Carlson Associates Files New Plans for Asphalt Plant, Trucking Station

A Kings Park industrial company has filed new plans for asphalt plant and trucking station on 25 acres along Old Northport Road. 

Carlson Associates says it has filed new site plans with Smithtown Town officials proposing to construct an asphalt production facility on 13 acres currently zoned for heavy industry, and a trucking station on 12 acres currently zoned for light industrial. 

The proposed asphalt production plant is a permitted use within heavy industrial zoning, according to Smithtown's Planning Department. This plan, however, will require a special exception approval from Smithtown Town board to carry out processes such as concrete manufacturing and sand/gravel mining and processing. 

Carlson Associates will also have to seek a special exception permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals in order to go forward with the trucking station. They will need variances for the height, due to the height of equipment used exceeding 18-feet, and for landscaping islands, according to Planning Department staff member Elaine Learnard.  

The plans are an attempt by the Kings Park company to comply with court's discharge of summonses. Carlson Associates pled guilty to four town summonses of property maintenance in March and paid a $1,000 fine. As part of the court settlement, Carlson was to file a site plan for his 45-acre site on Old Northport Road by June 19 and obtain the necessary approvals by November. 

Previously site plans were delivered to the town on June 19, but Smithtown officials criticized the plans as a stall tactic as they lacked many crucial details, such as what building materials will be used in construction. 

Learnard said the  new paperwork filed by Carlson Associates on Aug. 28 is not an actual site plan but more describes the intention of what Carlson Associates plan to pursue.

Learnard said it's not all that unusual for companies not to file a site plan when they are seeking special exception and zone change permits which could heavily factor into planning. 

Carlson Associates has a pending application before Smithtown Board of Zoning Appeals for a change of zone from a mix of residential and light industrial to heavy industrial, to bring their current businesses practices into compliance with town code. 

If the town is not agreeable to an asphalt plant, Carlson Associates have proposed an alternative- the construction of a state-of-the-art indoor organic processing facility in a letter to the town dated Aug. 6. 

"It would be one of the next-generation organic recycling facilities with the latest and best-use technologies. Working within the current HI and LI zoning, this would be a 25-acre site with a multimillion dollar investment using the latest technology," reads Carlson Associates' letter. 

To construct the indoor recycling facility, the Kings Park company would need Smithtown officials to amend town code, as the town eliminated the operation of recycling facilities from all town codes in 2003. 

"It is our strong desire to remain in the organic recycling business, where we have developed our strongest niche and expertise, rather than convert fully to asphalt operations," said Carlson Associates in the Aug. 6 letter.

Public hearings for the company's requested zoning change of zone and special exceptions are expected to be scheduled before the BZA and town board in November.