Venditto Responds to Lingering Cerro Wire Debate

Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto addressed looming concerns about the future of the former Cerro Wire site in Syosset at Tuesday's Town Board meeting.

The discussion came up during the public comment session following an otherwise routine pubic meeting Tuesday. Several residents raised issues about a campaign to place a referendum on a ballot Aug. 20 that could help advance a mall developer's proposal. 

In strong language, Venditto told several speakers that the town remains vehemently opposed to the mall and has been since the idea was floated more than 18 years ago.

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"They are clearly perverting the wording of their questions about the referendum for their own profiteering," Venditto said of Taubman Centers, Inc., which for nearly two decades has been fighting the town to build their mall.

Venditto said the canvassers are spreading lies: "We can't stop people from going door-to-door and them saying 'John Venditto is in the Mafia,' " Venditto said to laughter. "But I'll get the last laugh on this one, I assure you."

Just last month, Oyster Bay agreed to sell a portion of the town's land to an another developer. There are ongoing discussions to ultimately build residential properties on the site.

That sale ignited the latest attacks from a group calling itself "Long Island Jobs Now," which Venditto described as a front for Taubman Centers Inc., a mall developer who for nearly two decades has been promoting a major shopping mall on that property just off the Long Island Expressway near Robbins Lane. 

Company representatives are apparently going door-to-door in the community, attempting to get signatures to ensure the referendum on whether Oyster Bay Town can sell property adjacent to the site to a competing company for $32.5 million.

Venditto described the mall company's campaign as "vile" and "slanderous," and vowed to fight on.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. The issue has been around for 18 years and counting. And lawsuits continue to fly on both sides of the argument. Members of the Cerro Wire Coalition, which has fought Taubman's proposal since the beginning, recently hired an lawyer to challenge signatures on Taubman's referendum ballot. 

Their lawyer, Kenneth A. Gray of Mineola, told Newsday that many signatures are invalid because they are not from registered voters.

Taubman officials could not be reached for immediate comment. On their website, the group claims the new mall would create up to 3,000 construction jobs, 2,000 permanent jobs, and generate $50 million annually in tax revenue to Nassau County.

The lawyer for Long island Jobs Now, Henry T. Berger of Long Island City, told Newsday that 8,300 town residents requested a referendum.