The Smithtown Town Board held its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at 2:00 PM in the Victor T. Liss Board Room. The board unanimously approved a consent agenda, several resolutions, and personnel items. Two site plans were conditionally approved after presentations from the Planning Department. Two members of the public spoke on traffic issues and wood-burning concerns.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our July 14th board meeting. Please join us in pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Roll call. Supervisor Welhart. Here. Councilman McCarthy. Councilwoman and Zarolo. Here. Councilman Lowman. Yeah. All right, we will begin this afternoon. We have two site plans. Mr. Trotter, you're up. Good afternoon, Supervisor, members of the town board. I'm Liam Trotter with the planning department. And I have two site plans to present to the board this afternoon, acting as the board of site plan review. The first application is called Vincent's Woodfire Pizza. The subject site is located on the southeast corner of Lake Avenue and Woodlawn Avenue in St. James. Their proposal is for a change of use from first floor office to food retail, facade alterations, demolition of an existing detached garage, and a parking lot expansion, a new curb cut on Lake Avenue, and associated site work. So this is the proposed site plan. A lot of the parking along the east side of the building currently exists. The parking lot expansion will occur on the south side of the building. There currently is a drop curb that was installed with the Lake Avenue Restoration Project, so they'll be utilizing that existing drop curve, so there won't be any new disturbance of the sidewalk on Lake Avenue. This is a street view from Woodlawn. This is the garage that will be demolished, and there'll be new head-in parking along the east side of the property. Because there is a neighbor directly to the east, the applicant will be proposing a new PVC fence and plantings along that property line to mitigate any noise and visibility impacts. And this is the street view from Lake Avenue. As you can see right here, this is that existing drop curve that will be accessible with this new parking lot addition. The applicant has agreed to five conditions of site plan approval. The first condition is that the applicant obtain the necessary permits from the town building department and that any proposed ground sign shall be in monument style with a two to three-foot masonry base not to exceed a total height of eight feet. The second condition is that the applicant shall install a tree preservation fence around all trees to be preserved on site. The fourth condition is that prior to the issuance of a CO, the town of Smithtown drainage on the corner of Lake Avenue and Woodlawn Avenue shall be located, identified, and shown on the final as built survey. An easement shall be submitted and approved by the engineering department and then filed with the town for future maintenance of these structures. So there's an existing drain on the corner. And any easements put in place if necessary. And the last condition is that the landscaping and site work shall be modified in accordance with the marked up plan prepared by the planning department dated July 7th, 2026, which is this plan. What we were asking for is the uh the species of uh plants that the applicant had spec'd out along the north side of the parking lot. They were proposing red cedars and arborbides, which are taller of a species and may not be appropriate for this area. Um what we were asking for is uh a boxwood or similar mid-size shrub. Uh it's mainly to screen any any uh cars that might be parked there. And we're also asking for a walkway connection from the south parking area to the entrance of the building. And lastly, this is the proposed facade alterations. The building will be resided with a whiteboard and batten uh and a new faux chimney, which is uh this will be facing the Woodlaw Avenue elevation. Does the board have any questions on this proposal? I do have a question. I'm having a really tough time envisioning that piece of property becoming a pizza place.