Stillwell Woods Is Changing Hands. Nobody Agrees Where the Ballfields Stop.

Behind the baseball fields at Stillwell Woods, before the trails start, there's a band of trees. Who controls that strip? After a $97,000 survey, the answer still depends on who you ask.

The property sits between South Woods Road and Stillwell Lane in Syosset, and Newsday puts it at roughly 300 acres. Most people who use it treat it as one place. You park, the kids play soccer, and somebody heads off on the Greenbelt Trail. On paper it has always been two places. The Town of Oyster Bay's own guide describes a 270-acre Nassau County preserve, with 30.9 acres leased to the Town for playing fields. The county now wants to hand the whole property to the Town for $1. To do that, someone has to say where the 30.9 acres end, and that line is the hard part.

Two Permit Lines, With Woods Between Them

The Town Board voted on Sept. 9, 2025 to hire GdB Geospatial for a full boundary survey. At the time, officials said the preserve was legally protected and the fields wouldn't expand into it. According to Newsday, the survey was finalized in late February 2026. It maps the outer boundary of the property and the section that holds the soccer and baseball fields.

It doesn't settle the question everyone was waiting on. Town officials say the survey shows two lines. One cuts through the athletic fields. The other runs past the softball and baseball fields. Each line marks the edge of an area covered by a permit the Town received, one in 1978 and one in 1986. Between them is a stretch of woods that sits right up against the baseball fields.

The two sides read that same drawing in opposite ways. "The line of demarcation is not there," Guy Jacob, conservation co-chair of the South Shore Audubon Society, told Newsday. Matthew Meng, a longtime member of the Nassau County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee, said the permit lines don't matter. His reason is that the entire property was designated a perpetual preserve in 1989. That committee voted against recommending the transfer.

"Any wooded area [on the property] is perpetual preserve, regardless of permit." Matthew Meng, to Newsday

Newsday asked whether the Town sees the wooded area as developable. Town spokesman Brian Nevin answered, "Could the world end tomorrow? Sure. The town has not announced any intentions to do so." In an emailed statement, he added that the Town would "continue protecting Stillwell so families, athletes, and nature lovers can enjoy it for generations to come." In March, Supervisor Joseph Saladino told the Town Board the Town intended to preserve the property, not develop it.

Everyone on record says they want the woods kept. The disagreement is over whether the survey's lines put the strip behind the baseball fields under that protection, or leave it as a question for later.

The $1 Deal Comes With $12 Million for Upgrades

The strip matters more now because of the money attached to the transfer. Under the intermunicipal agreement between the county and the Town, the county and the Town would each put up to $6 million toward improvements. The list covers athletic fields, pathways, lighting, restrooms and other amenities.

Up to $12 million in field-side improvements is a lot of construction near a boundary that hasn't been clearly drawn. That's why an advocate who lives near the property framed the goal to Newsday as letting the sports fields keep operating "but at the same time absolutely guaranteeing there will be no further removal of the wooded portion of Stillwell Woods Preserve."

Part of the upgrade work is already done. The agreement records that the Town completed a separate $639,124.41 parking and road project. It included drainage work, expanded and restriped parking, resurfacing, and designated accessible spaces. If the lot feels easier on a Saturday morning, that project is the reason. The rest of the improvements wait on the state. The agreement says qualifying work won't begin until the conveyance is approved.

A Handoff Tried More Than Once

The current dispute is the latest round in a longer effort to move this land off the county's books.

The two permit lines at the center of the 2026 dispute are older than the preserve designation. When the property became a perpetual preserve in 1989, the Town had already held permits on parts of it since 1978. That's how one survey can show two permit lines and a protected preserve at once, with each side reading it differently.

What Lives in the Strip

Advocates call the wooded area between the 1978 and 1986 lines a buffer, and the reason is what it separates. On one side are busy fields. On the other is habitat. A longtime neighbor of the park told Newsday he understands the need for places where children can play sports. He also called the acres between the two permit lines a "delicate habitat" and said he has seen American woodcocks in the preserve. "That is the type of thing that could disappear incredibly easy," he said.

Past the buffer, the preserve is what many people use the place for. The Town's guide lists the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt hiking trail through Stillwell, along with bicycle and equestrian trails. The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference describes the northern section of the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt as passing through Stillwell Woods Preserve. The mountain bike trails are maintained by CLIMB, which Newsday reports has kept up the preserve's trails for years. The group's trail maintenance page says it aims to work on its trails every few weeks during peak-use seasons. That target applies to the organization as a whole, not specifically to Stillwell.

The Greenbelt Trail Conference and the Sierra Club Long Island Group scheduled a joint Stillwell Woods walk for Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. The listing says it covers the area's water recharge role, its wildlife, plants and birds, and the preservation concerns. Groups that run public walks are now putting the boundary question on the agenda alongside the birds.

The coalition behind the push for stronger protections is broad for a single preserve. Writing for the Nassau Hiking and Outdoor Club, Jacob listed the groups at the January meeting with Martins: South Shore Audubon Society, North Shore Audubon Society, Transition Town Port Washington, the Long Island Orienteering Club, the Nassau Hiking and Outdoor Club, and the Science Museum of Long Island. In May, Newsday reported that an online petition calling for stronger preserve protections had 3,715 signatures.

Albany Has to Act First

The transfer can't close on a handshake between Mineola and Oyster Bay. Newsday reported on May 27, 2026 that the State Legislature has to approve the deal before the property changes hands. The process is called parkland alienation. In New York, conveying municipal parkland to another municipality takes an act of the State Legislature and the governor's approval. Jacob's account of the January meeting said neither the county nor the Town had yet brought draft legislation to Martins.

As of the most recent reporting we found, Newsday's May 27 story, state approval was still outstanding. We found no bill number, no later coverage of the transfer closing, and no update on construction. The same goes for the dog park the Town proposed earlier. A 2024 report described a 200-by-100-foot dog run supported by a $100,000 state grant, and nothing since has shown work starting.

If the transfer does close, the proposed deed sets terms that would govern the strip and everything around it. It limits the land to public recreation, carries forward the perpetual preservation restrictions, and requires a sign at the main entrance stating that the site is open to all Nassau County residents. The agreement lists the parcel's address as 72 S. Woods Road, Woodbury. For now, Nassau County still owns Stillwell Woods, the Town still holds its license for the fields, and the strip of woods behind the baseball fields still has no agreed line through it.

Places like Stillwell Woods are part of what keeps Syosset and Woodbury feeling the way they do, and we follow them as closely as we follow the market. If you have questions about how open space near your street fits into your plans, Fran Mazer and our team are always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.