Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has secured unanimous approval from the Oyster Bay Cove village zoning board to convert a historic property on Sandy Hill Road into housing for postdoctoral fellows and faculty members. The board’s 5-0 decision came late Tuesday night, at the end of a nearly five-hour-long meeting at East Woods School, where residents voiced passionate arguments both in favor of and in opposition to the project.
The approval grants the laboratory a special exemption to sections of the village code, allowing it to establish a residence facility at 57 Sandy Hill Road. Additional stipulations will be introduced later, however, and further approvals will be required from the village’s planning board and board of trustees.
The laboratory, which purchased the 11.75-acre property in January 2024 from Harmony Heights, a school for girls with mental and emotional health issues, initially proposed housing 30 postdoctoral fellows at the site. In response to public concerns, it revised its plan, reducing the number of residents to 28 and modifying the site layout to limit potential environmental and traffic impacts.
“We really took a lot of the comments and the concerns of the residents very, very seriously,” Stephen Monez, chief facilities officer for the labs, said. “Fifty-seven Sandy Hill was a property that would not have been of interest to us if it were not already owned by an educational facility close to us. Our laboratory does not look to find properties and take them off the tax rolls.”
Under the approved plan, the main building on the property will accommodate 16 bedrooms, while a nearby coach house will have four studio residences and four two-bedroom units. The laboratory also agreed to scale back parking construction, opting instead to use existing spaces and reserve land for additional spots if necessary.
Andrew Levitt, the attorney representing the lab, emphasized that it had taken community concerns into account, eliminating dormers from the design and reducing the number of parking spaces to 16. He also assured the zoning board that commercial and emergency vehicle traffic would remain restricted to existing access points.
The impact of additional traffic was one of the most contentious issues. Some residents argued that more use of laboratory shuttles and private vehicles would disrupt the village’s quiet character.
“This isn’t JFK or LaGuardia,” Daniel Milazzo, an Oyster Bay Cove resident, said. “I want it to look like a quiet village. That’s why I moved here, not an airport.”
To address that concerns, the laboratory commissioned a traffic study by VHB Engineering, which found that the new residences would not significantly affect congestion in the area.
Patrick Lenihan, the firm’s director of transportation, presented a supplemental traffic assessment confirming that similar housing for research facilities had integrated smoothly into comparable neighborhoods.
Zoning board members also imposed conditions to regulate vehicle use, including limits on the number of visitors each resident can host and a restriction on guest stays to five consecutive nights.
While some residents remained skeptical about the project, others supported it, highlighting its potential benefits for the local economy and the preservation of the estate’s historical features.
Lisa Ott, an Oyster Bay Cove resident who is president of the North Shore Land Alliance, presented a letter of recommendation on behalf of the nonprofit, which focuses on conserving and stewarding Long Island’s natural and historic lands.
“Long Island is facing serious water quality issues, biodiversity crisis, loss of habitat for plants and animals, increasing demand and recreational opportunities,” Ott read. “Further development of this property would not serve in the best interest of our community. So on behalf of the North Shore Land Alliance, we encourage you to welcome the Cold Spring Harbor Lab’s plan for this property.”
Still, opponents of the project, members of the nonprofit Save Oyster Bay Cove, represented by attorney Laurel Kretzing, accused the village of engaging in “spot zoning” — granting special considerations to a single entity. Kretzing contended that allowing the laboratory to use the property in a way that diverged from surrounding residential zoning rules would “drastically change the neighborhood character.”
The Sandy Hill Road property, known as the Wrexleigh Estate, dates back to 1910.
Laboratory officials said their renovations would preserve the original details while upgrading the building’s interior to meet modern residential standards.
Monez underscored the institution’s commitment to respecting the estate’s historical integrity. The project, he said, includes detailed landscaping and lighting plans to ensure minimal disruption to the buildings’ surrounds.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a globally renowned biomedical research center, has long faced challenges in providing affordable housing for its researchers.
“When we recruit postdocs and faculty, it’s very hard for them to come to the North Shore of Long Island and find housing that is affordable for them,” Monez said. “Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s mission is also to help their researchers to have an opportunity to focus on the research.”
The laboratory currently offers housing at four locations in addition to its main campus, located at 1 Bungtown Road in Cold Spring Harbor.
Advocates of the project argue that such accommodations are critical to the laboratory’s ability to attract top scientific talent.
With zoning board approval secured, the laboratory must now seek additional approvals from the village’s planning board and board of trustees before beginning the renovations. The institution has committed to periodic compliance reviews, reporting to the village every three years to confirm adherence to the agreed-upon conditions.
Construction is expected to be completed by late 2026 or early 2027. Evelyn Ain, president of Save Oyster Bay Cove, said after the meeting that the organization would continue looking into whether the village board had ignored New York State spot zoning laws.
For more information on Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, visit CSHL.edu. To learn more about Save Oyster Bay Cove, visit Save-Oyster-Bay.com.
