New York Wiki

LIRR Port Jefferson line yard 0

Local homeowners and concerned citizens turned out for the
LIRR and MTA’s public scoping meeting at East Northport
Middle School on Monday. The scoping meeting was one of the
first steps in a long process to establish a viable site to
build an electric train housing, cleaning, and maintenance
facility between the Huntington station and Smithtown.

EAST NORTHPORT-COMMACK
Small Voices Make Loud Noises

Public cries out against public outcry against facility.

By Brian Ferry

‘Not in my backyard’ would be the appropriate conclusion
to be drawn from public comments heard by Long Island Railroad (LIRR)
and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials on Monday.
A scoping meeting held at East Northport Middle School was one of
the first steps in a process that the two agencies are undertaking
to establish an environmental impact statement that will allow the
construction of a train storage, cleaning, and maintenance facility
somewhere between the Huntington station and Smithtown on the Port
Jefferson line of the LIRR.

The meeting opened with an information session at which two separate
maps — one of Huntington, Greenlawn, and surrounding areas,
the other of East Northport, Commack, Smithtown, and surrounding
areas — were made public for the first time. The maps showed
the proposed sites that the LIRR and MTA are considering. There
was a stenographer available to record questions and comments for
the LIRR and MTA, and some of the agencies’ officials made themselves available to answer questions and concerns.

The maps showed 19 sites that met the agencies’ “initial
list of alternatives.” In order to make this list, a site
needed to meet three basic criteria — location (between Huntington
and Smithtown and within approximately 1/4 mile of the LIRR right-of-way),
size (able to accommodate either an 1,800-foot-long by 425-foot-wide
facility or 1,800-foot-long by 250-foot-wide facility), and use
(the site should be either vacant or underutilized).

Out of the 19 sites listed, 13 were determined to have “fatal
flaws” according to the LIRR and MTA. Fatal flaws included
constructability issues, conflicts with major infrastructure such
as utilities, pre-existing use, protected natural areas, and historic
structures, among others. Included in these 13 eliminated sites
were the playing fields of Harborfields, Northport, and Kings Park
high schools, designated parkland in Kings Park, and a New York
state Department of Environmental Conservation protected site in
Kings Park.

Sam Zambuto, a spokesman for the LIRR, stated the reason for including
such areas.

“That’s a listing of land that could accommodate a
yard adjacent to the track because of its size and location,”
Zambuto said. “You look at everything that’s possible
and then see if it’s conceivable. [It’s] the very first
broad stroke of possible sites that would accommodate a 16-track
yard. And then all of those areas identified were checked if a particular,
obvious flaw would not make it a candidate for a yard.”

He elaborated further on the reasoning behind the initial inclusion
of high school athletic fields.

“When the sites are first determined by using aerial photography,
it showed areas where there are parcels of land that appear vacant
and of sufficient size and proximity to the railroad to be a site
considered,” Zambuto said. “In the cases of these three
sites and some further evaluation, what appeared to be vacant land
were school playing fields and therefore eliminated.”

Included in the remaining six sites were three around Pulaski Road,
Bread and Cheese Hollow Road (the eastern border of the Town of
Huntington and the Town of Smithtown), and Old Northport Road, an
area inside the land formerly occupied by Kings Park Psychiatric
Center, a vacant area near St. Catherine of Sienna Medical Center,
and an area adjacent to the New York State Armory, Manor Field Park,
and Huntington Commons Industrial Park in Huntington Station.

For an hour-and-a-half after the informational session, the crowd
of approximately 100 to 150 individuals and approximately 10 LIRR
and MTA officials collaborated in a public forum within the school’s
auditorium. Mark Sullivan, chief planning officer for the LIRR,
explained that the railroad needs a storage/maintenance facility
for electric trains somewhere on the eastern region of the Port
Jefferson line. Sullivan said that electrification reached the Huntington
station in 1970 and no facility was ever built to accommodate the
needs of such trains. He compared the current need for moving trains
from Queens to a location in Suffolk County to a homeowner wanting
to be able to park his or her car in their own garage as opposed
to having to walk several miles to get to it.

“Since the third rail reached there 30 years ago, no storage
facility has been built,” Sullivan said. He added that the
current practice of storing trains in Queens and sending them out
to Suffolk works, but is fragile with no room for expansion.

After Sullivan and a representative of the Federal Transit Administration
(FTA) spoke, individuals who had signed up at an outside table were
each given three minutes to voice their questions and concerns to
the officials. After the first speaker, the crowd let out a resounding
groan of disappointment when the officials stated they were simply
hearing concerns and would not be responding to them at the meeting.
A letter provided to this newspaper in advance of the scoping meeting
did state the second half of the meeting to be “a forum for
public comments,” rather than a question and answer period.

Larry Silverman, a former member of the LIRR Commuter Council,
brought numerous points to the attention of everyone in the auditorium.
He stated that it was unfortunate that so many opinions would not
be heard because disclosure of the potential sites did not occur
before the meeting. He made it known to any who didn’t already
understand that such a facility would be a 24-hour facility that
would bring light and noise pollution, traffic from employees and
shipping vehicles, and other impacts. Silverman alleged that placing
the facility farther away would cost the LIRR and MTA an additional
$10 million per mile, and suggested this was one reason they had
only limited areas to offer for consideration.

Michael Karp, an East Northport business owner and vice president
of the East Northport Chamber of Commerce pointed out that placing
the facility east of the Huntington station would require track
electrification to any stations west of that facility. He said that
if the Northport station became electrified, it could persuade commuters
from the Town of Smithtown to drive the short distance in order
to board an electrified train. This could leave the new Huntington
station garage underutilized and create a parking problem in East
Northport, he added. And because Smithtown residents would not be
able to park in the Town of Huntington-operated lots, their parked
automobiles would inevitably spill into nearby business lots, streets,
and residential areas, he said.

Commack resident Mark Serotoff said he obtained information concerning
the areas around the Huntington/Smithtown border, saying one of
them is designated as a Federal Superfund Cleanup site because it
was polluted with various chemicals. He provided the LIRR and MTA
officials with additional maps, reports, and photographs that he
obtained.

Various speakers also suggested that there are some 87 schools
in close proximity to the areas the LIRR and MTA are considering.
Some sites are within one to two miles of elementary schools.

The general consensus of many public speakers, including Huntington
councilmen Mark Cuthbertson and Mark Capodanno and Suffolk County
Legislator Jon Cooper, was that the LIRR and MTA should have made
more information available to the public, giving them more time
to formulate questions and opinions toward the potential sites.
When Cooper approached the microphone for his three-minute opportunity,
he stated the primary points that he felt the officials should know.

“At some point, you’re going to have to deal with the
public,” he said early on. He suggested that the LIRR and
MTA consider mailing postcards to each household in the areas affected
by these proposed sites. He said he understood this would cost money,
acknowledging “it would be a painful process for you short-term,
but it would be a benefit for this process long-term.”

“There are going to be many, many more informational sessions,”
Zambuto said. “This is a long process and this is the first
step. There will be other informational meetings and/or hearings
throughout the process. We felt it was a very constructive meeting
and it is the start of what will be a very aggressive public outreach
on this project.”