As this report has made clear, Brookhaven and South Haven are primarily residential communities. The people who live within this study area in fact share a very strong sense of community – a communal identity that is based primarily on the unique natural resources of the area.
The two Hamlets encompass one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Brookhaven Town. Lying within the drainage basin of the Carmans River valley and the Beaver Dam Creek, the area includes two of Long Island’s finest unspoiled wetland corridors along the shores of these rivers and is bounded on the south by pristine marshlands and forests along the shores of the Great South Bay and the Carmans River estuary. About one third of the land within the study area is held in public or private trust to maintain its primeval state – including Town and County nature preserves, New York State-preserved wetlands, a Federal wildlife preserve, and a private foundation actively engaged in the acquisition and preservation of wetlands tracts along the Beaver Dam Creek.
Historically, much of the land has been devoted to farming, and many large farm tracts remain as open meadows although only a few farms remain active. Boating, both commercial and recreational, has been an essential part of the daily activity in this area since its earliest times, and this is still the case. The study area includes Brookhaven Town’s largest Historic District designation. The principal roads through the area can be traced back to pre-Revolutionary thoroughfares, and are still maintained as narrow, tree-lined rural streets. In the words of Arthur Danto, essayist, scholar, and Brookhaven resident, the Hamlet’s boundaries “include an area with so unmistakable a character that when one has entered it, there is an immediate awareness of being in a place different in feeling from what surrounds it.”
It is this sense of place that draws the local population together and that, in large measure, defines this community of approximately 3,000 residents who otherwise represent a diverse spectrum of backgrounds occupations, age groups and economic classification. The highest priority recommendations of this study are those aimed at maintaining this sense of community by maintaining the essentially rural character of the two Hamlets and preserving the area’s open spaces, wetlands, waterways, and natural resources. Our recommendations are in keeping with the principles of the Brookhaven Village Association’s Zoning and Development Policy (see Ch. IV, Sec. 1, p. 13, of this document), which was first adopted in 1988, and has been reviewed and voted on by the BVA Board of Management each year since. Our recommendations are also consistent with, and in many cases directly reflect, the findings of the Long Island Regional Planning Board regarding the Beaver Dam Creek corridor in its 1990 study, Evaluation of Land Use Impacts on Environmental Quality in Urban and Semi-Rural Streams Tributary to Great South Bay.
Hamlets Study
- i-iii Prologue
- Table of Contents
- 1 I. Introduction
- 1 a Plate 1
- 2-4 II. Overview
- 5-8 II. Overview
- 9-11 III. History
- 12 IV. Land Use
- 12 a Plate 2
- 13-14 IV. Land Use
- 15 IV. Land Use
- 15 a Plate 4
- 15 b Carman’s River
- 16 V. Land Use Issues
- 17 V. Land Use Issues
- 18 V. Land Use Issues
- 19 V. Land Use Issues
- 20 V. Land Use Issues
- 20 a Plate 5
- 21-22 VI. Other Issues
- 23-24 VI. Other Issues
- 25 VI. Other Issues
- 25 a Plate 6
- 26-27 VI Other Issues
- 28-29 VI Other Issues
- 30-31 VII Summary
- 32 VII. Recommendations
- 33 VII. Recommendations
- 34 VII. Recommendations
- 35-39 A. Questionnaire
- 40-42 B. Community Comments
- Zoning
We have addressed the matter of commercial uses of land within the study area. We have found a broad consensus within the community – as reflected in the responses to our questionnaire, and in the opinions voiced at public meetings – that there is no need to expand the amount of land available for future commercial development. There is a concern that certain properties within the two Hamlets are vulnerable to downzoning, which would create unwanted industrial zones and shopping centers. (No one responding to our questionnaire expressed dissatisfaction with the availability of shopping in the area, while many expressed their alarm and outrage over the proliferation of empty strip malls and vacant shopping center space in the surrounding area.) We also find examples in the study area where the proposed “Marine Commercial” zoning designation may be more appropriate than existing J-2 zoning; however, we make no specific recommendations in this regard as we feel that this proposed new zoning designation needs to be more precisely specified, and its consequences for landowners better understood.
In recommending extensive land preservation in the study area, along with no further expansion of commercial land use, we are mindful of concerns by some in the community that this might have an adverse economic impact by reducing or slowing the growth of tax revenue. We have found that, when given some thoughtful study, such concerns are readily put to rest. We are persuaded by statements such as that by the Dutchess County Planning Department, in a publicly distributed memo (1991): “More and more studies are showing that conserving open land and choosing carefully those areas that should be developed is not contrary to economic health, but essential to it. Preserved lands require very little in the way of tax-supported services (birds don’t send their children to school); giving land conservation a high priority encourages more cost-efficient development; open space protection saves public funds by preventing development of hazardous (e.g., flood-prone) areas; conserving land allows nature to continue its valuable work, such as the recharge and purification of groundwater; open space increases the value of nearby or adjacent property.”
Finally, throughout the process of preparing this Hamlet Study, there was much discussion of “quality of life” issues. Many of these issues are endemic to modern life in our society, and on Long Island in particular. Items such as taxes, LILCO rates, and the quality of schools are the most frequently cited examples. These are not matters that can be solved at the very local level of this study. There are, however, things happening in the areas surrounding our Hamlet’s boundaries that have a direct impact and need to be addressed. One of the chief among these is the operation of the Brookhaven Town landfill, and, by extension, the long-term solid waste management plan for the Town. This matter is addressed in our recommendations.