Smithtown considers town code changes centered on rail projects

Smithtown officials are considering changing the town code to add rules on rail freight terminals and transfer stations, which some residents see as another step forward for a controversial Kings Park rail line project that they have opposed.

Smithtown will hold a public hearing Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the town Senior Center on Middle Country Road on the proposed updates to the town code.

In August, the federal Surface Transportation Board approved a plan by developer Townline Rail Terminal LLC for the 5,000-foot rail line, which would haul away incinerator ash and construction debris, Newsday previously reported. It would be built on 82 acres near Town Line and Pulaski roads.

The federal agency has final authority on approving and building the rail line, but the Town of Smithtown and the state would have to approve or deny permits for anything else on the rest of the site, such as buildings and driveways, town officials previously said.

The revised town code would specify what makes up a rail freight terminal and a rail transfer station. The revisions also would allow the town board to authorize a special exception for both a rail transfer station and a rail freight terminal if the board finds that their proposed use “is desirable and compatible with the other uses in the area” and would not interfere with development goals and purposes, also outlined by the zoning code.

The revisions also would require rail freight terminals to have a minimum lot area of at least two acres for the board to grant such proposals a special exception.

Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said the hearing will provide residents the opportunity to speak on the record about the code revisions.

If approved, he said, they would be put through the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act process, which would have several town departments conduct a “full environmental review” of them. Once the review is completed, the departments would recommend to the town whether to approve the project.

“It’s a long process, and it’s going to take months and months to accomplish,” Wehrheim said. 

Toby Carlson, owner of CarlsonCorp, which owns Townline Rail Terminal, said in an interview last Monday the proposed code changes “would give a framework by which our project would have something to apply to.”

The company first applied for the project in the fall of 2022, Newsday previously reported. 

Residents and civic groups have opposed it, concerned with how the rail operations may potentially negatively impact water quality and the environment, and generate noise and pollution. 

The Townline Association, a civic group in opposition, filed a petition in September asking the Surface Transportation Board to reconsider its decision. The association argued, among other things, that the federal board should have obtained site-specific groundwater data for the project site, since the rail project is located over an aquifer.

A Dec. 3 ruling from the board dismissed the association’s petition. 

Linda Henninger, president of the Townline Association, said in a statement the hearing is “another step forward by the Town Board towards the siting of a private freight yard 150 feet from families in a residential community.” Henninger stated that so far nearly 2,000 letters and signatures from the community to Town Hall have opposed the project.

The freight car traffic would "negatively" impact "many families and commuters. Not only will freight cars leave full, they will return full,” Henninger stated. “This will significantly increase the amount of tractor-trailers traversing through our local roads as there are no easily accessible major arteries in the area.”

Carlson said he is aware of the criticisms the project faces but expects that the environmental review process at the town and state levels will answer questions the public may have "to make sure this project is good for the community."

"I anticipate and hope residents that come out will tell the town board what they want to have studied, what's important to them and then let the town board and the environmental consultants study it, let the state DEC study it and let us get the answers we all need to hear," Carlson said.