‘I don’t trust the man’: Southold neighbors fear chicken farm plan could return

The dispute over a controversial Southold egg farm may be over, but residents’ feathers remain ruffled.

Neighbors near 2340 Ackerly Pond Lane continue to press Southold Town for answers about who is behind the LLC that owns the farmland — and whether the abandoned 6,000-hen plan could return if the revamped proposal for an organic produce operation is approved.

Grant Callahan has been the operation’s frontman. His LLC bought the 16-acre property for $650,000 last year, but John Reichert, whose Jasmine Lane home abuts the site, remains concerned about his neighbor’s motives.

“I don’t trust the man,” he told The Suffolk Times shortly after plans for the chicken farm were scrapped. “I told him to his face, ‘he’s a liar.’ He wanted to be a good neighbor – who brings 6,000 chickens into somebody’s backyard and calls themselves a good neighbor? My neighbors have a right to enjoy fresh air.”

Mr. Callahan’s new application, announced in a Sept. 4 letter from his lawyer, calls for an organic fruit-and-vegetable operation and a 2,100-square-foot barn at the property. The Planning Board has scheduled an Oct. 5 public hearing on the revised plan.

“We believe that this change addresses many of the concerns previously raised by the neighbors,” said John Armentano of Farrell Fritz.

On June 29, the town issued a stop-work order after the LLC began building a hoop-style chicken shelter before securing Planning Board approval to start construction. The status of that order remains unclear as the revised application heads to next week’s public hearing.

For now, the dispute has shifted to the property’s ownership. Leslie Herrlin has repeatedly asked the town to identify the individual principals of 2340 Ackerly Pond LLC.

In a letter to The Suffolk Times, Ms. Herrlin said the easement requires the town to identify the transferee and its individual principals.

“The town holds a taxpayer-funded development-rights easement on this property,” wrote Ms. Herrlin, who is Mr. Reichert’s daughter and a nearby resident. “That easement requires identification of the transferee and the ‘individual principals thereof.’ The public record produced to date does not contain that required notice.”

Southold Town holds a taxpayer-funded development-rights easement on the parcel, which it purchased in 2007 for $1.15 million to preserve the land for agricultural use.

At a Sept. 22 Town Board meeting, Town Attorney Ben Johnson said the town was seeking documents identifying all members of the LLC. He said the town could seek injunctive relief in state Supreme Court to compel the disclosure required under the easement.

Mr. Johnson said the ownership question is separate from the Planning Board’s review of the revised site plan. He also said approval of an organic produce operation would not necessarily prevent the LLC from later pursuing a chicken farm, subject to the applicable approvals and regulations.

“I don’t consider it a win,” Mr. Reichert said of Mr. Callahan’s change of plans. “I think he’s just letting things cool down, then he’s going to zap us with a chicken farm.”