A ruling last year from the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, sent the Cerro Wire case back to the Town of Oyster Bay. At the end of 2005, the Deputy Supervisor reached out to counsel for both sides, the Taubman Company and the Cerro Wire Coalition, who oppose the mall. Since then, according to Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, there has only been dialog and nothing has been submitted in writing.

Venditto also said that although there is nothing concrete to report, some things have changed since the appellate decision ruling. First, he said a new "player" entered the picture. "Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset indicated that they thought we are better off controlling our own destiny for fear of what we would end up with if there was a court ruling," said Venditto. "The group expressed a willingness to participate in dialog with a view toward developing the property as a mall or looking at alternatives - but developing the property in a way that would bring about a lot of residential input."

Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset is a local civic group, comprised of approximately 400 residents within the 11791 zip code, dedicated to beautifying and improving safety in Syosset through the efforts of residents, business owners and elected officials.

"During the process, Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset has always kept an open ear to all sides - the town, No Mall Here and the developer, and have been especially active since Taubman had made a presentation to the members of United Civics of North Oyster Bay approximately two years ago," said Robert Rockelein, president of Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset. "In last year's membership survey, 75 percent of Residents members said that they supported an active dialogue with the developer in an attempt to promote the community's major concerns about the proposed project, including traffic, safety, school proximity and the railroad crossing, and to try to shape any plans to prioritize these facets."

Also, Rockelein said that the recent court decision, in the view of Residents, indicated that the project will eventually be "enabled." "Having a seat at the table may aid in mitigating perceived problems before construction, instead of remediation after the fact," said Rockelein. "To our knowledge, the Taubman organization has not investigated or considered any kind of alternative development option at the site and remains committed to building a mall. An additional focus of the residents group has been a request to the Town of Oyster Bay to consider that current zoning structure of all additional commercial property in the Robbins Lane area to prevent a possible cascade of development in this area... If a mall is built here, that may be quite enough for the community to digest for some time to come."

"We have made several overtures to Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset to join our coalition," said Todd Fabricant, chairman of the Cerro Wire Coalition, which represents approximately 40,000 residents. "Members in our organization, who have taken a stand against the mall, would be directly affected by the mall as East Birchwood residents directly abut the property."

According to Venditto, another change has been improved dialog with the applicant, the Taubman Company. "For the first time, the applicant has come forward and reached out and has been working with the Deputy Supervisor, as well as others, and said they are willing to talk and put together a proposal that would address all of the concerns that have been expressed over the years about this project," said Venditto. "They want to develop the site as a mall but they have indicated that they are willing to address some concerns - downsizing, environment, traffic - everything. I have not seen any proposal, but I know there is dialog taking place."

When asked if the Taubman Company was willing to address some of the concerns brought up by residents and local civic groups, Gary Lewi, spokesperson for the Taubman Company, confirmed that was true. He also confirmed that there has been dialog with the Town of Oyster Bay.

Another change has been the idea of alternate development - something that has been proposed by the Cerro Wire Coalition. They formed a subcommittee, known as the Alternate Development Sub-Committee, which is comprised of active civic leaders living in the surrounding area, to start to investigate other viable uses for the Cerro site such as residential, industrial, senior housing and mixed-use.

The subcommittee is comprised of chairman Warren Church, president of Syosset Groves Civic Association; Todd Fabricant, chairman of the Cerro Wire Coalition; Rosemarie Birofka from South Grove Elementary School PTA; Josephine Costa, owner of La Viola Restaurant in Syosset; Dr. Mark Fierstein, president of Hunting Hill Civic Association; Sonia Grgas, past president of South Grove Elementary School PTA and vice president of Syosset Groves Civic Association; Julie Gropper from Syosset at Birchwood Civic Association; Robin Grossman from Robbins Lane Elementary School PTA; Edward J. Keenan, Jr., commissioner of the Syosset Fire District; Joseph Lorintz, Esq., president United Civic Associations of North Oyster Bay; Carol Meschkow, president of Concerned Citizens of the Plainview- Old Bethpage Community, Inc.; April Neuendorf, member of the Syosset School Board and past president of Syosset Council of PTA's; Tricia Shannon, president of North Syosset Civic Association; Craig Snyder, Esq. vice president of Birchwood Civic Association; Richard Turkisher, president of the Birchwood Civic Association and Dr. Jeffrey Willig, president of Gate Ridge-Plainview Road Civic Association.

"There is a buzz in the community about alternate development," said Fabricant. "The playing field has changed. Companies have been approaching us and alternate development is a viable option. This can seriously happen. If the Taubman Company is willing to work with the community, as they say they are, then they should consider a partnership and joint-venture for alternate development on the site."

"From day one, I have been saying that if anyone has any ideas, suggestions or thoughts as to how we can amicably resolve this matter and build a consensus, I am all ears. You are always better off controlling your own destiny rather than leaving your fate in the hands of the courts," said Venditto. "The good news - we have everyone wanting to talk, but on the downside there is nothing to talk about yet because I have not seen anything in writing and there is nothing of great substance."

Although Venditto stated that no proposals have been written, a recent newsletter suggests differently. Green Street Advisors, which is located in California and is an independent research and consulting firm concentrating on publicly traded real estate securities, printed information about the Taubman Company in their Dec. 14, 2005 newsletter. According to the newsletter, they have a "well-informed source" who claims that the "latest odds" are that the Taubman Company will be approved to build a smaller project with rights to expand it at a later date. The newsletter said that their source indicated the initial project would be 685,000 square feet.

When asked if he or the Taubman Company knew of the newsletter or had a comment about its contents, Lewi said, "They have an anonymous source in a publication that I am not familiar with speculating on something that has not occurred."

According to Fabricant, the idea of a scaled-back version of the mall is a ploy that many developers use. "The reality is that even though the project would be downsized, history would dictate that the development would eventually be expanded, which Green Street said, and the mall would be back to the original size if not bigger," said Fabricant.

Venditto stressed that there has been no deal made. "Dialog is very helpful and all we have is talk right now," said Venditto. "Whether or not it will lead to anything, I don't have a crystal ball. What's troubling me about this [newsletter] is the pattern. Whenever there has been dialog with the applicant, we give an inch and they take a yard. The developer has a philosophy that if you say something often enough, the perception will become a reality."

The town is still waiting. "We are waiting for a proposal to come back from the developer designed and calculated to address all of the concerns that have been expressed over the years by the residents and by the town," said Venditto. "I know that you are never going to please everyone but we are looking to build a consensus and to do something with that property that makes sense for the individual community and the township generally. If and when this proposal arrives, it will be subjected to a great deal of public scrutiny."

During their second meeting, members of the Alternate Development Subcommittee heard from Jonathan Stein, Operating Partner for Roseland Property Company located in Short Hills, NJ and Larry Florin, Division President for Lennar Corporation located in Weehawken, NJ as they made a presentation regarding alternate development on the Cerro site.

Over the next three months, the subcommittee will hear from various developers who are interested in presenting ideas for alternate development on the Cerro Site.

The site is still owned by the Taubman Company, who has expressed no interest in selling the site. The developers are made aware of the circumstances before they meet with the subcommittee.

Roseland Property Company is a full-service real estate organization primarily involved in the development and construction of mixed-use residential properties, focusing on Brownfields, throughout the northeastern United States and Lennar is a national homebuilding company. Approximately 10 months ago, Roseland and Lennar joined together in the Northeast. They contacted the subcommittee with interest in developing the Cerro Site.

The presentation did not focus specifically on what Stein and Lennar thought would fit into Syosset, but more on what their companies have done in the past. According to Stein, once the subcommittee maps out their interests and needs for the site and review all of the studies done on the Cerro Site, then they could be more specific.

"We work with the community in which we are developing to fit in with the character of the neighborhood," said Stein during his power-point presentation.

Florin said that Lennar develops a niche in master planning communities, which is something that Syosset and the Town of Oyster Bay have been trying to do under their Vision 2020 plan.

Members of the subcommittee asked about using union labor for construction. Stein said that it depends on the development, but they could use union labor and have in the past. "We always offer bidding and we are always open to union labor," he said.

"If using union labor is the trend in the community, then we would use union labor," said Florin.

Stein and Florin discussed mixing retail and residential on the site, something they have done in other developments. According to the presentation, when retail is used, it is intended to serve the people within so traffic is not increased, but it is not limited to those people. The same applies to a park - it would be open for the community to enjoy as well. They also said that 1,500 square feet is the average size of retail in these mixed-developments.

According to Stein, after a preliminary look at the Cerro site, he thought stacked townhouses would work well and said that approximately 6-8 units per acre would work. "You don't have to do retail space," said Stein. "This area has a lot of retail already so it might not be necessary there. It would be something you have to explore," he said to the subcommittee.

Subcommittee members asked many questions, including impacts that traffic would have as well as other environmental concerns. "Traffic concerns everyone. Every property and every community is different and we work with experts to study that," said Stein. "We also work closely with the DEC to clean up the site to residential standards."

After the presentation, subcommittee members questioned both Stein and Florin as to their knowledge of the situation regarding the Cerro Site, specifically the land being owned by another developer. "There are many options here and this is a situation that we have been in before," said Florin. "We have in the past partnered-up with the other company, in this case the Taubman Company. This is not an unusual context for us.

"You guys have done an amazing job for the last 10 years to halt a major developer - you should be commended. This is remarkable," said Stein.

Over the next few months, the subcommittee will hear and evaluate other presentations and also formulate ideas as to what they want to see on the property.