Town of Smithtown Seeking Bids For Consultant on Industrial Area

 The town of Smithtown has agreed to seek proposals from qualified bidders to prepare a planning study for the Lawrence Road area in Kings Park.

The mixed use area has

“This has been going on for 30 years and I no longer believe the town can put out a planning study on its own. It was time to take a fresh look at the area with a fresh set of eyes,” said town councilman Ed Wehrheim in a phone interview after the meeting.

The town board voted on Tuesday to transfer $20,000 slated for the planning department to use to hire a consultant.

According to Wehrheim, the consultant would review the area, about 103 acres, east of Indian Head Road, between Lawrence Road and Old Northport Road.

"We wanted to start with a smaller parcel. We want to use that as a model. If we can agree on the rezoning and we see interest from the business owners, then we can look at the other parcels."

who filed applications seeking to change the zoning of their properties along Old Northport Road and Townline Road from light industrial to heavy industrial use.  The well attended meeting drew many

Businesses in the area, which is a hodgepodge of mixed zoning,

"We haven’t done anything for 30 years. What we have is a mixed bag of zoning that doesn’t work," said Wehrheim. The RFP is out. I would say in a month or so we should have that back, then we can take a look at what type of zoning works in 2012 and start cleaning that corridor up."

The town is accepting sealed bids until Aug. 2.