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Jefferson Plaza

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Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, center, swears in Ira Costell, right, and Carolyn Sagliocca as president and vice president of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association. Photo by Raymond Janis

The newly reconfigured executive board of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association went straight to work Tuesday night during the body’s general meeting April 25.

Nearly six dozen people turned out as former civic president Ed Garboski and vice president Sal Pitti left their posts, transitioning leadership authority to Ira Costell and Carolyn Sagliocca, respectively. 

Village of Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant, former New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and representatives of state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) and Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) were all in attendance.

Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) officiated over a formal swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected civic officers. He thanked the departing civic leaders and congratulated their successors.

“There’s an energy in this community that we haven’t felt in years,” he said. “It’s a whole new optimism, and in large part, that’s because of the drive out of this civic organization.”

To Garboski and Pitti, the councilmember added, “You two are fantastic civic leaders, and I have every confidence that the new board will continue to focus and do the work that you’ve done.”

The newly reconfigured executive board of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association during a general meeting on Tuesday, April 25. Photo by Raymond Janis

Land use

Costell quickly got moving, announcing the creation of a land use committee headed by Sagliocca, which will monitor development and related land use activities within the hamlet.

Further expanding on this theme, Costell articulated his vision for overseeing the redevelopment of the area, narrowing his focus around the projected $100 million proposed investment into Jefferson Plaza, owned by Staller Associates.

“The Staller project is the keystone, if you will, about the entire development of our little hamlet,” he said.

Between the Jefferson Plaza proposal, several planned retirement communities throughout the hamlet and significant residential development in Upper Port, Costell described PJS/T as looking at challenges associated with population density.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us as an organization to register our desire and intention to seek new planning overall, to bring a traffic study and some of the impacts of all of these things cumulatively,” the civic president said. 

He added, “I’d like to go in front of the [Brookhaven] Town Board and express our concern that our little hamlet needs some attention, that we’ve gotten a whole lot of multifamily activity here that we welcome but want done in a fashion and manner that’s going to ameliorate the impacts on existing residents and invite new people in.”

Kornreich concurred with this assessment in part, stating that overdevelopment represents a danger to the quality of life in the area.

“I agree with you that overdevelopment is one of the gravest threats that we face in the destruction of the suburbs, both in respect to our way of life and from an environmental standpoint,” the councilmember said.

Town natural gas program

Kornreich informed the body on a cost-savings strategy for consumers of natural gas. 

Recently, the town launched its Community Choice Aggregation program, partnering with Manhattan-based Good Energy to deliver a fixed rate on natural gas at 69 cents per therm. [See story, “Community Choice Aggregation: Town of Brookhaven joins energy revolution,” March 9, TBR News Media website.]

The councilmember said ratepayers could potentially save hundreds of dollars per year by strategically opting in and out of the CCA program based on the gas price from National Grid.

“Essentially, you can opt in and out at any time as many times as you want for free,” he said.

To save money, he encouraged residents to closely monitor National Grid’s service rates, published at the beginning of every month. “When that price is lower than 69 cents, you stay on National Grid,” he said. “When it goes over, you switch over.”

Based on a model he had conducted for his bill measuring the CCA against the National Grid price, Kornreich projected he would have saved approximately $250 last year.

“This month, in the month of April, National Grid’s price is 35 cents a therm,” he said, adding, “It’s half the price of the CCA … so I’m opting out.”

Reports

A Suffolk County Police Department officer delivered a report on public safety, noting that the phenomenon of catalytic converter theft within the area remains ongoing. The 6th Precinct also observed a slight increase in petit larcenies from this time last year.

He remarked on the new speed cameras installed on the Long Island Expressway. [See story, “New York implements new work-zone enforcement program.”] . The officer reported that during testing, the cameras generated roughly 6,500 summons within a 45-minute window. 

“Please be careful when you get on the LIE,” he said, adding jokingly, “That’s not a county thing. That’s a state thing, so please don’t call us and complain.”

Comsewogue High School students Kylie and Max updated the civic on various developments within the school district. The Spanish Honor Society at the high school recently held a fundraiser to buy Progresso soup donated to the Pax Christi Hospitality Center in Port Jefferson.

Andrea Malchiodi, assistant director of Comsewogue Public Library, announced that the library is conducting a raffle for all cardholders as part of National Library Week. “We’re doing a huge raffle basket, so anybody who is a library card holder can go and put in a raffle to win this fun basket,” she said.

The library is also collecting pet food for a collection drive through Long Island Cares.

PJSTCA corresponding secretary, Charlie McAteer, reported that the town would be holding a Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, April 29, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Train Car Park in Port Jefferson Station.

McAteer also said that the Friends of the Greenway would conduct their next cleanup on Saturday, May 13, at 9 a.m. at the Port Jefferson Station trailhead. This cleanup will coincide with this year’s iteration of the Great Brookhaven Cleanup.

PJSTCA will meet again on Tuesday, May 23, at 7 p.m. at Comsewogue Public Library.

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Volunteers gathered at the eastern trailhead of the Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway on Saturday, April 22. Photo by Gretchen Mones

At the eastern trailhead of the Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway trail, a group of volunteers and community members met on Earth Day, April 22, kicking off the first cleanup of the season.

The Friends of the Greenway, a subsidiary of the Three Village Community Trust, hosted the event, which featured volunteers from various community groups, including the Stony Brook-based Avalon Nature Preserve. The cleanup coincided with Earth Day, a global holiday that recognizes the achievements of the environmental movement and the need for sustainable planning.

Greenway: an environmental triumph

“We schedule this [cleanup] in April for Earth Day to celebrate the Earth,” Herb Mones, TVCT president, said during the event.

Mones first became involved with the trail in 1999, when former New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) asked him to head a task force for its planning. The task force included educational programming and active community collaboration, followed by a planning phase, which took 10 years. 

The concept of a multipurpose trail was revolutionary for its time, Mones suggested.

“In Suffolk County in particular, there are very, very few greenways that are multimodality paths — paved paths for residents, pedestrians and bicyclists,” he said. “It was a process of getting people to understand what a bike path would look like.”

The task force’s vision was soon enacted, and the Greenway has been servicing locals since 2009. Mones described the trail as in “pretty good condition,” though regular pockets of litter have tended to stick around. The Friends of the Greenway organization targets those areas once per month, keeping its community trail tidy and clean.

Celebrating Mother Earth

Volunteer cleanup initiatives are putting the themes of Earth Day into practice at the community level. 

Englebright, for whom the trail was renamed in 2022, was present during the cleanup. For him, the convergence of local cleanup efforts with Earth Day reflect the environmental movement’s local and global momentum.

“The volunteerism was very heartening and very rewarding to me,” he said. “When people are volunteering their time and focusing their energies on Earth Day, it’s just a positive vibration and it speaks well for the role of the trail in the maturation of our communities.”

Throughout his time in public life, Englebright has been a vocal advocate for the environment, one of the earliest voices to ring the alarm on overdevelopment and sprawl, open space preservation and water quality protection in Suffolk County.

Over time, however, the former assemblyman said he had observed even greater attention for sustainability and environmental consciousness.

“I’m greatly encouraged to see people of all ages — there were people with white hair and people at various grade levels of our public schools — all working together with their enthusiasm reinforcing one another, reinforcing the premise that Earth Day should be special,” he said.

In Port Jefferson Station, there are several new development proposals, most notably at Jefferson Plaza, just a block from the trailhead. [See story, “Developers pitch plans for Jefferson Plaza,” June 24, TBR News Media website.] 

While Mones accepts new development projects as “inevitable,” he said those projects should be grounded by sound community plans, considering the interests of all concerned parties. 

“Development and the environment can work together, but it takes kind of a synergy between town planners, the developer and the community to work together to do a plan that works for everybody,” he said.

Englebright said the redevelopment plans for Jefferson Plaza and other projects have been, up to this point, guided by such concepts. He expressed optimism that the Port Jeff Station/Terryville community could hash out a workable compromise.

“When you say redevelopment, it’s also reinvestment into a community,” he said. “I hope that we can bring those projects forward that are being planned for the redevelopment of Port Jefferson Station in a way that lifts all of the boats in the harbor at the same time.”

The North Shore Rail Trail, which connects Mount Sinai to Wading River, was formally opened last summer. The two trailheads at Port Jefferson Station and Mount Sinai are about a mile apart. Englebright remains optimistic that the two may soon intersect, enabling a continuous bike ride from Setauket to Wading River.

“They should be linked up,” he said. “Look, if the Appalachian Trail can go the length of the Appalachians from Maine to Georgia, and they can link that together, then we can link our trails together here on Long Island.”

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Ira Costell, above, president-elect of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association. Photo by Daniel Febrizio

Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association conducted its monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 28. Out of the about 40 people in attendance, there were only 20 members eligible to vote in the night’s elections for civic officers.

Elections

The election for president of PJSTCA was between Ira Costell and Christine Allen. Each nominee had an opportunity to speak for three minutes before questions opened up to the floor.

In his speech, Costell explained that he has a master’s degree in city and regional planning. “I have a background with planning and development issues, which face our community right now,” he said. “We’re under an enormous amount of pressure from a number of the development activities that are going on, from the Staller project [at Jefferson Plaza] to the post office to a number of PRCs that have been proposed.” 

Costell added that drug prevention remains an area of concern, as he lost a nephew to drug use and has spent years going to Albany working to remedy the ongoing drug epidemic.

In Allen’s speech, she explained that while she is not a politician, she would speak to anyone about anything in service to the community. 

“I’m not partisan,” she said. “I lean in the direction of truth and honesty.” Allen has also been a homeowner in Port Jefferson Station for 17 years, and she has three children in high school. 

“I’ve worked with the town and the state numerous, numerous times over the past 22 years,” she said, adding, “I’m down to do the work, to follow the rules, to pay attention and to listen to everybody’s concerns and questions. And I’m willing to learn.”

When a member asked what the candidates would do to reach out to the community to increase civic participation, Allen noted that social media is a great way to raise awareness. She added that she has experience in this area, since she runs a local community page. 

Costell suggested that running a forum or a clinic could be a good way to get the word out. He also agreed with Allen that increasing social media presence would be beneficial for the civic association.

For the position of vice president, Carolyn Sagliocca ran unopposed. In her speech, she mentioned that she went through the Comsewogue School District and has been a homeowner in Port Jefferson Station for more than 30 years. One of her primary focuses is public safety.

“I’ve been sending letters to the New York State [Department of Transportation] to let them know about our dangerous intersections at Terryville Road on 347 and also on Woodhull Avenue,” she said. 

She’s been actively working on a beautification project at the back of the HomeGoods shopping center, where bushes have been planted and a new sidewalk has been constructed. “We need the revitalization here,” she said. “I look forward to working with you and for you. This is your association — it’s not mine. What you want is what we do.”

Following the speeches and questions from the members, the voting took place. The final tally for president was 16-4 in favor of Costell. The uncontested Sagliocca was automatically elected as vice president. The new officers will be sworn in during next month’s meeting.

Reports and announcements

Comsewogue High School student Max reviewed several events that occurred this past month, including a popcorn fundraiser to raise money for the prom, a college fair, an international night that included cultural performances and international foods, the Comsewogue band performing in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and a volleyball tournament in which the students triumphed over the teachers.

Suffolk County COPE officer John Efstathiou gave a report on the recent crime statistics in the precinct. In total, there were 35 criminal incidents in March, down from 39 in February. Total noncriminal incidents dropped from 553 to 542.

He warned that there were six catalytic converter thefts this month and that members of the community should park their vehicles in their driveways whenever possible, although that isn’t a foolproof solution to the problem. “They’re getting under the vehicle however it’s positioned,” he said. 

Lee Brett, Terryville Fire District commissioner, explained that the parking lot as well as the cesspools are being renovated at the Terryville firehouse. He said he is optimistic this project will be completed soon.

Additionally, he announced that Washington Memorial Park in Mount Sinai is going to be renamed Gerard Reggio Park. Reggio was a serviceman from Port Jefferson Station killed in Vietnam, in 1969. A celebration for the name change will be held at a later date.

Dates for future events

Suffolk County Police Department 6th Precinct will hold its next community meeting Tuesday, April 11, at 10 a.m. at 400 Middle Country Road in Selden.

Comsewogue Public Library will be holding a budget vote and trustee election at the library from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 4. Visit www.cplib.org/budget-vote to get more information.

Next month’s civic meeting will take place April 25 at 7 p.m. at the Comsewogue Public Library.

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Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) presented a proclamation to Lou Antoniello, whose dream of bringing Shakespeare to the Train Car Park has finally come true. Photo from Joan Nickeson
By Aidan Johnson

Port Jefferson Station/Terryville is receiving a breath of fresh air with the help of public funds and engaged community members.

In an exclusive interview with Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), he discussed ongoing work throughout the hamlet such as the revitalization of the Train Car Park at the intersection of routes 347 and 112. Kornreich believes the area is finally getting the care it deserves.

For many years, the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association had dreamed of making the park a central hub for the community. Residents created an ambitious plan, and the town even hired engineers, but the plan never materialized. 

Despite the idea of revitalizing the Train Car Park falling by the wayside, when Kornreich entered office in March 2021 he met with local civic leaders to discuss their priorities. Since the park remained at the top of their list, they decided to approach the project for a second time. 

“Once we really understood that the [original] plan for the park was not feasible, we decided just to break it into achievable steps and go for the intent of what they were trying to do,” Kornreich said. This process worked, and both a stage and a fence were built.

Resident and member of the civic association, Lou Antoniello, had long wished for the Train Car Park to serve as a venue for the performing arts. With the new additions, those aspirations have finally become reality.

Last month, Antoniello fulfilled his dream of bringing “Shakespeare in the Park” to the Train Car Park. On Wednesday, Aug. 3, “The Taming of the Shrew” was played there. Kornreich, who had helped bring Antoniello’s wish to fruition, felt that the performance night encapsulated all the hard work and years of devotion everyone had put in. 

“It was like an idyllic evening, and a lot of people came,” the councilmember said. “It just was such a happy night.”

In addition to the Train Car Park, plans are in the works to give the Jefferson Plaza a facelift. Similar to the park, the plan to redevelop the shopping center has been in the making for quite some time. 

“Like so many plans, things gestate for a long period of time before they are born — and certain ideas for a long time,” Kornreich said, adding, “I believe it was [town] Supervisor [Ed] Romaine [R] who came to them and suggested that instead of redeveloping the whole thing as commercial, it would be a more interesting project if you had mixed-use development — half residential and half commercial.” 

There is hope that the Jefferson Plaza redevelopment project will catalyze more investment throughout the area. [See TBR News Media story, “Developers pitch plans for Jefferson Plaza,” June 23.]

Overall, the councilmember expressed excitement about the direction he sees Port Jefferson Station/Terryville taking. 

“I think there’s going to be a diversity of housing stock,” Kornreich said. “I think that it’ll be a place where younger people can and will want to live … a place where people can live in proximity to public transportation.” He added, “People want to live someplace walkable, and maybe it’s starting to move away from the car-centric lifestyle.”

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Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, right, delivers a presentation alongside executive board members of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association. Photo by Raymond Janis

Members of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association deliberated on a range of issues during their monthly meeting held on Tuesday, July 26 at the Comsewogue Public Library.

Redistricting

Headlining the meeting was Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), who addressed the ongoing redistricting process for the Brookhaven Town Council, calling the current redistricting scheme a threat to his district.

“The intention of redistricting is to rebalance election districts — council districts, for example — based on population changes,” he said. “But in practice, what happens is that both political parties tend to take advantage of this to redraw districts that they believe will be more favorable to their own party.” 

Kornreich, who represents Council District 1, will see significant changes to his district’s boundaries if the current plans are approved. The proposal for Council District 1 is to transfer roughly half of the Port Jefferson Station and Terryville community into Council District 2. In exchange, CD1 would receive roughly half of Mount Sinai. 

“It is unclear to me what is going to be gained from this,” Kornreich said. 

What will be lost is the continuity of planning and progress that he believes has characterized his tenure in the district. “All it does is split the hamlet. … It splits this hamlet that we have worked so hard to work on together.”

The consequence, Kornreich fears, is that public investment in the PJS/Terryville area will be diluted and redirected to areas with greater voting power. He urged community members to attend upcoming hearings of the Brookhaven Redistricting Committee. 

“This is a time for community unity,” the councilmember said. “You understand what’s at stake. So get educated about it and speak up on behalf of your community.”

Ed Garboski, PJSTCA president, spoke of the ways in which the community has come together in the past to protect its interests. He considered the current redistricting controversy a cause for collective concern and action.

“We need to come together,” he said. “We have to have a voice, and it has to be a loud voice.”

Several members agreed to attend the Tuesday, Aug. 2 public meeting held at 6 p.m. at the Rose Caracappa Senior Center in Mount Sinai to resist the current redistricting plans.

Jefferson Plaza

Another order of business was discussion on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson Plaza, an expected $100 million investment by the Hauppauge-based real estate group, Staller Associates.

Members considered preparing a statement relating to several inquiries regarding traffic, architectural design, community benefit initiatives and the preservation of the historic character of the area. 

“I like the general approach of this concept,” said one civic association member. “I just don’t want to see a rush to judgment. I want to see us work together collectively to fine-tune it in the best possible way.”

Public safety

Two officers from the Suffolk County Police Department attended the meeting. Several of the members expressed their frustrations over frequent acts of “aggressive panhandling” throughout the area, requesting a greater police presence in the areas where the practice is most widespread. 

One member raised the issue of speeding along Canal Road, which he said has been “constant on Canal ever since they fixed the road.”

Noise pollution generated by loud mufflers has also created a public disturbance. While there are laws regulating loud mufflers, the Suffolk police officers said that they are restrained in enforcing them due to provisions in the law that require a measurement of decibels.

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Graphic courtesy Valentin Staller

During a meeting of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce on Monday, June 20, the developer of the Jefferson Plaza project presented his vision for its future.

Valentin Staller, vice president of the Hauppauge-based real estate firm Staller Associates, delivered a presentation on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson Plaza, a property that has been in the family for over half a century.

The history of Jefferson Plaza

Jefferson Plaza shopping center is located on Route 112 in Port Jefferson Station. The property was first developed in the late 1950s by Erwin and Max Staller, Valentin’s grandfather and great-grandfather, respectively. For a period, the shopping center was a popular and prosperous commercial hub serving the Port Jeff Station and Terryville communities. However, the plaza experienced its share of setbacks as the area underwent a steep decline.

“The whole commercial corridor began to suffer its challenges,” Staller said. “Certain negative elements within the commercial corridor made it really hard to do business.” He added, “Unfortunately, the pandemic only exacerbated things.”

In 2014, the Town of Brookhaven released the Port Jefferson Station Commercial Hub Study, a 135-page document outlining a comprehensive plan to revitalize the area, emphasizing mixed-use commercial and residential zoning with pedestrian walkability. After being approached by, and entering into negotiations with, the Town of Brookhaven, Staller Associates began to seriously consider redeveloping the property. 

Under the current plan, the site would include a main street, food hall, fitness center, apartments and more. Graphics courtesy Valentin Staller

A redevelopment plan

Staller’s plan includes 49,400 square feet of commercial space, including restaurants and a proposed food hall. The plan accommodates 280 apartments “with a heavy skew toward one-bedrooms.” Staller also said 80% of the apartments will be offered at market rate while the remaining 20% will be designated for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, “a tremendously underserved community as it relates to housing on Long Island,” he added.

When the developers began planning for the redevelopment of the property, they quickly entered into conversations with Suffolk County about extending sewers into downtown Port Jeff Station.

“We recognized immediately that for any redevelopment to occur, whether it’s this property or any other property in the corridor, a connection to sewers is vital,” Staller said.

The goal of the project, according to Staller, is “to create a dynamic, mixed-use suburban environment.” The developers have already undergone several iterations of their site plan with the Brookhaven Planning Department. 

Under the current site plan, the development “is designed to create a much more neighborhood business feel than what exists today and create a more walkable downtown type of environment,” he said. There are also plans to accommodate a fitness and retail center in the plaza. 

At the core of the project is a proposed main street that would include retail stores, restaurants and a food hall. The main street would be distinguished by its “exceptional landscaping and distinct pavers” that are both pedestrian-friendly and promote outdoor dining. 

“We want to be able to close it off for events,” Staller said. “We want to work with the Terryville Fire Department so that we can have things like farmers markets, Oktoberfest, winter holiday markets and St. Patrick’s Day right on our main street.”

Opposite the main street, there are plans to have what Staller calls “the innovation center.” This venue would serve as a gathering space for engineers, entrepreneurs and programmers.

“We want this to be sort of a mini economic development hub right here in this community,” he said. “We want to bring in Stony Brook [University]’s growing engineering department.”

At the south end of the site, Staller proposes to build apartment complexes that are “designed to be tucked away into the site” to avoid pushing up against and obstructing existing neighborhoods in the area. 

Three-dimensional rendering of the proposed redevelopment project at Jefferson Plaza. Graphic courtesy Valentin Staller

Impact on the community

Staller believes the development will stimulate economic activity in the Port Jefferson Station-Terryville community. In order to qualify for a market-rate apartment, Staller said, a prospective tenant must first demonstrate that he or she makes three times the rent before income taxes. 

“If you add all of that together, with 80% [of the apartments] at market rate, there’s a lot of disposable income that is concentrated in this community,” he said. This disposable income, he suggests, will inject $7 million per year into the local economy. 

Jefferson Plaza is uniquely situated near several major employment hubs on Long Island. Among these are Mather and St. Charles hospitals and Stony Brook University. Staller believes that this redevelopment plan will work due to the demand for housing that these centers generate.

Staller summarized his vision as follows: “We’re talking about a major investment in the built environment with purpose-built outdoor dining, great building materials, high quality architecture and landscaping.”

The developers are still at least two years away before they can begin building. In the meantime, there remains much to be worked out with Brookhaven and Suffolk County.

To read about how the local civic association has embraced the redevelopment project, see the TBR News Media March 31 story, “Reimagining Jefferson Plaza.”

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Sal Pitti (left) and Ed Garboski (right) stand outside of Jefferson Plaza in Port Jeff Station. Photo by Raymond Janis

Local leaders have weighed in on the proposed redevelopment project at Jefferson Plaza on Route 112, south of Hallock Avenue in Port Jeff Station.

Empty storefronts have been an ongoing issue for the PJ Station community. Photo by Raymond Janis

 

The plaza is owned by Staller Associates, a commercial real estate company based in Hauppauge. Staller intends to make a significant investment to redevelop this shopping center, according to leadership from the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association. Under the current plan, the plaza will be zoned commercial and residential. TBR News Media could not reach a representative of Staller Associates for this story.

Edward Garboski, incoming president of PJSTCA, said that a plan to revitalize the plaza has been in the works for nearly a decade. Since its approval, that plan has mostly been dormant until recently.

“Over eight years ago, we did a comprehensive study to create a transit-oriented district,” Garboski said. “We presented it to the Town [of Brookhaven]. They accepted it and it kind of got left on the shelf somewhere. We’ve been working on it behind the scenes, but until we got a new councilperson, now it’s really being pushed.”

Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D) is steering the initiative through town hall. According to Kornreich, redevelopment at Jefferson Plaza will help to revitalize the area.

“Redeveloping a site like that is going to really be vital to the rebirth of the Port Jefferson Station area,” he said. “As far as the town goes, in order to encourage redevelopment of sites like that, there was a new code created to encourage redevelopment to those types of properties.” 

Kornreich said that the change of town code will allow for the construction of residential housing units at the plaza. He added that this change will also promote inclusion for people with disabilities. 

“It’s going to create a greater diversity of housing options, which is something that’s very important for people as they get older and for younger people who are just starting out,” he said. “Also, there’s going to be a significant portion of the residential units there that are dedicated to people with disabilities.” He added, “Having a supportive environment for them that’s also walkable is going to be very valuable to the community as whole.”

Kornreich believes the Jefferson Plaza project will relieve traffic congestion, a problem for Port Jeff Station.

“Residential development generates less traffic than commercial development,” Kornreich said. “When you have a residential unit, people come and go once or twice a day. That same place, if it’s commercial development, is going to have 30, 40, 60 people an hour coming in and out.”

Local leaders expressed optimism that the Port Jeff Station community may soon link up to one of the neighboring sewer districts. The map above shows the geographic areas currently covered by sewers. The Suffolk County Department of Information Technology, GIS Division, granted permission to use data. Map generated by Raymond Janis

The additional step of adding a sewer extension is critical for the realization of this project. According to Salvatore Pitti, outgoing president and incoming vice president of PJSTCA, without a sewer line, redevelopment at the plaza will not be possible.

“One of our big problems here is also sewers,” Pitti said. “If we don’t get sewers, there is no way any of these restaurants or buildings are ever going to work. We’re currently in talks with Suffolk County to try to get sewers here.”

Pitti offered several possible sewer plant locations to which Jefferson Plaza could be attached in the future. He said the most ideal scenario would be to link the area to the Tallmadge Woods sewer district.

“What we’re pushing for is hopefully the Mount Sinai sewage plant, which is Tallmadge,” Pitti said. “Suffolk County is in talks with the town supposedly about trying to expand that sewer plant [to cover more area], but that’s another two-year project before we even hear if that’s going to work or not work.”  

Another important question will be where to put the Port Jefferson Station Post Office, which is presently situated in the plaza. According to Garboski, the post office is under federal lease until 2024, at which point construction can begin. “They have a lease,” he said. “The lease still goes another few years and there are other options as to where they can put the post office.” 

Pitti added, “That’s more of a federal thing that is way out of our hands.”

According to Pitti, the businesses that currently occupy the plaza are staples with longstanding ties to the Port Jefferson Station community. He said that it will be a challenge moving forward to accommodate both the aims of the developers and the interests of the business owners who fill those storefronts and who may wish to stay.

“I mean, it’s a business that [the developer] has to work out with the [current tenants] if they want to stay there or if they don’t want to stay,” Pitti said. “Honestly, I think they’re going to pretty much level the place and start construction because, fiscally, I don’t think it makes much sense to do half and half.” He added, “We asked the [developer] to do as best as he can to keep them in our community. Whether that happens or not is unfortunately between him and the [business] owners.”

According to Garboski, the developers are “looking to put in […] about $100 million into this project. That’s going to be a shot in the arm for the local economy. They’re serious, they’re putting serious money into it.”

He said that kind of private investment into the local economy is what the area needs to counteract its gradual decline and will encourage other real estate developers to join in. 

“This is the first project that’s going to get revitalized and when it does, it’s going to set a precedent for the rest of the street and the rest of the developers,” Garboski said.  

Although projects such as these seem to always receive some form of local opposition, Kornreich believes the community will soon notice the positive impact of redeveloping Port Jefferson Plaza.

“People get nervous sometimes when new projects are being proposed,” the councilmember said. “I’ve never seen a project that was universally loved from day one, but generally speaking once stuff gets built and people see it and they realize the positive change it has on the community, people tend to like it most of the time.”

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