The Town of Brookhaven passed a vote allowing the development of an over 13-acre Muslim cemetery to be built on Beaver Dam Road in Bellport on Thursday, May 14. The lot is currently vacant.

“The proposed natural vegetated buffers will be increased by 60 percent on the west side and a 100-foot natural and undisturbed [area] will be covenanted for the four properties off of Bellhaven in exceedance of New York State and Suffolk County Health Department standards,” supervisor Dan Panico said ahead of the vote.

The vote passed unanimously, 7-0, with the inclusion of requiring 31.2 percent of the site remain natural and undisturbed, including buffers from 25 to 100 feet surrounding the property. According to Panico, the rear yards of Carver on the west side will see an increased buffer of 60 percent, which is 100 feet.

“The Town of Brookhaven evaluated this site plan to ensure compliance with the law, which includes all relevant town, county, state, and the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA),” said Panico. “Ultimately, 32.1% of the entire property will remain natural and undisturbed as we increased the buffer by 60% on the west side of the property and added a 100’ buffer on the east side adjacent to the residential two rear yards and an additional 25’ buffer throughout the remaining entirety to the south and east sides. We worked hard to take into consideration the reasonable comments and concerns of the community while upholding the rights of the property owner to achieve a fair balance here. I must note that we saw the emergence of a problematic issue in this application process, aside from some unfortunate comments, and that was an absolutely erroneous and undoubtedly Ai created report that was reshared as fact when it was absolute nonsense. An issue we are all going to have to deal with in the future.”

Bellport resident Anthony Petillo, who vocally opposed the cemetery, said he felt the project was “fast tracked,” despite an online petition with over 400 signatures and the property sloping into the Mott Creek watershed/private water wells of residents.

The town was able to vote on the proposal, after the Suffolk County Legislature, which originally tabled the vote due to “minor inaccuracies” in the application, passed it through on Tuesday, May 12, as a certificate of necessity.

According to Legis. Dominick Thorne, the county’s role in this application was solely administrative. He also said the original inaccuracies included the wrong road names labeled in the proposal.

The cemetery was proposed by the Hillside Islamic Center as an up to 12,000-square-foot plot development exclusively for Muslims.

According to councilman Michael Loguercio, the development is an “as of right” use in the A1 zoning, and would be located in an area capable of the development of up to 50 homes.

The proposal also shows a structure to be used as an area for only a single prayer service prior to burials, Loguercio said.

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