I am calling for a moratorium on zone changes until the Town of Islip completes its master plan (TOI 360).  Recent decisions by the Town of Islip Council make this moratorium necessary.

Over the course of our careers, the average Long Islander will spend 4800 days commuting back and forth to work.  Poor planning is the culprit.  Town officials upgrade property rules to allow for larger apartments, allowing them to collect taxes and meet housing needs.  Unfortunately, provisions are rarely made to improve our infrastructure. Because traffic lanes, light rails and bus lanes aren't added when improving zone changes, our quality of life suffers.

Fortunately, earlier this spring, the Town of Islip embarked on our first master plan since 1979. It’s called Town of Islip (or TOI) 360, https://www.toi360.com, and the Town approved close to a half million dollars to conduct it.  Unfortunately, the Town made two controversial decisions late last month that raise the question if TOI 360 is sincere or merely window dressing.  Those decisions prompted this petition.

Just last month, a new, controversial member of the Town’s Zoning Board received an unusual walk-on nomination and appointment by the Town Council that night. As if in tandem, a Planning Board meeting was scheduled to review a zone change for a project long opposed by residents.  The Newsday article citing this appointment and the related public notice of the Zoning Board are included with this petition.

We must see TOI 360 through.  

Zoning is wildly out of date in many parts of the Town of Islip.   Zoning in my hamlet, Sayville, for example, has not been updated since 1967. 170,000 residents lived in the Town of Islip back then, gasoline was 32 cents a gallon and a home cost $19,892.  Our population has doubled and it's now unusual to find a home for under half a million dollars.  

Times have indeed changed.  So have our needs.  

Consider the exodus of young people leaving Long Island because of a lack of affordable housing.  Each of those young people takes with them a first-rate public education paid for by taxpayers.   The new housing proposals we are seeing are out of reach for young people. Our children are leaving and taking the investment we made in their education with them.

TOI 360 seeks community input as a first step in making a new masterplan.  It will allow residents to ask questions.   Why clearcut a forested property, for example, when an easement could be made on an adjacent lot to allow for more dynamic business uses?  Indeed.  We must strive to create a better balance between our quality of life, the environment and public health.

We currently have a small toxic plume winding its way through West Islip at the DZUS superfund site.  Previously, we were told this site was safe.  We now know it’s not.  Cadmium and chromium, two cancer-causing agents, continue to leak into Willets Creek and the Great South Bay.

The rushed appointment of a planning board member raises similar alarms.   This individual was one of two Town employees in the Parks Department when 80,000,000 pounds of building materials laced with Cobalt, Dieldrin and asbestos (also cancer-causing) were dumped at Roberto Clemente Park in Brentwood.  This is a park for children.  

I suspect this individual was a whistleblower.  Upon further investigation, it turns out this individual has risen to take on bigger roles without incident since.  This suggests he bore more responsibility than many higher placed elected officials, many of which went out to take even more important jobs (i.e. higher office, more elevated roles).

All we really know, though, is that he informed his supervisor of the problem.  Why?  The public was given neither the time nor the opportunity to consider the recommendation.  That is a problem.  

What do we want our Town to look like 50 years from now?  What steps can we take to preserve wooded lots, improve water quality, restore our wetlands and protect the parks that add so much to our quality of life?  How do we protect the environment and public health while also developing plans and zoning to address our housing and employment needs?  That is exactly what Town of Islip (TOI) 360 aims to do. 

Why are these related problems--the rushed, controversial appointment on planning and a zoning meeting being scheduled for planning--such a problem?  The Planning board is responsible for guiding the town's physical development.  It must also ensure zoning aligns with the town's comprehensive plan.  Now isn't the time for politics as usual.  Now is the time to be thoughtful and deliberative.  This moratorium is meant to focus on our long-term needs. 

The Town of Islip needs to honor the process they initiated.  The Town of Islip should not approve significant zone changes in communities with outdated zoning until that process is complete.  Thank you.

 

TOWN OF ISLIP COUNCIL MEETING (7/15/25):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyahVA8hXpE (Time - 1:30:25 – 1:33:37).  

TOWN OF ISLIP PLANNING MEETING (7/16/25):

https://www.toi360.com

 

NEWSDAY ARTICLE

Official linked to 2014 Roberto Clemente Park dumping scandal lands seat on Islip planning board

By Sam Kmack sam.kmack@newsday.com Updated June 17, 2025 3:55 pm

A former Islip Town staffer and Suffolk County Conservative Party officer who pleaded guilty in the 2014 Roberto Clemente Park dumping scandal will now sit on Islip’s planning board following a controversial vote among Islip’s elected officials to appoint him last week.

Brett A. Robinson worked as an executive secretary for Islip Town’s parks commissioner during the scandal. It involved companies illegally dumping roughly 40,000 tons of toxic construction waste in 2013 and 2014 at the town-owned park in Brentwood, which prompted a Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office investigation in mid-2014.

The town fired Robinson shortly after the investigation launched, and he pleaded guilty in 2016 to a disorderly conduct violation for being aware of the dumping and failing to stop it. He began working a roughly $150,000-per-year job, as assistant deputy county executive, for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine last year, Newsday reported.

Islip’s town board appointed Robinson last Tuesday to a seven-year term on the planning board, which helps decide what types of projects get done townwide. 

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

Brett A. Robinson, a former Islip Town staffer who pleaded guilty in the 2014 Roberto Clemente Park dumping scandal, has been appointed to Islip’s planning board. 
The scandal involved companies illegally dumping roughly 40,000 tons of toxic construction waste at the town-owned park in Brentwood.
The town board suspended its normal rules to allow Conservative Councilman John Lorenzo to propose Robinson’s appointment at the end of last week's town board meeting.
Robinson did not respond to a request by Newsday for comment about the appointment.  

Town officials largely support Robinson, but local activists call the appointment an insult given Robinson’s contentious history inside town government.

“This is a massive slap in the face to the folks that will have to live with the impacts of his poor decision making,” said Ahmad Perez, executive director of the community advocacy organization Islip Forward. “We are all about second chances. We understand people make mistakes. … But this is a role with significant decision-making power.” 

Islip Councilman Jorge Guadron, a Democrat whose district includes Roberto Clemente Park, abstained from voting on the appointment. He told Newsday, “I personally don’t have anything against him, but my community does.”

“[Robinson] pled guilty because he couldn’t afford an attorney for his defense and the community thinks that because he pled guilty to those charges, that he is guilty,” said Guadron, who believes Robinson did inform his superior of "suspicious" dumping before the scandal came to light.

Guadron and Republican Supervisor Angie Carpenter, who also abstained from voting on Robinson’s appointment, primarily took issue with the process. 

The town board suspended its normal rules to allow Conservative Councilman John Lorenzo to propose Robinson’s appointment at the end of the meeting last Tuesday.  The vote wasn’t on the agenda, nor was it advertised ahead of the meeting like most town board decisions.

“I didn’t appreciate the process. I wouldn’t even opine on the candidate because [there was] no public notice. It was walked-on at the last minute,” Carpenter said. “I don’t approve of it. I don’t feel that we should be walking it on at the last moment.”

Lorenzo declined to comment on the process or why he chose Robinson, who serves as the secretary for the Suffolk County Conservative Party. Republicans Michael McElwee and James O’Connor, who joined Lorenzo in voting for Robinson’s appointment, also declined to comment.

Suffolk County Conservative Party chairman Mike Torres defended Robinson’s history in a written statement to Newsday.

Torres said Robinson was “prosecuted for political retribution by a corrupt DA,” referring to former Democratic District Attorney Thomas Spota, who was sentenced to federal prison in 2019 for his role in covering up police brutality within the Suffolk County Police Department.

“Robinson has a proven record of service and integrity that’s beyond reproach and brings a fresh perspective to the Planning Board — something our communities desperately need as we grow and plan for the future,” Torres wrote. “Attacks on his character or the process are nothing more than political theater.”

Robinson’s appointment to the planning board took effect “immediately” after the vote, according to Lorenzo’s resolution. His term is to expire at the end of 2031. He replaces former board member Brian Ferruggiari, who had been holding the seat on a tentative basis since his term expired in 2023.

“I thoroughly enjoyed serving on that board. I considered it an honor to do that type of public service,” Ferruggiari told Newsday. “But the planning board serves at the pleasure of the town board — and the town board … has spoken.” 

Newsday's Vera Chinese and Carl MacGowan contributed to this story. 

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

 

TOWN OF ISLIP PLANNING BOARD - PUBLIC NOTICE