Brookhaven puts off Carmans River plan

Brookhaven's town board Tuesday night put off a vote on a controversial proposal designed to save the Carmans River.

The board's decision to revisit the proposal on March 29 calls into question whether the Carmans plan can be enacted, board members said. The board has until late June to adopt the plan, which needs a battery of state and local approvals before it can become law.

Supervisor Mark Lesko, who supports the plan, hoped to use Tuesday night's meeting to schedule a March 29 public hearing on the proposal.

But residents packed a town hall meeting to question whether the proposal, which would allow developers to build with greater density than current zoning allows outside of the Carmans watershed, was fiscally wise. Some said the proposal would burden school districts, while others claimed land acquisitions associated with the proposal would necessitate a tax increase.

"We are so overbuilt already," said Lou Antoniello, treasurer of the Port Jefferson-Terryville Civic Association.

Lesko adamantly denied that the proposal would carry a tax increase. He said the town board members who support the plan will spend the next three weeks working with residents -- and the study group that crafted the Carmans plan -- to see how it can be made more palatable to the public.

But even then, the town will be hard pressed to get the proposal approved by a state-mandated June deadline, he said.

"People will hopefully pull together to save this river," Lesko said.

Councilman Daniel Panico voted against tabling the vote. He said the Carmans plan should be scrapped in favor of a proposal to target land acquisitions around the river over a period of several years.

"I would rather come up with a plan that is affordable to the taxpayer," Panico said.

The 10-mile river runs from Middle Island to Bellport Bay.