Concerned that the 320 acres of land south of Sound Avenue in Shoreham, where the DeLalio Sod Farm and the Tallgrass Golf Course presently are situated, will one day include "inappropriate high-density development," the group also is raising concerns that the project will "destroy farmland and will undermine the Long Island Pine Barrens Maritime Reserve Act by polluting Long Island's drinking water supplies and marine waters," according to Carolyn Zenk, attorney for the group and a former Southampton Town councilwoman. This group of residents had previously gone under the name Citizens Against the Tallgrass Planned Development District.
When asked why they filed the lawsuit now - the zone change was done last October - Zenk said that the statute of limitations is very short in this case, four months, so they had to file by February 15. "It was now or never," Zenk stated. The zone change was hotly debated last year; the town board voted 5-2 in favor of the change, with First District Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld and former Second District Councilman Kevin McCarrick voting against the plan, saying at the time that the project was too large for the area. Councilwoman Jane Bonner, who took McCarrick's spot, was elected in part because of her stand against the proposed plan. Bonner and others in the town, including Public Information Officer Tom Burke, refused to comment on this suit, with Burke saying, "At this time we have no comment. The lawsuit needs to be thoroughly reviewed in detail. This is an important complicated issue."
"In theory, the PDD sounds good, but in practice it's a disaster," Zenk stated. "The PDD is the new kid on the block and we need some kind of standard for them. Any developer can come in and claim anything. The town didn't do their homework here. They just threw up their hands and went with the developers' numbers. They needed to deal with reality, but instead the town is only dealing with the reality that the developers gave them. The town should have double checked what the developer really needs to make a profit."
"It's absolutely absurd to say that the town didn't take a hard look at this," contended Larry Feldman, attorney for Tallgrass developer Alec Ornstein. "We had two public hearings and 30 community meetings. It could not have been more thorough. It comes down to the 70 additional affordable homes that they are complaining about. I guess they don't want affordable housing."
Referring to her time spent as a Southampton Town councilwoman, Zenk said that she "passed a resolution that the developer needed to do two appraisals - [one] to show what a piece of property is worth under its present conditions and then [another to] show what it would be worth under the proposed conditions. Hypothetically, if commercial development is worth three times as much as the residential, then they don't need as much residential to make a profit, so they can then build fewer houses, which would keep the school district from becoming overburdened and would also preserve open space. Here, the developers chose a figure out of thin air and the town just went with it. They should have done their own independent review. That's a profoundly negative precedent to set for Long Island."
The previous zoning on the site - one-acre residential - would have allowed approximately 283 single-family homes, no commercial development and no controversial sewage treatment plant, according to Zenk. She said that the approved PDD will allow an extra 70 residential units, plus three acres of commercial development and a sewage treatment plant.
"We don't know where the sewage is going," Zenk added. "Is it going into the local bays? Is it going into the aquifer? What will the plant look like? Will it smell? This site is part of the Pine Barrens, at the point where the groundwater system begins." She explained that the Environmental Protection Agency has designated Long Island as a "sole-source aquifer" area. "This means it is especially groundwater sensitive," she continued. "Dependence upon a sole-source aquifer means that it is critically important to keep residential and commercial densities to a minimum over the most fragile parts of the aquifer, which would be the Pine Barrens, so that they remain uncontaminated. The developer is selling out the Pine Barrens Act."
However, Feldman argued that the developers "completely complied with [the State Environmental Quality Review Act]," adding that a sewage treatment plant uses "three levels of treatment. These complainants have septic systems - cesspools - at their homes. The sewage that is coming out of their houses is not treated at all. STP waste is treated waste. Without an STP you would have polluted water. It's absurd that they think the STP is going to be a problem. STPs are better for the environment than septic systems."
As previously reported in Suffolk Life, the developers applied for a hardship exemption several months ago and are still waiting for a response from the Pine Barrens Commission, which has until April 15 to make a decision. The hardship exemption would allow them to keep the golf course open. Presently the project doesn't meet the Pine Barrens' open space requirements because the golf course doesn't count as open space. The developer has threatened to close the golf course if they aren't granted the hardship exemption. Feldman added that the "Pine Barrens Commission isn't supposed to cause a hardship. The loss of the golf course will cause a hardship to the community, especially the $200,000 in annual revenue it generates."
In an ideal world, Zenk said she would like the golf course to remain open and remain public, and she'd also like to see the farmland preserved. "Farmland is precious to Suffolk County. We need to preserve farmland in order to have food reserves," she said. "This is a time of terrorism. We are on an island that is not easy to get off of quickly. We need to have reserves of food and water."
Those who are filing the lawsuit also believe that the one-acre residential zoning is "too dense for farmland and for the Pine Barrens," Zenk said. "One-third of the town of Southampton is zoned five-acre residential. Brookhaven should also consider upzoning the farmland to three to five acres."
"This is a good project that was approved by bipartisan vote," Feldman countered. "These people are just trying to delay our project anyway they can. It's amazing that for $175 anyone in America can start a lawsuit."
Zenk said that it's "in the judge's hands now. This suit could cost the town $100,000 to $200,000 to defend. The town should just admit that we're right and do the homework tomorrow ... They can blame the last administration, but the town needs to get the project independently reviewed, find out how much commercial [space] the developer really needs to turn a profit. The law states that the town could have charged the independent review back to the developer. They don't have to spend a dime of the public's money to do this. Why did the town drop the ball?"
This lawsuit was filed with the Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead on February 15. At this point the case is slated to be heard on April 18.