The Town of Brookhaven Planning Board, as lead agency, has completed what was believed to be the final scope for the proposed AIREF Station Road Logistics Center. The plan, which has not yet been approved, is available to be viewed from the Town of Brookhaven Department of Planning, Environmental, and Land Management and can be seen online at brookhavenny.gov.

This action involves the construction of a warehousing and distribution facility and trucking terminal, which consists of three buildings totaling approximately 523,100 square feet of gross floor area on a plot of 51.95 acres of L-Industrial-1-zoned properties in Bellport. The trio of buildings will house an aggregate total of about 496,630 square feet of warehouse storage space and 26,470 square feet of facility office space. This proposed project is set to be located on the south side of Woodside Avenue, east of Station Road in Bellport.

“They filed a site plan, and that site plan took criticism, apparently from the emergency medical service community because of the fact that the curb cut to go in and out of this facility, was on Station Road,” said Suffolk County Legis. Jim Mazzarella.

Mazzarella, of District 3, is the county legislator of the area that this currently uncleared area falls under. He explained why the emergency fire and ambulance community reached out to him to voice their vehement concern over the proposed plan as it was originally presented.

“Their resistance was basically because they felt it was unsafe to add the additional traffic onto Station Road because of the fact that there are only two lanes,” explained the Republican Moriches legislator. “They also cited some traffic history issues on that stretch of roadway, within a mile, or a half of a mile, in each direction, of where that curb cut would be on Station Road.”

It was this concern, from a community who understands the intricacies and potential pitfalls of this stretch of land well, that was the impetus for the developer to have to come back with a new rendition of a site plan, which would allow access of egress (a path of coming in or going out, especially in an emergency) both to and from the facility, to be on Woodside Avenue, rather than on Station Road.

“So that satisfied the EMS,” said Mazzarella. This has not been approved yet.

The developer still has to do a traffic study and provide documentation to the Suffolk County Department of Public Works and their traffic division, to be granted permission to make the necessary curb cut on Woodside Road.

While Mazzarella pointed out that his expertise does not lie in traffic engineering, he agreed that this seemed like a “much safer” way for the project to be undertaken in this already densely trafficked area.

“I’m not really in favor of them having the egress on Station Road because, honestly, it’s a roadway that has one lane in each direction, so to add trucking and traffic, I don’t believe that road is equipped for that,” said Mazzarella, who believes it would be a detriment to the area, where residents come in and out of the Bellport community and use Station Road regularly. “I’m not in favor of the Station Road egress, but that’s what’s on the site plan, so they have to go back and again apply for permission to go back and again apply for permission to switch that over to Woodside.”

Mazzarella is supportive of the project, if the changes strongly urged for by the local EMS community are heeded. If anyone has any questions or concerns about the upcoming AIREF Station Road Logistics Center, they should contact their local elected official to find out about any upcoming meetings taking place, as the project goes back to the drawing board with community safety and traffic control in mind.