LIBI NEWS by Bob Wieboldt, LIBI EVP
After ten years the Pine Barrens is heating up as a major industry defense issue. An internal document is circulating among the staff of the Pine Barrens Commission, members of the Advisory group and participating governments. The document is meant as a ”framework” for more detailed discussions on land use and planning policies within the Pine Barrens Region”. Rather than an identification of issues for discussion, the drafters have determined the “truth,” and are pursuing it steadfastly, justifying policy choices, before even basic agreement on the problems. Sadly forgotten, is a fundamental element. Put in the words of a popular auto executive, brought back to sell cars on daily TV commercials, “What’s missing is the deal!”

The “deal” was what made the Pine Barrens Plan unique and brought national recognition. The “deal” was more than a land grab by environrnentalists. The deal was a compromise, created by men and women who represented economic and social as well as environmental interests, who at that historical moment, showed unusual vision. The “deal” provided for preservation, but also for sensible and environmentally sensitive development.

This draft is focused on restricting development in the compatible growth areas of the Pine Barrens Region. Many in government seem to be echoing a Brookhaven civic leader who recently proclaimed that: “No development is compatible with the Pine Barrens.” Much in the draft reflects the desire of a Commission bureaucracy to substitute its judgment for that of elected town and county officials and state line agencies charged with permitting. However enlightened its leadership, the Commission staff hasn’t escaped an addiction to power.

Missing also is the beginning of a hard look, ten years after, of how the “deal” worked and whether it meets the needs of today. Perhaps because various environmental advocates, lacking concern for economic and social needs, would choke enunciating them important questions are neither asked nor answered. These include:

Have we over protected our water supply?

Is the core area justified by what we now know about the aquifer?

Have our acquisitions of Core Preservation area development rights and receiving areas in the Compatible Growth Area distorted the balance of the “deal?”

Have we inhibited the town’s ability to meet their citizen’s needs for homes and employment opportunity and tax base growth?

Is the plan compatible with the new Riverhead Comprehensive Plan, the recent Brookhaven industrial/commercial and residential zoning revisions and the Southampton western regional planning efforts?

The draft pushes policies without agreement on principles or even a hard look at the environmental, economic and social milieu, in which the three towns find themselves today.

A public comment period is scheduled for late September on a revised draft.

LIBI testified at the final hearing on the residential rezoning proposals in Brookhaven on July 26th, accompanied by several dozen members in the audience. The hearing completed some two years of moratoria, during which the town board reviewed the town’s residential zoning.

LIBI provided information to the town board on the impact of the proposed residential zoning and recommended alternatives that preserve affordability and accomplish the town’s stated goals.

NEWSDAY had a major story on Richard Amper and other civics claiming LIBI dominated the code process. Amper and civic leaders chastised LIBI for its effective lobbying. They were concerned that LIBI may have won concessions in compromise language that saved all single and separate lots from no-build rules and increased densities from the original proposals.

A LIBI committee of 40 members reviewed every draft and every suggested recommendation. Developing consensus on comments within a diverse industry was not easy for any of us. Quite often, the town board members greeted with intense skepticism the concepts we thought to be valid.

LIBI is not completely happy with the versions of the bills before the town. Did our effort gained us more than technical correction and bare economic feasibility?

Civic activist complaints are sour grapes. Everyone in the industry should be thankful that LIBI is this effective, as our battles go in all towns on the Island.

The town did not place all lots under one-half of the minimum lot size under current zoning in a substandard overlay district without regard to single or separate status. They would have been no more.
From the beginning, the town intended to concentrate multi family and planned senior communities on existing main streets and along major roads close to shopping and services. This concept remains.

For senior or multi-family homes, the town originally proposed an unworkable density of one unit per acre unless the owner purchased open space development rights for all parcels, that are outside existing main streets and certain major road segments. This too remains, with minor modification.

Land is expensive in these areas, as they tend to be high traffic and zoned commercial. The low base density is unrealistic. Sites are limited and will be available at a premium in the future. Using the remaining vacant major road sites for large lot subdivisions seems silly. We still request more flexibility along major roads for densities under 4/acre.

The current draft treats redevelopment of existing underutilized and abandoned commercial sites the same as downtowns.

As originally proposed, the cost of land plus development rights would have made rental apartments impossible to build. In the current draft the can be built economically, but only in the primary zone with a large percentage of affordable units.

The original proposal required twenty percent of the low densities to be affordable. In many cases, based on location factors, any form of senior or condominium and townhouse for-sale community would have been uneconomical and impossible to finance. Twenty percent of nothing is none. This was reduced to ten percent affordable as a minimum to make development feasible, and an added density bonus can lead to even more than the twenty percent originally prescribed.

Many small but significant improvements have been made to the nitty-gritty of the residential zoning and the processes for the Transfer of Development rights. Many LIBI recommendations were accepted after we generated detailed evidence about why these technical changes were necessary. Town final action is scheduled for August 23rd.

Also on the 23rd, Huntington is poised to approve a sloped lands law, that would place restrictions on all lot development with slopes in excess of 10 degrees. LIBI is organizing a large land owner turnout.

If you have a question or comment, email me at evp@libi.org