Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s housing plan gets OK from Oyster Bay Cove zoning board

The Village of Oyster Bay Cove’s zoning board late Tuesday approved Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s plan to house postdoctoral fellows on the grounds of a former school dormitory following a contentious, nearly five-hour meeting.

The 5-0 vote followed a lengthy meeting at the East Woods School in Oyster Bay Cove. The plan still requires approvals from the village planning board as well as the board of trustees.

The research facility purchased the 11.75-acre Sandy Hill Road property in January 2024 and plans to rehabilitate its historic main house to lodge postdoctoral students there. After village residents complained about the proposal in January, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scaled it back. The new proposal has 28 total laboratory workers living on the premises, down from 30. The facility also promised to reserve property on its grounds for parking rather than build new spots there immediately. 

Before that, the property was home to Harmony Heights, a high school for girls with special social and emotional needs.

The zoning board approved a special zoning permit for the property, allowing the laboratory to house postdoctoral students at the location. However, the laboratory must satisfy a list of village conditions. 

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s $2 million plan to house new staff members is part of a $500 million expansion. Advocates say the housing is needed to attract top candidates to the facility, while some local residents say it will cause traffic and environmental problems near residential neighborhoods.

The proposal generated controversy in late January when protesters gathered outside the property after the laboratory filed  amended site plans for the revamped housing facility. The protesters said they did not know that the village, in 2023, had changed its zoning code and paved the way for postdoctoral fellows or higher education faculty to live on the property. The previous code only allowed for primary or secondary school students to live there, according to Oyster Bay Cove Mayor Charles Goulding. 

Laurel Kretzing, an attorney representing some neighbors opposing the project, said the plan would “drastically change the neighborhood character.”

But Joe Tymeck, a resident of Sandy Hill Road, spoke in support of the proposal Tuesday night. He said he would consider himself “lucky” to have the fellows as neighbors, adding: “I think they’re probably going to be a lot busier curing cancer and Alzheimer’s than creating mayhem in the neighborhood.”

Opponents of the proposal have likened the move to “spot zoning,” a practice in which a municipality rezones a piece of land differently from nearby areas in a way that favors a single development or property owner. That process could be illegal, according to the department, if the changes aren’t part of a “well-considered and comprehensive plan calculated to serve the general welfare of the community.”

Goulding said the zoning changes were laid out in a village newsletter and discussed during a public hearing and village board meetings.

The main home on the property, built in 1910, has dark wooden features inside and ornate candle fixtures. The laboratory plans to restore those features alongside renovations to the building’s worn-out interior. Steve Monez, the laboratory’s vice president of facilities, told Newsday during a tour of the property the rehabilitation effort will cost about $2 million and be finished in late 2026 or early 2027.

He said housing on Long Island can be expensive for early-career scientists and attracting quality candidates to the North Shore is difficult. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has housing on its main campus and at four other off-site locations, and the new site would offer housing agreements to postdoctoral students for around $1,500 a month, according to Lisa Cruz, a laboratory spokeswoman. 

“This became a solution to help with our current need,” Monez said. The proposal in Oyster Bay Cove “opens up the opportunity to recruit additional postdocs.”

The laboratory hired a traffic consultant to assess how the plan would affect congestion in the area surrounding the property at 57 Sandy Hill Rd. 

Goulding said in a letter to residents that Harmony Heights had owned the property since 1981 before listing the property for sale in 2023.

Village board members said they were concerned about the prospect of a developer purchasing the site. The village board unanimously approved the transfer of the site to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in early 2024.