Revamp might keep Carmans proposal afloat

Architects of a plan designed to preserve the Carmans River are scrambling to save the proposal after dozens of Brookhaven residents panned it at a Tuesday night presentation, and town board members tabled the measure.

Some backers of the proposal -- which is also designed to manage growth in central Suffolk County -- said they feared its sponsors will not have enough time to meet a state-mandated June deadline for Brookhaven's town board to approve the plan.

The Carmans proposal promised to allow developers to build with greater density than current zoning laws allow outside of the 10-mile river's watershed. The plan would keep the river pristine by steering growth to other parts of town, supporters said.

But residents packed a Tuesday night meeting of Brookhaven's town board to oppose the plan, which many said would burden school districts by adding multifamily homes throughout town. The town board, which had been poised to set a critical March 29 public hearing on the proposal, instead decided to shelve the plan until at least March 20.

Some town board members, including Councilwoman Connie Kepert and Councilmen Daniel Panico and Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, also said they were dissatisfied with the plan.

"Comsewogue school district is packed as it is," said Edward Garboski, of Port Jefferson Station, during the hearing.

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko, who supports the Carmans plan, said it will be retooled by its authors, and the March 29 public hearing will hopefully still happen. That hearing, which is critical for the plan to meet the state-mandated deadline for its approval, would need to be set on March 20, he said.

"I'm going to ask everybody to come together to come up with solutions to the criticisms that the board members raised," Lesko said.

Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, said the town board's failure to set the public hearing was an indication the proposal's opponents do not want to discuss the plan.

"You can't accomplish anything when people are saying no to everything," Amper said.

The Carmans proposal identified more than 30 sites that could be targeted for future dense development. Lesko said the plan's supporters may have to back off that idea if the plan is to pass the town board.

Lee Koppelman, director of Stony Brook University's Center for Regional Policy Studies and one of the plan's architects, said the focus could be shifted to land preservation in the Carmans watershed."The whole thing is being held hostage on one issue," Koppelman said. "One option is to consider the plan dead, which I don't want to consider an option."