Nearby: Sayville Chamber Lobbying Town Leaders on Serota Project

In an email to chamber members and civic leaders, Chamber President Bill Etts urges business owners and residents to get the word out to everyone in the surrounding communities and email their opposition to local lawmakers to stop the project from moving forward without more revisions.

“We need all our members and all other chamber members and Civic 
Associations to bring this project to the forefront. If the public becomes aware of this project they will go to their politicians and stop it,” writes Etts in an email sent to members.

Now that the county has made its recommendation, the Islip Town Planning Department will issue a recommendation to the Islip Town Board. The chamber is hoping to get further revisions or stall the project until concerns about retail impact and traffic are solved.

“This project will be the destruction of all the south shore towns from Bay Shore to Bellport,” Etts stated in his email Monday, providing email addresses for Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci and Islip council members Trish Bergin, John Cochrane, Steve Flotteron and Anthony Senft. Etts also noted it is an election year for local officials.

In an email late last week Etts told chamber members that the county board made a recommendation on July 3 to the Islip Town Board to approve the project slated to be built by Serota Properties but that the action is purely a recommendation.

The Sayville chamber spoke against the project at the commission meeting, which was not a formal public hearing. The chamber had also asked for a new meeting date citing the impending holiday weekend which prevented many members from attending the meeting. That request was declined.

The county’s formal action, explained Etts, doesn’t mean the project is a go.

“That does not mean it is approved or a done deal. It was a recommendation. (A poor one, done oddly against the wishes of the constituents in attendance). It now goes back before the Town of Islip,” explained Etts in the email sent to chamber members.

“If you don't speak out and be vocal bulldozers WILL put up more retail that will dwarf the adjacent Costco store in size and cause a traffic nightmare at the Vets Highway/Nichols Road ramps,” he noted.

The lobbyist movement is one part of a three-prong strategy the chamber is undertaking to stop the mega development in Holbrook.

In addition to stating opposition at the county meeting, it’s also looking to hire a legal gun to take up a court fight. The Sayville chamber has approved spending $2,000 for a legal retainer and is asking local chambers from Patchogue to Holbrook to join the effort.

The Sayville business group has already retained Mike Dawidziak, president of Strategic Planning Systems, to help as a lobbyist and marketing leader. According to Etts, Dawidziak’s services are being paid by a group that wishes to remain anonymous.

Islip Town recently approved an environmental impact statement for the 136-acre project, bordering Sunrise Highway at the intersection of Veterans Highway in Holbrook. The EIS is a technical step of the State Environmental Quality Review Act process and town planning officials stated it was just an early basic step. 

It’s been over a year since Islip officials held a public hearing on the Serota Properties project, and much of the project has changed from its initial proposal. 

The revamp was in response to civic and local chamber concerns regarding impact on traffic, the small downtown business areas and the Sachem school district.     

Original plans called for 400,000 square feet of retail space for tenants such as Anne Klein, 1.3 million square feet of industrial space on 70 acres, which would include a 200-room hotel, and 250 residential one and two-bedroom apartments on 13 acres. 

The revamp includes a huge boost in open space mostly due to structured garage parking instead of acres of paved lots. There will be a central mall structure with open grass, a decorative pond and a band shell for community events.  The original design had a four and half acre park area. Now there are 35 acres of open space that can house 12 active ball fields
 
Yet the proposed retail use does not sit well with Sayville’s chamber as it only reduced retail land use by 80,000 square feet.   
 
The plan originally called for 250 one-to two-bedroom units for senior citizen housing. It now includes 350 units.   

Etts told Patch in a phone interview recently that the chamber wants more residential and less retail space and that the retail use should be restricted to typical small businesses such as a deli, pizza and dry cleaner.