EPCAL Sale should exclude the vulnerable 1,000 acres

Just how much is 1,644 acres, anyway? It is the equivalent of not one but two Central Parks, it is equal to the entire Village of Greenport; 1,644 acres is also equivalent to 1,263 football fields. Along with being the largest industrial land sale in the Northeast, the EPCAL property represents some of the last untouched, vulnerable land we have here on Long Island.

Nearly 70 people attended the Earth Day walk at EPCAL april 27. As we walked about a mile through land that is absolutely on the chopping block as part of the extra 1,000 acres, people voiced their concern, their disappointment that less than a handful of our leaders could make such a thoughtless and short-sighted decision. Repeatedly people and our young kids were suggesting that there should be a “balance.” After all, isn’t the original deal to sell about 600 acres plenty of land to support job creation?

The newly completed nine-mile Veterans Memorial Recreation Trail stands to put Riverhead on the map for recreational tourism, sustainable thinking and healthy community planning. Utilizing those trails to only look at the back of fences and buildings almost defeats the purpose of this hard-earned community effort. There is less than a 10-foot buffer factored into the sides of the trail for preservation. That is hardly enough for some small woodland creatures – never mind the visitors that are quickly getting used to “escaping” to EPCAL for a peaceful adventure into incredibly diverse land. There are sections of the Recreation Trail that lead visitors past rare vernal ponds that nurture endangered species, to several sections of old growth trees that have the feel of the Black Forest of Germany, to native grasses that take visitors back to an undeveloped Long Island.

So many concerned community members were affected by the clearing of 12 acres on Rt. 58. Imagine these 12 acres…times 125! That’s about 1.5 square miles. Can you imagine the drone footage of the loss of native plants, trees and wildlife? Except that kind of citizen aerial photography, ironically, would likely not be allowed in that area and we will never truly see what could be lost. Instead it will go something like- “you can’t believe what we once had over at EPCAL…”.

When the EPCAL land is considered in this way, it makes one realize the extent of what is at risk. Let me be clear- I don’t know anyone, including myself, that isn’t supporting the original deal for the core approximate 600 acres. In other words – the acreage that was deemed developable. Also known as the acreage that we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on to be sure it was developable.

What I do know however is that many, many citizens have spoken up about the arbitrary add-in of the additional 1,000 supposedly “undevelopable” acres. And I don’t understand why several board members did not hear this concern. Hundreds of people documented their concern in 2016 about the vulnerable areas of this land when the environmental review was done. Those concerns have continued to echo, along with new fears that eventually EPCAL will be transformed into a “live-work-play” model. Please note that this is the recent vision just released for the Hauppauge industrial area…even including a bike path.

It seems we all just wasted our time voicing our concerns then and perhaps are wasting our time now. I know personally how hard it is to get to a town hall meeting or even to sit down and write an email expressing concern. But those voting yes for this deal were banking on that – we have busy lives and our families come first so speaking up isn’t always that doable. However reading an article and quickly commenting is much more realistic these days. So I invite readers to share their concerns here and hopefully be heard.

When the current buyers threatened to walk when selling the original 600 acres was brought up – that probably should have told us all we needed to know. When those same buyers have been able to build on designated wetlands in other areas of the country, maybe that should have been our other clue. And when the buyer, naturally, wants to maximize their gains by developing every possible inch of the Designated Opportunity Zone that EPCAL is, what will legitimately stand in the way of developing their property?

But perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps the buyers will decide they want to be good neighbors and honor preserving the 1,000 acres as they were meant to be. Or perhaps all of our Town Board members will have the courage to agree to outside counsel and make sure they are protecting us.

Developers especially know that land is the only thing we can’t make more of and that land was a gift to us to better our town’s standing. I don’t see any better way to improving our standing than to stick to the original plan of about 600 acres for meaningful job development and leave the rest of it as a “working” sanctuary that improves the quality of our air, water and living for us, our children and future generations.

Christy Hawkins is a resident of Calverton.

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