I laughed out loud when I read the diatribe by last week's guest columnist on development proponents "paving over our quality of life." The Kmart parcel is already paved over! It's been that way for 50 years, when it first opened as an amusement park. I have fond memories of visiting Fairy Town in Middle Island in the early 1960s. Perhaps that's where the "commercial recreational" concept for this parcel came from. Unfortunately, Fairy Town failed, as did Sports Plus, another example of commercial recreational use suggested for the Artist Lake parcel by the Middle Country Road Land Use Plan.

For a different take on this same topic read Richard Amper's guest column.

So much has changed since the community-based charrettes of 2002, which led to the town adopting the Middle Country Road Land Use Plan in early 2006. Entire industries have been decimated. Kmart closed. The Sports Plus location in Lake Grove and adjacent golf course are now occupied by high-density housing and a shopping center. As our local and national economies teeter between prolonged recession and lengthy recovery, interpreters of the Middle Country Road Land Use Plan must realize several things: This document was never intended as an absolute edict to mandate specific business uses for privately owned property. It is meant as a guide, to recommend uses that will benefit both the public and the owner. A certain degree of flexibility is essential -- and the real power still lies in zoning changes approved by our elected officials.

The Town of Brookhaven now has before it a unique proposal to rezone the derelict Kmart parcel and correct years of disuse. The plan for Artist Lake Plaza provides shopping, dining and recreational opportunities that I and many local residents would love to take advantage of -- without having to drive 10 miles or more. Over one-third of the project site, the northern 25.16 acres, will be dedicated to the town for open space preservation and public ball fields. New trees, plantings, gathering spaces and public amenities will grace this barren eyesore. The current sea of asphalt on this blighted spot will be removed and replaced with buildings, parking and properly designed drainage systems, and all stormwater runoff generated on developed surfaces will be retained/recharged on site. That's good news for Artist Lake. The applicant will pursue certification under the LEED program and will finance all traffic mitigation measures. When completed, the project will generate more than $1.5 million in annual taxes, over four times the revenue under existing conditions. The Longwood School District is anticipated to receive over $1 million in property tax revenue, with no increase in enrollment.

Wind harvesting, green walls, rain gardens, potential solar roofs -- what's not to love? Do we really want houses there instead? Because that's what the current zoning allows -- though there's been no mention of this by the plan's opponents. Fifty single-family homes, 44 to the west and six to the east, are permitted under existing A1 zoning, along with the more than 123,000 square feet of commercial space already there. This would totally negate any tax gains and burden our school system even further. The proposed rezoning for construction of Artist Lake Plaza is the perfect chance for many of the regular naysayers and enviro-frightalists to finally come to their senses and support a project that addresses both environmental and economic issues.

Sadly, they have not done so.

I guess they just don't like anything. I share their concerns about Legacy Village and a possible casino, but opposing every single project that comes forward makes no sense, unless someone is rewarding them to do so. And in that case, it eliminates them as a reasonable presence at the bargaining table. Credibility goes out the window. They've become a foregone conclusion. Everyone knows what they're going to say --"NO!" -- so they aren't worth dealing with. Unfortunately, then they get mad and sue -- costing all of us even more money and delays. This is what they did most recently with Sandy Hills, and what they did back in the 1990s when we almost had Longwood Youth Sports Association fields in Ridge. Now that we once again have the chance for LYSA fields at Artist Lake Plaza, will the naysayers and enviro-frightalists strike again?

Gail Lynch-Bailey is a Middle Island resident and president of The Longwood Alliance, an umbrella community organization covering 10 hamlets that make up the Longwood area.