Brookhaven Town Reworks Carmans River Plan

A new Carmans River preservation plan focused on open space acquisition and re-zoning has taken the place of a once-controversial previous plan that would have designated landing zones for development credits in Port Jefferson Station and other areas in Brookhaven town.

At an informational meeting Monday night, Joe Sanzano, a map drafter for the Town of Brookhaven, and John Turner, a town consultant who was formerly the director of environmental protection, delivered a breakdown of the new plan to preserve the 10-mile long river running from the Middle Island area to the Shirley area.

The town has earmarked $2 million to start with for the acquisition of land around the Carmans River watershed, though Turner said it's only a fraction of what would actually be needed to acquire all of the land. He projected that at $80 million to $100 million based on current price-per-acre, though he acknowledged it could be higher.

"Not surprisingly the open space purchase is a key," Turner said. "We want to target lands that are in the watershed. ... If you want to get your biggest bang for the buck, that’s the area."

The town would also focus its efforts on re-zoning residential land for lower density housing, rather than high-density housing as the previous Carmans River plan had entailed. For those with homes in that area, there would be an emphasis on upgrading the aging septic systems to those that would yield more effective waste treatment.

Another component of the previous plan that has changed is its scope; the previous version involved the inclusion of more land than the new plan currently seeks to preserve. That's because the state recently voted to add 1,660 acres in the Carmans River watershed to the core preservation area of the Pine Barrens. That move created 135 additional Pine Barrens credits, which are transferable development rights that go to the land owners who could then redeem them for development rights elsewhere in the Town of Brookhaven. The previous Carmans River plan would have created around 500 new credits.

Town councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, who represents the Port Jefferson and Three Village areas, called this new plan better than the previous one, though he still has some reservations.

"I’m still slightly concerned about where these extra credits are going to land," he said. "One of the major good factors compared to last year’s plan is there are no specific landing zones for [the credits]. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to find them. We do. It’s just a question mark."

Another question mark remains: Why the town board voted on Tuesday to accept a draft generic environmental impact statement despite not making the plan available to residents. Because of that vote, the town moved the plan into a public comment period of at least 30 days.

Previously, many Brookhaven residents and some members of the town board opposed the former plan because it had not been vetted thoroughly by the residents of the town. 

Ron DiBiase, president of the Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook, said there is still an air of distrust surrounding the proceedings.

"The town board recently voted on the current plan without adhering to the New York state Open Meeting Law – the plan should have been accessible to the public on their web site," DiBiase said in an email to Patch. "It was not, but yet the Town still voted to move the plan forward.  The town attorney informed the supervisor and the board that the action they were taking was in conflict with New York state Law, but they still voted on it."

However, Rich Murdocco, a local planning expert, said he feels that "any option is better than inaction" at this point in time.

"What many have to understand is that policymaking, especially long-range environmental planning, is an incremental process," he said. "[On Monday], many were arguing for a 'perfect solution,' but that solution doesn't exist. We need to get our 'foot-in-the-door' first, and improve our solution from there."