Move to protect Carmans River watershed

Steering development away from 9,100 acres of sensitive Carmans River watershed is the crux of a landmark environmental protection plan scheduled to be approved Wednesday by a committee assembled by Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko.

The committee was charged with devising a plan to keep the river clean while reconciling competing interests of environmentalists, public officials, builders and town residents.

As part of the deal, denser building projects will be allowed in areas away from the river and near existing commercial centers and services.

The wide-ranging plan - trumpeted by its architects as the most significant environmental pact on Long Island since the Pine Barrens Act of 1993 - also includes proposals for open space acquisition, reduction of nitrogen discharge, and greater management of invasive species. But it will carry no weight until Brookhaven's town board adopts it into law - a process town officials have said will begin this month by scheduling a public hearing.

"We are, in a sense, trying to repair the effects of 50 years of misguided planning that created sprawl" and put the river's health at risk, said Tullio Bertoli, the town's planning commissioner and a member of the committee.

The set of recommendations at the heart of the protection plan includes expanding the "core preservation area" of the Pine Barrens Act - which provided unprecedented environmental stewardship in central Suffolk County - to include more of the Carmans River watershed. The recommendations also call for development on private lands closest to the Carmans to be limited to one house per five acres.

The recommendations state that developers will be able to transfer their rights to build in a "preservation zone" around the river and instead build within "districts and corridors that have been affected by sprawl."

Mitch Pally, chief executive of the Long Island Builders Institute, said the recommendations are beneficial to developers because they provide clearly-defined and logical places to build.

"That was very important to us. We'd much prefer to build than to fight," Pally said.

The Carmans River committee is scheduled to vote on the plan at noon Wednesday at Brookhaven Town Hall. The plan is scheduled to be presented to the Brookhaven Town Board Thursday.

Lesko, who is not on the committee, has a vote on the seven-member town board, which he has said could approve the plan next month. He said he hopes the town board "implements a successful plan to guarantee the preservation and protection of the Carmans River," which he called a "jewel of a natural resource." With Jennifer Smith