Brookhaven's future, maybe
By Lee Lutz
April 11, 2008 | 11:20 AM The "game plan" for Brookhaven Town's development — and redevelopment — over the next 25 years is beginning to emerge. The process by which the Brookhaven 2030 master plan will be created moved to the next step Monday with the first of six council district meetings with the public. "This third phase of public outreach will essentially give us the game plan for nearly the next 30 years," said Supervisor Brian Foley, opening the meeting at the Rose Caracappa Wellness Center in Mount Sinai before about 30 local residents. "We are already overdeveloped," said Councilwoman Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point). Warning her audience that the town will be "built out in 10 years, maybe 12," Bonner used the word of the day, "retrofitting," to describe the emerging strategy for dealing with Brookhaven's future. As defined by Deborah Howes, director of community planning for Urbitran, the Glen Cove company hired by Brookhaven to develop the 2030 plan, retrofitting involves the redevelopment of community centers throughout the town to create "pedestrian friendly, walkable" commercial centers that include elements of residential housing near and above "mom and pop" retail stores. Via a series of slides, Howes displayed a progression from typical oversized parking lots serving stores remote from housing and located off busy streets into landscaped, walkable community centers, using Port Jefferson Village and the revitalized Patchogue area as local examples. "Tonight," said Howes, "we are seeking your gut reaction" to basic ideas such as the community centers, discouraging remote residential development in the few areas still available for single-family housing in the town, and promoting redevelopment of commercial areas. "How do we protect those areas we cherish?" asked Kevin Williams, Urbitran's vice president for community planning and design. "Long Island is one of the top 50 sprawled areas in the United States," Williams said. He cited Terryville as the "largest built out sprawled area in Brookhaven." Williams said demographic studies indicate the area "no longer requires large, single family homes," reporting that Urbitran has found that the greater need and growing desire is for smaller, centrally located residential units close by to stores, entertainment and recreation. Such housing units are particularly attractive to empty-nesters and young couples, said Williams, just the segments of the population leaving the area. Many in the audience were skeptical of Brookhaven's ability to implement redevelopment plans. Deirdre Du Bato, president of the Mount Sinai Civic Association, asked, "How do you do this without a blank canvas to work with?" Du Bato singled out the apparent conflict between the planners, with their aim of "calming traffic," and the state Department of Transportation, with its intention to get vehicles "from point A to point B the fastest. That's not compatible with mixed use growth designed to slow traffic." "This is not going to happen overnight," Williams responded, adding, "If you don't plan for the next 20 to 30 years it will be even worse." Earlier in the evening Bonner repeated her call for a corridor study of Route 25A from the easterly end of Nesconset Highway through Wading River, similar to one completed last year along Middle Country Road in Selden and Centereach. She said such a study would assist the Brookhaven 2030 planners. At this point such a study has not been authorized by Brookhaven. The Town's Commissioner of Planning, David Woods, said Monday at the meeting that the nascent plan "will be adopted" and "it will make a difference" in Brookhaven's future. "I'm excited" at the prospect of having a master plan that the Town Board and Planning Board will use to direct the town's future development, he said. Near the end of the evening Howes and Williams led the audience in a "gut reaction test" by flashing a series of 100 slides on a screen in quick succession and asking residents to rate what they saw from one to five, bad to good. The slides depicted scenes from Brookhaven and other areas showing various types of commercial and residential developments. The results of the "test" from Monday's meeting and the five future council district get-togethers will be compiled and utilized to provide direction to the planners. The meeting in the second council district was held last night, April 9, at Newfield High School in Selden. The last of the six meetings will be at 7 pm on Thursday, April 17, at Murphy Junior High School on Oxhead Road in Stony Brook.