The following Letter to the Editor was published in Newsday on October 16th, 2017. You can read the original here.

It is troubling to continue to read in Newsday that the concerns of local towns are not being heard when it comes to real estate developments that have regional impacts.

First, it was Huntington’s concerns over Islip’s Heartland Town Square [“Hearing off for Heartland,” News, Sept. 19]. Now, Brookhaven is sharing similar anxieties over proposals being considered for the long-vacant Gyrodyne property in Smithtown. [“Calls to revist subdivision’s OK,” News, Oct. 5].

Historically, the Suffolk County Planning Commission was created to serve as a strong, objective third party to ensure that sound planning prevailed in these situations.

The seemingly diminished role of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, created with both political and legal teeth, makes it ineffective in terms of moderating these discussions between municipalities and sets a bad land-use precedent for the future.

If Long Island is to continue to grow in a balanced manner, municipalities must be assured that they can rely on the county to protect them from the ambitions of other towns.

Richard Murdocco

Syosset, NY

 

Editors’s note: The writer writes about Long Island land use at TheFoggiestIdea.org.