Newsday Article of 06/13/2001 - Wednesday - Page A 28
The Battle of Rocky Point
Rentals create a stir at hearing
by J. Jioni Palmer
Staff WriterIf Suffolk County is the Dodge City of politics then Brookhaven Town is the OK Corral. And there was a verbal shoot-out last night at Brookhaven Town Hall when about 400 residents, civic and business leaders clashed over a proposed "luxury townhouse community" in Rocky Point.
Tension ran high as Brookhaven's all-Republican and Conservative town board held a public hearing on a controversial rental housing development that has the North Shore community divided.
Commack-based Fairfield Properties wants to build the 186-unit complex on a 33-acre former sand mine, which for years has drawn the ire of local residents.
The parcel's current zoning would allow about 60 single-family homes, so Brookhaven's town board must grant a zone change in order for the project to go forward.
Fairfield's attorney, Steve Losquadro, said the development would be a boon to Rocky Point. In his view it reclaims an environmental eyesore while boosting nearby property values and generating much-needed revenue for the school district. He cited the Suffolk County Planning Commission's approval of the project as evidence that it is consistent with "smart growth policies." Opponents say it will produce transitory residents, increased traffic and saddle the schools with too many children.
"Tripling the density will create an undue hardship to the school district and taxpayers who will have to pay for it," said Geraldine Thalen, president of the Rocky Point school board. "To approve this project will only accommodate the landowners' and developers' selfish demand to triple profits." Board member Dominic Santoro said he feared that proposed rents-ranging from $1,500 to $1,800-are unrealistic, and that the complex would turn into a low-income transient haven.
"I've been coming to Rocky Point since 1941. It was a middle-income community then and it is a middle-income community now," Santoro said.
Residents of other Fairfield developments similar to the Rocky Point project say they are enamored by "the country-like settings" and like living near other professionals.
Bart Collins, who lives at Fairfield Gables in South Setauket with his wife and two daughters, said he has previously rented and owned but opted to rent once more because of the convenience.
"For us low-maintenance is key," said Collins, an information technology recruiter. "If there is anything wrong we just pick up a phone and somebody comes over and takes care of it." Besides being the latest battle in Long Island's development wars, the matter has a political dimension because it places Brookhaven Supervisor John Jay LaValle between a civic group he's tried to woo and his chief fund-raiser, Mark Broxmeyer.
LaValle sequestered himself from last night's public hearing citing his current political and prior business relationship with Broxmeyer.
Although LaValle is steering clear of the development, GOP operatives are pressing hard for the project's approval, critics charge.
"It seems to me that there is this blind support for Broxmeyer," said Richard Johannesen, president of the Rocky Point Civic Association.
He said community residents have inundated him with calls complaining that Brookhaven Town committeemen are pressuring them to support the project.
"This is not a political matter. It's a government and civic matter and the Republican Party should not be involved." But Brookhaven Town Republican Party chairman Thomas M. Neppell Jr. said nothing could be further from the truth. "He is misinformed. If he had any questions about it, he should have called me instead of making a misstatement.
I know nothing about this application." Brookhaven's town board is expected to make a decision on the zoning change within 90 days.