1. Lohmann Farm

Recently, Mr. Henry Lohmann, whose family has owned and operated the 48-acre farm between the Beaver Dam Creek and South Country Road since 1952, was awarded the Long Island Farm Bureau’s Amherst Davis Memorial Farmer Citizen of the Year Award. Unfortunately for our community, Mr. Lohmann, the last active vegetable truck farmer in the Hamlet, is retiring and has submitted a proposal for a 16-lot subdivision called Sea Breeze Farms.

It has always been the hope of environmentalists, civics and planners, that this land, because of its proximity to the Beaver Dam Creek and because it is contiguous to both the PMF and the Dennis Puleston Nature Preserves, would be preserved through government acquisition.

The Lohmann Farm was proposed for acquisition in the 1986 NYS Environmental Quality Bond Act, along with the Bay Road Wetlands, which was purchased in 1989 and is now the Fire Place Nature Preserve, and the Robinson Duck Farm, purchased in 1991 (all within this hamlet study area).

2. Headwaters of Beaver Dam Creek
a. Fire Department property

Ever since the Long Island Regional Planning Board (LIRPB) released its study of the Beaver Dam Creek in January of 1991, titled Evaluation of Land Use Impacts on Environmental Quality in Urban and Semi-Ruml Streams Tributary to Great South Bay, the Brookhaven Village Association has been encouraging the Town, County and State to act on the report’s recommendations. We note particularly Chapter 6, “Recommended Actions on page 4:

– Preserve the Stream corridor in the northern [headwaters] portion of the study area through exchange of ownership (i.e, private to public) or transfer of development rights (TDR). This will require cooperation and agreements for replatting old filed subdivisions and the exchange of parcels owned by Suffolk County, the Town of Brookhaven, the Brookhaven Fire District and private parties…

We agree with this recommendation, as we will reiterate in the recommendations of this study. The Fire Department is currently completing an Environmental Impact Statement for its proposal to build a ballpark and recreation area on the 13 acres it owns in the headwaters section of the Beaver Dam Creek.