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2/8 & 2/10/15 updates are mostly at the end and highlighted like this sentence.
KEY FACTS
Location
Brookfield Avenue, west side, south of Sunrise & Wading River Road
SCTM
200-753-4 & 8, 200-754-1-1 & 2
Area
29 acres
Existing zoning
L1 and L2
School District
Center Moriches
Current Use
Auto junk yard; wooded
Current Application
Change of zone to PRC, approved
Proposed use
146 PRC units in 36 buildings
Density
5 units per acre
Attorney
Certilman Balin
Engineer
Nelson & Pope
Hearing
Held October 28, 2014
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Driving south on Brookfield Avenue from Wading River Road, you pass the front of an auto junk yard and then the 92 unit PRC development The Vineyards at Moriches. It doesn't look it, but the junk yard is deep, and is on tax lots totaling 25 acres.
As shown in its conceptual plan, the Vineyards developer wants to build 146 PRC units on the junk yard site and the 4 acres in between. It needs a change of zone. The junk yard is now zoned L Industrial 2 (heavy industry) and the other lots are zoned L Industrial 1 (light industry). Under The Town Code, a change to PRC would permit this 29 acres to have up to 4 units per acre or 117 units. The developer has asked the Town Board to allow an extra 1 unit per acre for 146 units. The Code allows an increase up to 2 units in the Board's discretion.
The developer has submitted a detailed Environmental Site Assessment that identified various chemical pollutants on the auto junkyard site, but give reasons why no further action is needed. The Town's Traffic Safety Division concluded that the traffic impact will not be adverse since it will not be as bad as the traffic increase from L1 and L2 development would be. The Division did not weigh the impact of a 146 unit PRC against other alternatives, and no traffic impact study was done to develop traffic data.
Elimination of the junk yard and pollution possible from it and more ratables would be benefits. The impacts of an additional 146 units on the environment, and particularly on traffic, would be detrimental. The 50 unit Echo Pond multifamily development nearby was approved recently, and 2 other developments are nearby already. Environmental impacts are cumulative.
On 9/24/14, the hearing scheduled on the change of zone was not held and was adjourned to 10/28/14. It was explained that Suffolk County Planning Commission had not yet acted on the application.
The Moriches Bay Civic Association has objected to the change in a letter that describes the thousand multi-family or PRC units that had been approved and built, or are in process in our area. EMPOA has joined in the objection. Both civics recognize that there would be certain benefits from the proposed PRC, but as EMPOA's letter stated:
"We have weighed the positive and negative aspects of the proposed change and concluded that, on balance, the change should not be approved as presented. Continued intensification of use and increases in density in southeast Brookhaven will degrade what remains of the rural character of our communities. In instances where intensification in a particular location may be appropriate, it should be offset by a reduction in potential density elsewhere within our communities."
The hearing was held on 10/28/14 and closed. On 11/25/14, the Board approved the change of zone to PRC unanimously but with conditions that included the recording of covenants. So far, no covenants appear to have been recorded so the change is not effective yet. Similarly, no deed into the developer have been found.
The conceptual plan that was before the Town Board must still be reviewed by the Planning Board as a site plan.