Your reports on my lawsuit over the destruction of 17 more acres of forest in North Hills keeps missing the point.
As I told the reporter, you keep reporting the minutiae of the legal action as if your are a real-estate trade journal, not a beacon of truth to the communities you serve.
What the public needs to be reminded is that this is another attack on Nassau County’s already decimated environment, abetted by both North Hills and the County IDA.
The facts show I am not making it up:
“…[T]he Residences at North Hills site contains a significant and rare vegetational community type….The Department strongly urges the Village of North Hills to undertake whatever measures are necessary to help ensure the protection and preservation of as much of this forest as possible” wrote the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in 2005.
Three environmental groups on Long Island testified October, 2013 against the project:
“We hope the forest can be saved as open space – there is far too little open space in Nassau County and we should do everything possible to preserve what is left” wrote the Green Party of Nassau County chairman, Jim Brown.
“We oppose this project, and ask that it be subjected to a new environmental impact study, for many reasons related to its effect on the environment” wrote the Sierra Club Long Island Group.
“I sincerely hope the town and the developers take note not to clear-cut this forest. It will be a long-term detriment to our Long Island community that cannot be replaced” write Long Islands Orchestrating for Nature (LION).
Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth also wrote a letter to town and county agencies asking that the forest be preserved.
Four local plaintiffs I recruited were very interested in signing onto the lawsuit, one of whom signed affidavits and was ready to act before it appeared the case was doomed at the lower-court level.
Furthermore, the list of species at-risk was not my invention – it was part of the inventory officially accepted by the Village of North Hills as part of its environmental review.
There remain pieces of the old Oak-Tulip forest both along New Hyde Park Road and behind the Great Neck South High school. We need to preserve those now.
So please stop twisting the story to make these money-hungry developers and $21 million-richer village seem like the sensible adults.
John Gotti and Al Capone wore nice suits too. It did not mean they were model citizens.
Richard Brummel
East Hills
