The following Letter to the Editor was published in Newsday on August 6th, 2025. You can read the original version here.

There is no question that our region lacks diversity in housing, either by type or price point. Our housing challenges represent Long Island’s greatest planning failure.

However, the proposed South Bay Village project in Sayville breaks with past planning precedent in troubling ways [“Promise of housing seems lost on Sayville,” Opinion, July 24].

Any large-scale residential proposal for the former Island Hills golf property runs directly counter to the recommendations of a 2009 joint planning study that was authored by Suffolk County and Brookhaven and Islip towns.

That study specifically identified the Island Hills site as appropriate for a mix of light single-family development and open-space preservation, and it called for continuing its as-of-right zoning for such uses.

Plenty of other suitable locations are available for the productive development of apartments that would have less environmental impact while allowing for better transit access. Just look at the recent progress of the various villages or the hamlet of Hicksville to see this theory of transit-oriented development in action.

In Sayville, planners from multiple levels of government gave their firm assessment nearly two decades ago. To date, I have not seen any compelling reason why those recommendations are no longer relevant.

— Richard Murdocco, Commack

The writer is an adjunct professor of planning at Stony Brook University.

A letter to the editor in Newsday from Adjunct Professor Richard Murdocco