Business & Tech

Latest Fight in Syosset Mall Battle Before Nassau Judge

Final decision could come Monday on whether town residents can vote on the sale of town property to a rival developer.

Supporters of a shopping mall in Syosset have won a skirmish in an ongoing battle over the future of the site that occupies the Town of Oyster Bay's Highway Department.

On Thursday, a judge in State Supreme Court in Mineola ruled that there were sufficient signatures on a petition to move ahead with a referendum on Aug. 20. If approved, voters could weigh in on the latest wrinkle in the nearly two-decade battle over the mall proposal, specifically the town's sale of a brownfield property it owns to Simon Property Group.

However, State Supreme Court Justice F. Dana Winslow reserved judgement until Monday on whether the wording of the referendum petition met the state's legal requirements. Most observers think the vote will take place.

Voters would be deciding whether the town's sale to Simon of its property it declared "surplus" was valid.

Beyond all the legal jousting is a festering, high stakes feud between two giant mall developers and their supporters over the former Cerro Wire site and the adjacent town-owned land used for its DPW complex. Since Cerro's departure in 1986, the Taubman Company, a national developer of high-end shopping malls, has been trying to build a mall on land it owns off Robbins Lane.

Their proposal has been met with opposition by Simon Properties, another mega mall developer which owns the Walt Whitman Shops and Roosevelt Field malls. Observers and news reports over the years indicate the battle has been bankrolled by the developers over the control of mall development on Long Island and beyond.

In the middle is the Town of Oyster Bay and, specifically, Supervisor John Venditto, who has opposed the mall's construction from the beginning.

On Tuesday, Venditto told several speakers at a town board meeting he still opposes the mall and will fight it as long as he is in office. He said the town has spent millions of dollars over the years defending its position in court.

Venditto also said that he expects the referendum to go ahead and be defeated by town voters. He said Taubman's representatives, embodied by a group called "Long Island Jobs Now," were misrepresenting the town's actions.

Long Island Jobs Now spokesman Kyle Sklerov denied Thursday that their representatives are not being truthful but insisted the town's sale of their property to Simon was a "back room" deal designed to thwart any development on Robbins Lane.

"We are pleased Judge Winslow upheld the signatures of thousands of Oyster Bay residents who want a say on the Town's back-room dealings," Sklerov said. "We are confident that the judge will formally allow the referendum to proceed in the coming days."

The referendum battle is currently focused on a decision in May to sell 54 acres of the town's land, adjacent to the Taubman property, to Simon, for a future development. While senior housing was discussed as a possible use for the land, the property is a brownfield and former Superfund site. It would be difficult to build any kind of residential properties there in the immediate future.

Instead, Sklerov suggested the sale was merely a ploy to make Taubman's property less attractive for a mall development. Taubman officials have claimed they were willing to pay more for the town's property than Simon paid for it.

In order to sell it to Simon, the town declared the property "surplus," a designation that allowed the town to go ahead with the sale for $32.5 million, although documents suggest Simon wouldn't have to pay all of that upfront.

The sale was approved unanimously by the board.


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