Planned code changes in Smithtown, rail yard concerns draw overflow crowd to public hearing

More than 200 people crowded into a public hearing at the Smithtown Senior Center earlier this week, many of them telling town officials that they are against proposed town code changes that they fear will open the door for a rail line project in Kings Park.

Town code currently excludes the operation or construction of rail transfer stations in the Town of Smithtown. The town board is considering changes that will allow rail freight terminals, rail transfer stations and wood-chipping and mulch-processing facilities in heavy-industrial zoning districts as a special exception.

Town planning director Peter Hans said at the meeting Tuesday night that the amendments were proposed due to the planned closure of the Brookhaven landfill and the town’s expected need to “transfer much of our solid waste off the Island for disposal.” The landfill stopped accepting construction debris last month and is expected to close entirely in 2027 or 2028.

Opponents are worried the code changes will allow for the construction of a 5,000-foot rail line that developer Townline Rail Terminal has proposed building on 82 acres near Town Line and Pulaski roads. 

For two hours and 10 minutes, people inside the senior center meeting room spoke. Many in the overflow crowd — some were in other viewing areas of the center — held signs that read “We say vote ‘no’ to amended zoning codes.”

Amy Kausner, a Commack mother of two children, told the board that their primary school was down the street from Townline’s proposed project and she worried her children and others wouldn't be safe if exposed to noise and pollution generated through rail activities at the site.

“What’s going to happen when it’s no longer safe for my children, for other children?” Kausner asked. “What’s going to happen when no more young families want to come into the town? Nobody is going to want to come in with all the noise and pollution right down the street.” 

Elissa Lewin, of Commack, said she has a child who goes to school in Kings Park and the potential for a rail yard in the community concerned her not only for her child’s safety, “but every single family with children, elderly folks, people who have immunocompromised systems … I’m truthfully scared and I’m enraged.”

Some who spoke in favor of the project represented pro-business entities and organizations. Will Flower, who represented Waste Management, said Smithtown generates 580,000 pounds of waste daily, which means the town has to look at “every tool in the toolbox” to manage solid waste disposal, and “a strong rail system can be beneficial to that.”

Toby Carlson, who owns CarlsonCorp, said at the meeting that his project proposal would help reduce the price of waste disposal for residents in Smithtown and other Island communities.

Carlson cautioned people, some who booed him at times, “In five years, when the taxes for all the town residents of Huntington and Smithtown … when they each get a tax bill of an extra $1,000, what will that do to everybody in this room? You might not care, but everybody else will. It’s not up to me, I’m making a proposal. It’s an idea. If you hate me for my idea, that’s your problem.”

“We hate your idea,” someone from the audience said loudly, after which Carlson left the podium to a mix of applause and boos.

Carlson told Newsday after the meeting he has not yet formally submitted his proposal to the town, but he anticipates doing so by the end of the year or by early 2026.

Smithtown Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said the town will take written comments at the town clerk’s office until Jan. 21.

Wehrheim said the town found some flaws in the federal government’s environmental impact study for the Townline proposal — which, Newsday previously reported, found that the company’s plan would have “negligible” impacts on the surrounding environment, except for vegetation, wildlife habitats, and threatened and endangered species.

Wehrheim said the town will look to do its own environmental impact study, adding the town board will take all comments into consideration “before the board makes any decision on whether or not this facility ever gets built.”