2. VID Industries

Over the years, the Brookhaven Village Association has been concerned about VID Industries, a demolition debris recycling company located on a 40-acre site between the Long Island Rail Road and Beaver Dam Road, approximately 250 feet west of Arthur Avenue in Brookhaven Hamlet. Approximately 30 acres of this site is an old sand and gravel pit, which is at or near groundwater level. This site, zoned Ll, is adjacent to a residential area, zoned Al.

In December of 1983, VID withdrew its application to dump waste materials. However, a follow-up inspection on January 31, 1984, by Thomas Cramer of Brookhaven Town’s Department of Environmental Protection found eight violations, including home heating oil tanks, motor oil drums engine blocks, buried fuel storage tank, three liquid storage tanks and 11 abandoned heavy-equipment vehicles. Subsequently, the Town recommended: “Any homes with private well water lying southeast of the site and northwest of the Beaver Dam Creek should request that SCDHS test their drinking water annually.”

Since then, VID has been operating as a wood and concrete recycling company. However, in 1993, despite overwhelming community opposition, VID was granted a special permit to operate a transfer station. Immediately, homeowners living near VID Industries, later joined by the Brookhaven Town Board, sued the BZA to revoke this special permit on the grounds that the BZA did not properly adhere to the Town’s land use guidelines. Although the residents won in State Supreme Court, VID is currently appealing the decision.

We are very concerned about the outcome of the Appellate Court’s decision in this case. Despite the Town’s recent effort to move transfer stations from Ll to L2, and its consideration in creating a special T-District zoning category, if VID wins its appeal it will be grandfathered into the old zoning category, and we most likely will have a transfer station in our community. And, with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision preventing towns from restricting garbage flow, the VID operation could supplant the landfill as our community’s biggest problem.

3. Town of Brookhaven Local Waterfront Revitalization Program

In response to the federal government’s 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act, New York State issued a Waterfront Revitalization Program, which mandates 44 policy statements that must be followed if the local municipalities decide to adopt their own LWRP (municipalities with coastal shoreline may develop their own waterfront revitalization program in accordance with State requirements).

Brookhaven’s draft environmental impact statement on the LWRP outlines eight Local Implementation Districts, (although this hamlet study is concerned mostly with the southern portion of LID II), and offers suggestions specific to each in terms of land use – which areas should be targeted for open space, housing and business – rezoning recommendations and environmentally sensitive land to be purchased. According to page ix of the report: “Once the Town of Brookhaven has a State-approved LWRP, the town’s LWRP will replace the State Coastal Management Program…. All future actions at all levels of government will be guided solely by the Brookhaven coastal policies contained in the LWRP.”

Stated on page v of the DEIS, the Brookhaven LWRP seeks to achieve four goals:

1. The preservation of significant environmental resources and ecological habitats, with priority given to the protection of surface waters and groundwater reserves.

2. Balancing the need for developing additional water-dependent facilities and restoring and/or Improving existing water-dependent uses, with increased concern for environmental protections.

3. Providing additional opportunities for public access to the Brookhaven waterfront, and improving existing facilities and means of access.

4. Maintaining and enhancing the characteristics of the waterfront and harbor and south shore bay areas (historic, cultural, recreational, economic or aesthetic), that contribute to the quality of life of Town residents.