Smithtown proposes banning new assisted living facilities in residential areas

New nursing homes and assisted living facilities would no longer be permitted in Smithtown’s residential districts under a proposed code amendment the town board is scheduled to take up at a public hearing Tuesday. 

The proposal follows an application last fall to build an assisted living facility at the former Bull Run Farm in St. James. The application faced near-unanimous opposition from neighbors at a March community meeting sponsored by the developer. Smithtown Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said the application would not move forward because it lacked town board support to get a hearing.

Town officials, though, said the Bull Run application only accelerated an amendment process that had been proposed in the 2020 draft comprehensive plan. “Bull Run had something to do with the feeling of, ‘Let’s not sit on this any longer,’ ” town spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo said last week. 

Smithtown code permits an array of uses in certain districts — not just assisted living facilities but hotels, skating rinks and even airports — under a process called a special exception. The process is a "typical zoning tool" used by many municipalities for land uses that are consistent with zoning but not necessarily entitled and may face additional requirements, said John Armentano, a land use and municipal law lawyer at Farrell Fritz in Hauppauge. 

Smithtown’s special exception rules for assisted living facilities, nursing homes and similar facilities set minimum acreage, frontage and setback. 

The draft plan recommended prohibiting the facilities in most residential districts because their size “can have a significant impact on surrounding neighborhoods.”

That document recommends restricting the facilities to multifamily districts that would be established along portions of Jericho Turnpike and Route 111. 

“At the end of the day, because of the way they operate, they’re always going to look like commercial-style buildings, and there’s going to be that large square footage,” Wehrheim said.

Close to a fifth of the town’s population is over 65, higher than the national average. In recent years, developers have built four assisted living facilities with 486 beds total in Smithtown; there had been just two, with 144 beds. Some of the new facilities are in residential districts, but they are near major roads. 

While the proposed legislation would limit the overall area available to the facilities, “there’s a number of areas where we could locate them,” Wehrheim said. The town board may also consider rezoning some residential sites to accommodate the facilities, he said. 

The Bull Run application has not been formally withdrawn, said Allyson Murray, Smithtown's principal planner. David Moran, a lawyer for developer Frank Amicizia, declined to comment Monday. Amicizia could not be reached for comment. 

Armentano said changes to Smithtown code would apply to future and existing applications, as long as permits have not been issued and construction commenced, which has not happened at Bull Run. “It can be done, and sometimes is what is done in response to community issues,” he said.

The public hearing is at 2 p.m. at Town Hall.