, public and semi-public services, the libraries, schools, health facilities, emergency facilities, and solid waste management.

[58:51] Key community facility recommendations, prepare a long-term facilities plan,

[58:56] provide for space and functional needs of all town departments.

[59:00] And there's been talk since I've been working on the plan about consolidation of departments,

[59:04] so I need to take a look at that.

[59:06] Consider small technology investments across civic functions.

[59:10] Work with a library district to find suitable location for a St. James branch.

[59:14] Consider a town community or rec center or senior center should be in there.

[59:18] continue to promote shared service opportunities for tax savings.

[59:25] And then we had a sustainability element that we had prepared.

[59:28] And the sustainability issues from the public were 90% very important drinking water protection,

[59:35] air quality 97%, surface water protection 95%.

[59:38] So, you know, I think that's pretty much given in any community that you go into,

[59:43] you know, we all want safe air water and drinking water and surface water.

[59:46] So it's important to the residents.

[59:48] And the town completed various climate-smart community actions through a grant application,

[59:55] but it has not submitted these actions for a certification eligibility through the climate

[59:59] application.

[1:00:00] Smart community. So one of the recommendations is going to move forward on that.

[1:00:06] Key sustainability recommendations in the plan.

[1:00:10] You know, promote 2D as a growth strategy.

[1:00:13] Create green techniques, checklists for development applications.

[1:00:17] So what we're doing and what we're seeing more and more nowadays is having sustainable elements

[1:00:23] incorporated into your development applications and your land use ordinances.

[1:00:28] In many cases, if a new development comes in, if you hit a certain threshold for a number

[1:00:32] of units or size, you have to create a rain garden or create some other kind of sustainable

[1:00:39] element as part of your development application.

[1:00:42] We always like to encourage the local farmer's markets to get people out.

[1:00:47] And since agriculture people are in favor of promoting and maintaining agriculture,

[1:00:53] no reason they shouldn't be supporting the local farmer's markets.

[1:00:56] Encouraged electronic charger installations and bike facilities in all new multifamily

[1:01:02] or major waste use construction.

[1:01:05] We were required in the towns that I work in in New Jersey that, you know, the EV charger

[1:01:12] installations and then we require bike facilities, interior and exterior, primarily when they're

[1:01:19] going to be in downtown areas, but also some multifamily buildings outside downtown

[1:01:25] areas.

[1:01:25] Create a benchmarking program and complete an energy audit, so you want to see where you currently exist, what your level of kind of sustainability actions are maintained or incorporated into the building facilities in Smithtown.

[1:01:40] Create a tree fund and under a tree inventory program.

[1:01:48] Like I said, there's a lot, and I went through it in about an hour, so I thought that was pretty good.

[1:01:57] But the next steps are we're going to present and post the draft plan for public review and comments.

[1:02:07] That'll be all posted for the public to look at, and then there's going to be a public outreach program

[1:02:13] to kind of reach down to the different community groups, see what they thought about the plan,

[1:02:18] how their comments or suggestions were integrated or not integrated, and we want to be there to

[1:02:23] kind of answer that question for people. And then the next step is the secret scoping.

[1:02:29] And the public hearing on the draft plan and the DGIS in the spring will revise as necessary,

[1:02:35] and then ultimately be hearing on the plan and the final GES, at which point we'll adopt

[1:02:43] secret findings in the comprehensive plan.

[1:02:46] And then the big, one of the big lists is then implementing the recommendations of the comprehensive

[1:02:51] plan.

[1:02:53] There's hundreds of recommendations in here and, you know, it's there for the board

[1:02:57] and the land development boards to kind of use as a guideline moving forward.

[1:03:04] So, that's it.

[1:03:06] Hopefully, you didn't speak too quickly for everybody here.

[1:03:09] Once again, it was a pleasure kind of working with everybody and putting this project together.

[1:03:14] And we look forward to seeing how the public reacts, how the board reacts,

[1:03:19] and how this plan is ultimately incorporated into the community life or the residents.

[1:03:26] And that's it.

[1:03:28] Hey, Jeff, thank you very much for your agency's hard work, and we're looking forward to working

[1:03:35] together with you to bring this to fruition sometime in the spring of 2020.

[1:03:39] Yeah, it's been great.

[1:03:42] Thanks again.

[1:03:43] Thank you.

[1:03:55] Okay.

[1:03:55] Everybody is back?

[1:03:57] Yes.

[1:03:59] All right.

[1:03:59] That concludes our presentation.

[1:04:02] Next up will be, we have two site plans.

[1:04:05] So planning department, you're up.

[1:04:09] I'm going to switch seats with Liam.

[1:04:13] Hey.

[1:04:21] Good afternoon, Supervisor, members of the Town Board.

[1:04:24] I'm Liam Trotto with the Planning Department.

[1:04:25] We have two site plans for the Board to consider this afternoon acting as the Board's site planner.

[1:04:32] I'm going to share this screen right now and present these site plans.

[1:04:38] So the first application is for this Midtown Chevrolet storage lot.

[1:04:43] The site is at the former Black Beards Restaurant in Middle Country Road and Hillside Avenue

[1:04:48] in St. James.

[1:04:50] The proposal is for a 29,088-square-foot outdoor storage and display area for motor vehicles,

[1:04:56] not on the same lot as the principal use, which is the principal uses of Smithtown

[1:05:02] Chevrolet dealership on the south side of Middle Country Road.

[1:05:06] The applicant has agreed to four conditions of approval, the first that they obtain

[1:05:10] necessary building permits. The second condition that they install a tree

[1:05:15] preservation fence around all trees to be preserved on site. The third condition is

[1:05:20] that they obtain a highway work permit from the New York State Department of

[1:05:23] Transportation for new curb cut and improvements along Middle Country Road.

[1:05:28] And the fourth condition is that the property owner shall dedicate a portion

[1:05:31] of the property along Hillside Avenue to the town. The dedication shall widen

[1:05:36] the town right away to accommodate an even eight feet of land between the

[1:05:39] curb along Hillside Avenue and the east property line.

[1:05:44] So this is the proposed site plan.

[1:05:46] Again, it's just a storage lot for inventory

[1:05:51] for the Smithtown Chevrolet dealership.

[1:05:54] As you can see, there's only gonna be one curb cut

[1:05:57] along Middle Country Road.

[1:05:58] There will be no access along Hillside Avenue.

[1:06:01] There's not gonna be any removal of trees

[1:06:03] on the northern residential portion of the property.

[1:06:06] Again, this property is actually a split zone

[1:06:08] that northern section is zone residential, but there will be no disturbance in that area.

[1:06:16] An additional landscaping may be planted to better screen the storage area.

[1:06:24] Is Board of any questions on this application?

[1:06:27] William?

[1:06:29] Yes?

[1:06:29] Can you hear me?

[1:06:30] Council Member Cawthey?

[1:06:31] Hi Councilman.

[1:06:33] When this was approved by the BZA to do it this way with a split,

[1:06:38] one on one side is treating one on the other.

[1:06:40] I was totally against it because we're just making little lots in little corners and it's

[1:06:46] just not the way we want to do things.

[1:06:48] Is there any way to protect us that all of a sudden this doesn't become a storage lots

[1:06:52] that's not adjacent to a new card dealership in the future or we just get a bunch of little

[1:06:56] used call lots?

[1:06:58] This is the second or third one, the BZA is approved, not adjacent to, and it's

[1:07:02] just a bad precedent.

[1:07:05] I agree.

[1:07:06] Yeah, I think it's definitely something that the planning department and the board

[1:07:09] zoning appeals will take into consideration for future projects.

[1:07:13] But how are we going to, let's say Smithtown Chevrolet goes away, and all of a sudden that

[1:07:18] just becomes a used car storage lot.

[1:07:21] How are we protecting ourselves that this doesn't become just a little used car storage

[1:07:26] lot, you know, working out of a trailer or something in the future?

[1:07:31] That is a good question.

[1:07:32] on the board site plan, we can enact further conditions

[1:07:36] that will constate some one-lines of the underneath the uses.

[1:07:40] If the principal use goes away, then, you know,

[1:07:44] this is almost accessory to the principal.

[1:07:46] So, you know, they're in fact tied together.

[1:07:48] So, if the principal use goes away,

[1:07:51] the accessories use goes away also.

[1:07:53] Mr. Supervisor, I would recommend that we table this

[1:07:57] for additional conditions to this site plan.

[1:08:02] Okay.

[1:08:05] Is the Board have any objection to tabling it until for further discussion?

[1:08:12] I don't have any objection to tabling it and looking at it further.

[1:08:16] Either do I.

[1:08:18] Okay, so when we get after the agenda, we get to the portion of the vote.

[1:08:23] We'll move to table it at that time, Mr. McCarthy.

[1:08:27] Thank you.

[1:08:28] Just additional conditions.

[1:08:31] Okay.

[1:08:31] To this point, Councilman.

[1:08:33] Very good.

[1:08:34] Okay, number two.

[1:08:36] So the next request is for a waiver of a condition

[1:08:40] of site plan approval.

[1:08:42] The applicant is Cardmax Auto Superstores,

[1:08:45] which is proposed to be located

[1:08:46] at the former Smithtown Concrete Manufacturing Plant

[1:08:49] on Middle Country Road in St. James.

[1:08:51] The original site plan was approved on November 6th, 2018

[1:08:55] and the applicant is requesting

[1:08:56] that the board multiply condition number two

[1:08:59] of their approval, which reads,

[1:09:01] prior to the issuance of a building permit, the applicant shall submit and receive approval

[1:09:06] from the Board of Site Plan Review for a revised site plan with supporting documentation incorporating

[1:09:11] the methane-related conditions of approval as detailed by the Town Department of Environment

[1:09:17] and Waterways in their memorandum dated October 26, 2018.

[1:09:22] The applicant is requesting that the condition be modified so that the sequence of events

[1:09:27] in which to submit methane detection and extraction documentation to the town can be changed.

[1:09:33] The waiver modification, as proposed, would permit the issuance of demolition and compaction permits

[1:09:38] to remove existing structures and concrete slabs in order to better assess the site and landfill gas conditions.

[1:09:46] The prior wording of the condition mandates that a methane monitoring plan and extraction design

[1:09:51] be finalized and submitted prior to the start of any demolition.

[1:09:55] It is anticipated that demolition and compaction activity could affect the landfill gas levels

[1:10:01] and migration causing the need to revise the pilot testing plan and gas collection system

[1:10:06] design.

[1:10:07] Allowing demolition of existing structures to occur first will allow engineers to better

[1:10:12] evaluate site conditions.

[1:10:14] Planning is met with DEW and the applicants professionals numerous times regarding the

[1:10:19] anticipated operating procedures and have agreed upon a solution that is both beneficial

[1:10:23] official to the town and applicant while maintaining proper health and safety protocol.

[1:10:29] The planning department recommends the waiver be approved for our memo sent to the town

[1:10:33] board dated December 10, 2020, and it recommends that condition number two be modified accordingly

[1:10:40] to read as follows.

[1:10:42] The applicant shall obtain a demolition and compaction permit prior to any onsite disturbance.

[1:10:47] All activities during demolition and compaction shall be in accordance with the landfill

[1:10:51] gas monitoring procedures dated March 30, 2020, prepared by VHB Engineering and the CarMax

[1:10:58] facility site-specific health and safety plan dated November 13, 2020, prepared by VHB Engineering.

[1:11:06] Prior to the issuance of site work permit and nor building permit, the applicant shall submit

[1:11:11] and receive approval from the Board of Site Plan Review for a revised site plan with supporting

[1:11:16] documentation incorporating the methane-related conditions of approval as detailed by the

[1:11:22] Town Department of Environmental Waterways in their memo dated October 16th, 2018, as revised

[1:11:28] December 10th, 2020.

[1:11:33] So these are a few aerials of the former concrete plant.

[1:11:40] And again, it's

[1:11:41] just changing the sequence of events in which to submit the methane protection plan

[1:11:47] and an extraction system design.

[1:11:49] Is the board of any questions?

[1:11:52] Yeah, Mr. Trout, as the applicant indicated,

[1:11:56] what his schedule of timing is to go in and begin this work

[1:12:01] once they obtain the permits.

[1:12:03] Yeah, they are ready to move right away.

[1:12:07] They want to get the demo done as soon as possible,

[1:12:09] which is why they propose this waiver.

[1:12:12] It's really to deal this waiver is to get them

[1:12:15] starting the demolition combations as soon as possible.

[1:12:20] Okay, thank you.

[1:12:23] Any other questions?

[1:12:25] No. Okay, John, thank you very much.

[1:12:29] Thank you very much.

[1:12:33] Okay, we're going to move to the

[1:12:36] agenda at this time. So Deputy Clark, you could begin.

[1:12:42] I believe we have two public hearings today.

[1:12:46] Okay. We have two public hearings. The first public hearing is for the Town Board to consider

[1:12:51] amending Chapter 248 of the Town Code entitled Subdivision of Land regarding the term of

[1:12:57] the planning board members. And Janice Hansen, Assistant Town Attorney from the Town Attorney's

[1:13:03] Office is here to describe them.

[1:13:05] Okay. Before we start, Councilor Amon, who wishes to be heard on these public

[1:13:10] hearings. Please utilize your raise the hand button on your screens if you're

[1:13:15] listening in. If you have trouble with Zoom, you may call this office at 631-360-7600

[1:13:24] and we will get you online so you may be heard. Thank you very much.

[1:13:30] Councilor? Good afternoon Supervisor, members of the Town Board. Once again

[1:13:36] Janice Hanson, Assistant Town Attorney. The purpose of this hearing is to

[1:13:40] consider the adoption of local law 11-2020 to establish a two-year term for

[1:13:46] members of the town's planning board. Unless there are any questions, that's

[1:13:51] all that there is. Okay, Nicole, do we have anyone who wishes to be heard on

[1:13:56] this public hearing? No, Supervisor, I do not. Okay, I'd like to make a motion to

[1:14:04] to adopt this hearing at this time.

[1:14:06] Oh, we have second that motion.

[1:14:08] We have to close the, close the public hearing first.

[1:14:15] Okay, so call the roll, Mr. Clerk.

[1:14:18] Okay, Supervisor Weher.

[1:14:19] Yes.

[1:14:21] So McCarty.

[1:14:22] Yes.

[1:14:23] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:14:24] Yes.

[1:14:25] Councilwoman Ziralla.

[1:14:26] Yes.

[1:14:27] Councilman Lowman.

[1:14:29] Yes.

[1:14:29] Okay, again, motion to adopt this resolution.

[1:14:34] Public hearing number one.

[1:14:35] Second that.

[1:14:37] Supervisor Wehrheim.

[1:14:39] Yes.

[1:14:40] Councilman McCarthy.

[1:14:41] Yes.

[1:14:42] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:14:44] Yes.

[1:14:44] Councilwoman Inzarella.

[1:14:46] Yes.

[1:14:47] Councilman Lohman.

[1:14:48] Yes.

[1:14:51] Okay, the second public hearing is for the town board

[1:14:54] to consider the most amendment to chapter 322

[1:14:57] of the town code entitled zoning.

[1:15:00] As it relates to the term for the Board of Zoning Appealed Members.

[1:15:04] Janice?

[1:15:05] Thank you.

[1:15:06] Yes, once again, this is to consider the adoption of a local law.

[1:15:10] This is local law 12-2020.

[1:15:12] This would establish a two-year term for the members of the town's Board of Zoning Appeals.

[1:15:18] Thank you, councilor Nicole.

[1:15:20] Is there anyone who should be heard on public hearing number two?

[1:15:25] No, Supervisor.

[1:15:27] Okay.

[1:15:27] Okay, then I'll move to close the hearing.

[1:15:29] Second.

[1:15:30] Supervisor Weierheim?

[1:15:32] Yes.

[1:15:33] Council Member Cauthey?

[1:15:34] Yes.

[1:15:35] Councilwoman Nowak?

[1:15:37] Yes.

[1:15:38] Councilwoman Zirella?

[1:15:39] Yes.

[1:15:40] Councilwoman Warman?

[1:15:42] Yes.

[1:15:43] Also a motion to adopt the hearing at this time.

[1:15:47] Second that.

[1:15:48] Okay, Supervisor Weierheim?

[1:15:50] Yes.

[1:15:51] Council Member Cauthey?

[1:15:52] Yes.

[1:15:53] Councilwoman Nowak?

[1:15:55] Yes.

[1:15:56] Councilwoman Inzarela?

[1:15:57] Yes.

[1:15:58] Councilman Lowman?

[1:16:00] Yes.

[1:16:01] Okay.

[1:16:01] Thank you.

[1:16:04] Deputy Clerk, we can continue.

[1:16:06] Okay.

[1:16:07] We have consent agendas number one to 30 and consent resolutions number one to five.

[1:16:14] Is there anyone on town council that wishes to remove any items from the consent agenda?

[1:16:20] No.

[1:16:21] No.

[1:16:23] Okay.

[1:16:23] Mr. Clerk?

[1:16:24] Councilman Lowman?

[1:16:25] Yes.

[1:16:27] Councilwoman Zirella.

[1:16:28] Yes.

[1:16:29] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:16:30] Yes.

[1:16:31] Councilwoman McCarthy.

[1:16:33] Yes.

[1:16:34] Supervisor Weihraum.

[1:16:35] Yes.

[1:16:38] If the town boy to authorize the town clerk to advertise for the following bids.

[1:16:43] Bid 20-075 bulk delivery of Portland cement powder.

[1:16:47] Bid 20-076 paint and stain.

[1:16:51] Bid 20-081 the annual contract for office cleaning services.

[1:16:55] All three due January 7th, 2021.

[1:16:58] And bid 2074, structural wall and slab modifications

[1:17:03] and roof replacement at the highway yard,

[1:17:05] Redborn due January 14th, 2021.

[1:17:10] Councilman Lohman.

[1:17:12] Yes.

[1:17:12] Councilwoman Insorella.

[1:17:14] Yes.

[1:17:15] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:17:17] Yes.

[1:17:17] Councilwoman McCarthy.

[1:17:19] Yes.

[1:17:20] Supervisor Wever.

[1:17:21] Yes.

[1:17:22] Supervisor. Award requests for proposal number 2018 for

[1:17:27] development and implementation of municipal pavement management system to IMS infrastructure

[1:17:34] management services as per proposals dated March 26 and authorize the supervisor to sign

[1:17:40] any agreements on a form approved by the town attorney.

[1:17:44] Councilman Lohman?

[1:17:45] Yes.

[1:17:47] Councilwoman Zarela?

[1:17:48] Yes.

[1:17:49] Councilwoman Nowak?

[1:17:50] Yes.

[1:17:51] Councilwoman McCarthy?

[1:17:53] Yes.

[1:17:54] Supervisor Weber?

[1:17:55] Yes.

[1:17:57] The town board to approve the ratification of the execution of a hold-harmless agreement

[1:18:02] with Moro Rudolph by the supervisor regarding 369 Lake Avenue, an extension of agreement

[1:18:09] with RNC Environmental Geology PC for Groundwater Sampling and Laboratory Analysis at the Municipal

[1:18:16] Service Facility for Phase 1, Cells 1-5 and Phase 2, Cells 6 through December 31, 2021.

[1:18:24] Extension of mid-1883 for the purchase of surplus materials with Gershaw Recycling.

[1:18:31] The emergency procurement for 120-foot extension of the stone

[1:18:35] revetment at the King's Park bluff but the rise the issuance of a purchase

[1:18:39] order to all island excavating corp in the amount of $95,000.

[1:18:44] Windstream pay tech phone system monthly payment extension, a sole source

[1:18:50] purchase of replacement in-feed belt for Horizon Grinder from Rotochop

[1:18:56] Incorporated, the workman's compensation insurance agreement with

[1:19:00] New York State Municipal Workers Compensation Alliance,

[1:19:04] Acquisition of ClearGov Budgeting Software,

[1:19:07] a change to order number two for PIN 1901,

[1:19:11] the Contract for Office Cleaning Services

[1:19:13] with Commercial Cleaning Long Island

[1:19:15] for Additional Cleaning Services.

[1:19:18] Councilman Lowman.

[1:19:19] Yes.

[1:19:20] Councilman Insarola.

[1:19:21] Yes.

[1:19:22] Councilman Norwick.

[1:19:24] Yes.

[1:19:25] Councilman McCauley.

[1:19:26] Yes.

[1:19:27] Supervisor Wehran.

[1:19:29] Yes.

[1:19:30] The Town Board to issue a sequel positive declaration in the matter of the Town Board's own motion to adopt the Town of Smith Town 2020 comprehensive plan for the reasons stated in a memo dated December 7th, 2020.

[1:19:44] Councilman Lowman.

[1:19:45] Yes.

[1:19:46] Councilman Insorella.

[1:19:48] Yes.

[1:19:49] Councilman Nowick.

[1:19:51] Yes.

[1:19:52] Councilman McCarthy.

[1:19:53] Yes.

[1:19:54] Supervisor Wehram.

[1:19:55] Yes.

[1:19:57] The Hound Board to issue a written consistency determination pursuant to Chapter 151 of the

[1:20:03] town code that application 2020-08, Parsonage Roads Property, is consistent with the local

[1:20:10] water revitalization plan subject to conditions as stated in the December 8th Memorandum from

[1:20:16] the town planning director.

[1:20:19] Councilman Lowman.

[1:20:20] Yes.

[1:20:21] Councilwoman Zarela.

[1:20:22] Yes.

[1:20:23] Councilwoman Norrick.

[1:20:25] Yes.

[1:20:26] Councilor McCauley?

[1:20:28] Yes.

[1:20:29] Supervisor Wehrmacht?

[1:20:30] Yes.

[1:20:31] Authorize the exception, the acceptance of a donation

[1:20:34] from stop and shop to the animal shelter

[1:20:36] in the amount of $101, and a donation from Cheryl Millican

[1:20:41] in the amount of $200 to the senior center.

[1:20:45] Councilor Lohman?

[1:20:47] Yes.

[1:20:48] Councilor Manizarella?

[1:20:49] Yes.

[1:20:50] Councilor Munoz?

[1:20:51] Yes.

[1:20:52] Councilor McCauley?

[1:20:54] Yes.

[1:20:55] Supervisor Wehrmacht.

[1:20:56] Yes.

[1:20:57] Authorize the supervisor to execute the following on a form approved by the town attorney.

[1:21:02] The renewal rates for HIP prime HMO coverage and HIP VIP Medicaid coverage for the period

[1:21:08] beginning January 1st, 2021 through December 31st, 2021.

[1:21:14] An agreement with Rapid Armored Corporation to provide pickup and delivery to official

[1:21:18] depositories through the tax receivers office.

[1:21:20] agreement with enterprise fleet management for the sale of town vehicles and

[1:21:25] authorize the supervisor to execute any documents related to the sale enterprise

[1:21:30] agreement with Dell technologies to purchase licenses for Microsoft teams

[1:21:35] lease eight copiers for various town departments through Kaisera document

[1:21:39] solutions adoption of the Suffolk County multi jurisdiction multi hazard

[1:21:44] mitigation plan agreement with oil island excavating corp for emergency

[1:21:49] and see repairs at the King Cork Bluff and agreement with property registration champions

[1:21:55] doing business as pro champs to provide services authorized pursuance to Chapter 322-4 of the

[1:22:01] Town Code.

[1:22:02] Councilman Lowman.

[1:22:04] Yes.

[1:22:05] Councilwoman Insorella.

[1:22:06] Yes.

[1:22:07] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:22:08] Yes.

[1:22:09] Councilwoman McCleod-Thief.

[1:22:11] Yes.

[1:22:12] Supervisor Wehren.

[1:22:13] Yes.

[1:22:14] Approved the settlement of Diana Vizallo for $251.10,

[1:22:20] Georgian Lomonica for $900, Gina Dosa, $2,099.72,

[1:22:27] Kerry Lynch $450, and Georgian Mary Bonta for $200.

[1:22:33] Councilman Lowman?

[1:22:34] Yes.

[1:22:36] Councilwoman Inzarella?

[1:22:37] Yes.

[1:22:38] Councilwoman Norek?

[1:22:39] Yes.

[1:22:40] Councilwoman Buffy?

[1:22:42] Yes.

[1:22:43] Supervisor Wehren.

[1:22:44] Yes.

[1:22:46] And personnel items number one to eight

[1:22:48] that are described in full on the agenda.

[1:22:51] Councilman Lowman.

[1:22:52] Yes.

[1:22:53] Councilwoman Ninsarala.

[1:22:55] Yes.

[1:22:56] Councilwoman Novak.

[1:22:57] Yes.

[1:22:58] Councilwoman McCarthy.

[1:22:59] Yes.

[1:23:00] Supervisor Wehren.

[1:23:02] Yes.

[1:23:03] And we have one read on resolution.

[1:23:07] The read on is for the approval

[1:23:09] of the private plower rates

[1:23:10] for hired equipment to snow removal

[1:23:13] and other department work effective December 15th, 2020 through December 31st, 2021.

[1:23:21] Councilman Lohman. Yes. Councilman Ninsorella. Yes. Councilman Nowak. Yes. Councilman McCarthy.

[1:23:30] Yes. Supervisor Wehren. Yes. That concludes resolutions on the agenda.

[1:23:37] sitting there is the Board of Site Plan Review.

[1:23:43] Okay, the approval is the minutes approval for the site plan review of November 3rd,

[1:23:50] and the two previously described resolutions, the first,

[1:23:55] Carmack's Order Super Stores, and the second,

[1:23:58] to conditionally approve the site plan for Smithtown Chevrolet Storage Line.

[1:24:03] I'll approve the first one, and then we'll call the roll on the first one, Mr. Clarke,

[1:24:08] and we'll do the second one separately.

[1:24:10] At it.

[1:24:11] Okay, Councilman Lohman.

[1:24:13] Yes.

[1:24:14] Councilwoman Insorella.

[1:24:16] Yes.

[1:24:16] Councilwoman Nowak.

[1:24:18] Yes.

[1:24:19] Councilwoman McCarthy.

[1:24:20] Yes.

[1:24:21] Supervisor Wehring.

[1:24:23] Yes, that's our number one.

[1:24:25] Number two, Mr. McCarthy.

[1:24:27] All right, I'd like to move the table, number two.

[1:24:30] Second.

[1:24:31] Councilwoman McCarthy.

[1:24:33] Yes.

[1:24:34] Supervisor Wehring.

[1:24:35] Yes.

[1:24:36] Councilman Nowak.

[1:24:37] Yes, councilman in Zarela. Yes councilman moment. Yes

[1:24:43] Okay, number two has been tabled right that concludes site plan review

[1:24:49] Nicole do we have anyone who wishes to be heard on a town matter?

[1:24:54] No, no one has their hand up supervisor

[1:24:57] Hey, I'm being said and I will move to close the meeting

[1:25:02] second

[1:25:03] Supervisor Weihar. Yes

[1:25:05] Yes.

[1:25:06] Councilman McCarthy.

[1:25:08] Yes.

[1:25:08] Councilwoman Dower.

[1:25:10] Yes.

[1:25:11] Councilwoman Inzovella.

[1:25:12] Yes.

[1:25:13] Councilman Lohman.

[1:25:14] Yes.

[1:25:16] Okay.

[1:25:17] That concludes the board meeting.

[1:25:18] Thank you, everyone.

[1:25:20] We'll talk soon.

[1:25:21] Everybody stay safe.

Town Board Regular Meeting

Transcript