Vote on Portuguese club plan delayed

Brookhaven Town’s planning board has again delayed a plan designed to ease tensions in a Farmingville neighborhood where residents have quibbled with a Portuguese-American club over noise.

Neighbors of the Portuguese-American Center on Portion Road have said the club’s occasional outdoor parties and barbecues bring loud music and noise to the community.

Town officials have said the club over the years has broken some zoning covenants, such as illegal tree clearing and disregarding a 157-by-337-foot buffer behind the club.

The club’s proposed new site plan, which includes a 75-by-337 foot buffer of new vegetation with a 4-foot-high fence and another 8-foot-high fence at the property line, should ease the concerns, Brookhaven officials have said. But the planned 8-foot fence must be changed, because 8-foot fencing has proved difficult to obtain, said town Councilwoman Connie Kepert, above, who represents the area.

The town’s planning board balked at a chance to vote on the site plan Jan. 23 because of the fence issue, Kepert said. The board will cast a vote Monday, provided the site plan is amended, she said. The fence would need to be made taller, not shorter, Kepert said.