Yaphank shooting range dispute may go to state

May 25, 2008

Local activists fighting a two-year battle against a Yaphank shooting range have persuaded Brookhaven Town officials to try to use state laws to close the facility, which both groups contend is a noise disturbance and a threat to water quality.

Brookhaven Supervisor Brian X. Foley has agreed to ask the state Pine Barrens Commission for a ruling on whether Suffolk Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays constitutes development in an environmentally sensitive area, and therefore must be closed.

Foley, who sits on the commission, is scheduled to make the request on Wednesday at a meeting at Brookhaven Town Hall.

The town’s push to shut down the range comes two years after local homeowners and environmentalists first protested owner Mark Wroobel’s bid to reopen the range, which closed in 2001 after another vendor failed to pay county fees. Homeowners such as Johan McConnell, president of the South Yaphank Civic Association, say noise from the range has lowered their property values.

But Wroobel said the appeal to the Pine Barrens Commission has no merit as the location has served as a commercial gun range since the 1960s. He said the range merely lacked a vendor for a few years and does not constitute new development because it never really closed.

The range is located at Southaven County Park.

“We’ll stick to our guns. The people bought homes in that area knowing the range was there,” he said.

Suffolk County officials agree with Wroobel on the development issue, said county parks commissioner John Pavacic, who added that the range paid the county more than $43,000 in fees and revenue in 2007.

The battle over the range has been marked by public protests from both sides and a pair of lawsuits. Brookhaven sued the range, saying it violates the town’s noise ordinance. Local advocates filed suit against Suffolk, alleging the county allowed “prohibited development” in the “core preservation area” of the pine barrens. Both suits are still in court.

Richard Amper, executive director of the Pine Barrens Society, said the range is dangerous because lead could leach into drinking water because the range is located over the aquifer.

“This particular portion of the pine barrens is very sensitive,” Amper said.

But Mike Loizos of Hicksville, a skeet-shooting enthusiast who spent a recent weekday afternoon firing at clay targets, said the activists’ arguments smack of NIMBY-ism.

“Close it down and do what, build more houses?” he said. “What about the people who live near the railroad station? Should they move the railroad station?”

The Pine Barrens Commission, charged with protecting an area advocates regard as Long Island’s last undisturbed wilderness, could vote on the range’s fate as soon as Wednesday’s meeting, officials said.

However, Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert, who represents the area, expects a drawn-out fight.

“I wanted this to be settled long ago,” she said.

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Environmental News, Regulations