Chapter VII: Summary and Recommendations
As this report has made clear, Brookhaven and South
Haven are primarily residential communities. The people who live
within this study area in fact share a very strong sense of community
a communal identity that is based primarily on the unique natural
resources of the area.
The two Hamlets encompass one of the most
environmentally sensitive areas in Brookhaven Town. Lying within the
drainage basin of the Carmans River valley and the Beaver Dam Creek,
the area includes two of Long Islands finest unspoiled wetland
corridors along the shores of these rivers and is bounded on the south
by pristine marshlands and forests along the shores of the Great South
Bay and the Carmans River estuary. About one third of the land within
the study area is held in public or private trust to maintain its
primeval state including Town and County nature preserves, New York
State-preserved wetlands, a Federal wildlife preserve, and a private
foundation actively engaged in the acquisition and preservation of
wetlands tracts along the Beaver Dam Creek.
Historically, much of the land has been devoted to
farming, and many large farm tracts remain as open meadows although
only a few farms remain active. Boating, both commercial and
recreational, has been an essential part of the daily activity in this
area since its earliest times, and this is still the case. The study
area includes Brookhaven Towns largest Historic District designation.
The principal roads through the area can be traced back to
pre-Revolutionary thoroughfares, and are still maintained as narrow,
tree-lined rural streets. In the words of Arthur Danto, essayist,
scholar, and Brookhaven resident, the Hamlets boundaries "include an
area with so unmistakable a character that when one has entered it,
there is an immediate awareness of being in a place different in
feeling from what surrounds it."
It is this sense of place that draws the local
population together and that, in large measure, defines this community
of approximately 3,000 residents who otherwise represent a diverse
spectrum of backgrounds occupations, age groups and economic
classification. The highest priority recommendations of this study are
those aimed at maintaining this sense of community by maintaining the
essentially rural character of the two Hamlets and preserving the
areas open spaces, wetlands, waterways, and natural resources. Our
recommendations are in keeping with the principles of the Brookhaven
Village Associations Zoning and Development Policy (see Ch. IV, Sec.
1, p. 13, of this document), which was first adopted in 1988, and has
been reviewed and voted on by the BVA Board of Management each year
since. Our recommendations are also consistent with, and in many cases
directly reflect, the findings of the Long Island Regional Planning
Board regarding the Beaver Dam Creek corridor in its 1990 study,
Evaluation of Land Use Impacts on Environmental Quality in Urban and
Semi-Rural Streams Tributary to Great South Bay.
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