Carmans River preservation plan stalls

A landmark plan designed to save the Carmans River has stalled due to a rift among environmentalists, builders and Brookhaven town officials, some of the proposals' principal backers say.

The plan -- which town officials are crafting into a set of proposed laws -- is designed to steer development away from 9,100 acres of sensitive Carmans River watershed.

The proposal would protect the river -- one of Long Island's four longest, running 10 miles from Middle Island to Bellport Bay -- from pollution, its supporters say.

Backers say the plan would allow property owners to sell so-called development credits to developers, who could use the credits to build away from the river with greater density than zoning laws allow.

But some of the environmentalists, developers and politicians who wrote the proposal disagree over the density of the new developments and the town's role in approving new, denser developments.

Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society environmental group, says developers are "overreaching" and want the ability to build dense multifamily projects with minimal input from the town.

The Carmans plan "is stalled at the hands of the developers, and the town doesn't want to do anything about it," Amper said.

But Mitch Pally, chief executive of the Long Island Builders Institute, said developers should be entitled to build dense projects in return for giving away the right to build near the Carmans River. He said developers are "not backing away" from the plan, but added that the town has to give them the right to build.

"Right now, everything is on the town in terms of how they are going to adhere to the law," he said.

The disagreement arose as town officials are finishing a draft of new Carmans River policies. The town received permission from the state to pursue the plan in September and has until late June to get a plan approved.

Town Councilman Daniel Panico, one of the officials working on the proposal, said the committee drafting the plan has not met in more than a month. He said town officials are struggling to identify "receiving areas" where developers can use credits -- and they are unclear on the role the town board should play when developments are proposed.

"There needs to be a significant amount of work done for this plan or an adaptation of this plan ever to be realized," he said.

Plan supporters have said the credits would allow new construction on about 10,000 acres of commercial and industrial land away from the river elsewhere in Brookhaven, where as many as 7,500 new homes could rise.

Supervisor Mark Lesko, one of the plans' strongest advocates, said he does not consider the proposal stalled. The draft plan, once it is proposed, will be subject to a battery of public hearings, he said.

"We want to be able to point to specific parcels so the public knows exactly what we are doing," he said.