Politics & Government

Vecchio, Creighton At Odds Over Town's Blight

Smithtown Republicans offer differing views on how blight is affecting town and how to best tackle the issues.

Smithtown officials have started cracking down on blighted properties on town, ordering cleanup of garbage-strewn properties and calling for the wrecking ball. 

But the hot-button issue is also a source of tension between Supervisor Patrick Vecchio and his challenger, councilman Robert Creighton, who both have a different view of how it's affecting taxpayers and how to proceed if elected supervisor this November. 

"I think there's more blight in Smithtown there then has been. You can go drive through town and see not just in Smithtown but in Kings Park, some sites in Commack... There's a lot of empty stores and businesses that are simply defunct," Creighton said. 

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Smithtown Town Board put together a master list of 19 blighted properties within town in June 2011, a mix of 7 residential homes and 12 commercial sites. Nearly two years later, the town board has only held public hearings to determine if three of these properties were unsafe under town code. 

"We've moved very aggressively on that. We've approved a bid for a demolition firm to remove those houses that have been deemed unsafe," Vecchio said. 

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Residential after public hearings held in January. Neither property has been cleaned up or demolished as of April 12, but the supervisor said action should be taken shortly. 

He objected to the word "blight" being used to describe these properties. 

"I don't even like the word, blight. If there's a house abandoned in the middle of a block, it's abandoned but you call it blight. It's decay, unsound and needs to be removed because it doesn't have proper property maintenance," Vecchio said.

Hightower Homes, at 77 and 81 Main Street in Kings Park, have been given a temporary stay of execution from the wrecking ball after a new owner Jeffery Brown stepped forward to deal with town officials. An April 4 deadline was extended for two weeks to give Brown more time to make safe and rehabilitate the property. 

Creighton, once a big advocate to cleanup Hightower homes, said he's in agreement with extending the deadline for cleanup of these property in hopes of seeing them turn around.

"If the man who owns those buildings can rehabilitate those buildings and turn it around into livable buildings, it's a lot better than us, the town, paying money to knock the buildings down," he said. 

Smithtown officials have made significantly less progress dealing with blighted commercial properties, perhaps due to the Vecchio and Creighton's differing opinions on whether the town should get involved. 

"Look, we've had a recession. We have nothing to do with stores that are empty, owned by a private person that because that person rents at a high rate and doesn't want to rent at a low rate stays empty," Vecchio said. "It's not a government problem." 

Yet, the supervisor recently asked the developers of the former Nassau-Suffolk Lumber Yard to consider remediation on the property or taking the buildings down as a "sign of good faith."

Vincent Trimarco, attorney for the developer, said his client would consider once given proper permits after a lengthy grand jury investigation into an illegal partial demolition in 2009. 

Creighton, on the other hand, said he believes the town holds tremendous responsibility for the state of its downtown business areas. He blamed the Planning Department and Building Department's procedure for "making it almost impossible" for new businesses in town with long permitting processes. 

"What I would like to do is change the attitude in town. I really believe we should be a little more business friendly than we are, we need to be a lot more business friendly than we are," Creighton said. 

A challenger for supervisor, the councilman said he has a number of ideas for changes he'd like to make if elected but refused to share further details.


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