Poultry farming is not a new concept in the hamlet of Southold, where upstart poultry businesses have in the past decade won the hearts of farm-to-table acolytes for their small-scale approach to raising unique birds.
But a planned 2,100-square-foot agricultural storage building on a proposed chicken farm on Ackerly Pond Lane is ruffling feathers in a neighboring subdivision, where residents were not expecting to find livestock just beyond their backyards.
The 15.9-acre agriculturally-zoned property — whose development rights were sold to Southold Town in 2007 — backs up to Jasmine Lane, a suburban-styled street with a cul de sac whose entrance is near the heart of Southold.
Warning of a potential commercial poultry operation in their backyard, the neighbors, who said they’d had just 10 days notice of the proposal, took to social media to air their concerns ahead of a public hearing before the Southold Town Planning Board Monday evening, Jan. 12.
The chicken farm operation, Rejuvenate Farms, was founded by Grant Callahan, whose LinkedIn profile says he is a student at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate graduating this May.
He said at the hearing that his operation will be a “pasture-raised organic hen and egg farm, not like traditional big agriculture,” and added that the property could accommodate as many as 6,000 birds at his planned allowance of 108 square feet per bird.
By comparison, he said, farms raising eggs sold as “free-range” in the supermarket are allowed to have as little as 2 square feet of indoor space or 2.5 square feet of outdoor space per bird.
The scale of such an operation is not large in comparison with historic and legacy poultry operations on Long Island. For example, the Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue had 100,000 birds at the farm when it suffered an avian flu outbreak in 2025 and had to euthanize its entire flock.
Browder Birds began as a small operation on nearby land leased from the Peconic Land Trust, and moved to a bigger piece of land in Mattituck when it outgrew a USDA requirement that operations that plan to slaughter more than 1,000 birds per year have an on-site butchering facility (the Poultry Product Inspection Act).
Feisty Acres, which raises a range of poultry, including quail, ducks and heritage breed chickens, also began its operations in Southold, before recently moving to Herkimer County, New York after outgrowing its property here.
Mr. Callahan said at the hearing that his operation will be doing “no processing, washing, packaging or storage” of chickens.
“We won’t be cracking eggs. We won’t be killing chickens,” he said, though it was unclear where the farm operation would fit into regulations regarding the Poultry Product Inspection Act and the 1,000 bird exemption. Mr. Callahan declined to comment to the press after the contentious hearing.
He said the birds would be housed in six mobile shelters, which would be moved around from one half acre section of the property to another at a time, in order to give the pasture time to rest before the chickens return to that spot about 30 days later.
“Our plan is to treat animals more humanely,” he said. “This is not a smelly, dirty farm. It’s a better approach — better for people, the environment and animals.”
New York State’s Right to Farm law protects farmers from lawsuits from neighbors over farm operations, and Southold Town had purchased the development rights on this particular property with the express purpose of keeping it in farming.
Before the public hearing, Planning Board Chairman Jim Rich read a statement to the crowd explaining that the Planning Board could not refuse to allow the applicant to farm the property, but could enact reasonable restrictions to mitigate the impact on the neighbors.
“This is a Right-To-Farm community. Agriculture is a protected and longstanding use under our code,” he said. “We do not have the authority to simply deny an application because it is controversial or concerns were raised. This public hearing is being held early in the site plan process specifically so the community has an opportunity to be heard.”
But neighbors at the hearing seemed stunned that Mr. Callahan had chosen to place the storage building just dozens of feet from the end of Jasmine Lane, and many said they were concerned about potential smells, rodents, disease and a decrease in property values if a chicken farm is built not far from their backyards.
One neighbor, John Bracken, guessed rightly that the placement of the storage barn was due to access to water and electric utilities from Jasmine Lane.
Mr. Callahan said he doesn’t plan to access the property from Jasmine Lane, but “the barn is there because of logistical and infrastructure issues.”
He added that there is access to Suffolk County Water at the end of Jasmine Lane, but not on Ackerly Pond Lane, and his project “would incur an enormous loss” if it were to pay for public water access on Ackerly Pond Lane. He said his operation will not use a large quantity of water and he would not be irrigating the property, as he would do if he was growing crops.
“I don’t care what you do with chickens. It stinks,” said Jasmine Lane resident John Reichert, adding that he’s concerned the chickens will attract rats and flies. “I can’t use my backyard if I’m going to smell chicken manure all day long.”
“Everybody who lives here knows about the Crescent Duck Farm. You drive in and say ‘the North Fork is so beautiful,’ and you’re hit with it. That smell,” said Leslie Herrlin. “If you think that’s not going to happen here, you’re wrong. It’s going to be ‘welcome to Southold.’ It’s gonna hit you.”
She added that, even if the chickens are free range during the day, at night “they go into henhouses, and that’s where a lot of the disease is all concentrated.”
“We have children in the community — many families on Jasmine Lane. They live there. It was the original affordable housing development,” she said. “This is a huge commercial poultry operation.”
“He said ‘we could do a lot more,'” she said of Mr. Callahan’s calculation of square footage per bird. “That’s wonderful, but it’s not wonderful for us. This is not a good way that this is going for our community.”
Donna Zurek-Goldense said she’s concerned about the possibility of rats and mice spreading
leptospirosis to cats and dogs in the neighborhood.
“My concern is disease spread,” she said.
“There’s no way 6,000 birds are not going to create odor,” said Rodney Herrlin. “Would you want this in your backyard? This does not belong…. If it was 1,000 birds, I would think it was a lot.”
“I feel my property value is going to go way down,” said Sandy Kollen. “Who’s going to look at my house and buy it with a chicken farm next to me?”
Mike Paul, who lives on Apple Court, another subdivision road off of Jasmine Lane, said he grew up on a 300 acre farm, and he knows the “ammonia level is high for feces from chickens.”
He added that the town decided to change from a farming to a suburban community when the subdivision was built.
“A decision was made by the town, state and county to pivot to a suburban community,” he said. “The history of the change is significant.”
He added that the community pivoted away from farming “to have water safety for babies, families and the elderly who live there.”
“I was unaware we decided to go from a farming community to a suburb,” said Orient farmer Tom Stevenson, a member of the town’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, via Zoom. “I recommend trying to apply logic and reason and see if people can get along.”
He added that Southold Town decided to formally adopt New York State’s Right To Farm law in 1997, and that “anybody buying a house within 500 feet of a farm is supposed to get a copy of it, sign it, and give it back to the real estate agent.”
Ira Haspel, a co-founder of KK’s The Farm in Southold, a biodynamic vegetable farm with a small flock of chickens, said that he was in favor of Mr. Callahan’s approach to free range chickens, but urged him to relocate the storage building, perhaps foregoing public water in favor of an on-site well.
“I’m totally in favor of agriculture. I’m in favor of chickens, and particularly silvopasture, which has been outlined by the owner, is an excellent way to keep regenerative land going,” he said.
“Putting a well in and not counting on the Suffolk County Water Authority might be cost effective, and you’d be able to relocate the building and provide a significant buffer” from the neighborhood, he added.
Mr. Callahan said the chickens would be pastured at different locations throughout property, but they would never be in the storage barn near the development.
“I can’t address every concern,” he said. “There are chickens. That is part of our proposal. It is a Right-To-Farm town, and the amount of animals could in theory be way more. We chose not to. We’re trying to do what’s right for the environment and the animals. We’re not trying to be the nasty new neighbor. We would really like to work with you all.”
The board kept the public hearing open for written comment for two weeks.
Keep Independent News on the East End
The Beacon is able to provide all of our content online free of charge thanks to support from our readers. Be a vital part of keeping our community informed!
Advertisement
When was the subdivision built out?
The stench from 6000 chickens would be like a bomb it Southhold