House Beautiful to Oppose Sagtikos Truck Route

Dix Hills-based House Beautiful Civic Association said it will oppose the proposed Sagtikos truck route if it means that no commercial traffic will be allowed on Commack Road, civic member Jean Varrone has told Patch.

Varrone is also a member of a civic's task force, formed about a year ago, which is responsible for looking into the project.

The proposed truck route would run parallel to Commack Road, from the Long Island Expressway down to Long Island Avenue, but be solely for commercial traffic, rerouting the trucks from Commack Road. The plan follows long-time complaints of trucks clogging Commack Road for quite some time. Both U.S. Rep. Steve Israel and Suffolk Legis. Steve Stern have backed the proposal.

Varrone said that House Beautiful is concerned that denying trucks access to Commack Road will mean many drivers with direct their routes down Deer Park Avenue instead, which is a much more residential street than Commack Road.

"We don't want to deregulate Commack Road," she said. "We want to retain Commack Road as a truck route."

Varrone also said the group is concerned that construction of the new truck route would support the state Department of Transportation's proposed Long Island Truck and Rail Intermodal Facility in Brentwood, a hotly contested project.

"This is a set-up for an intermodal," Varrone said. "They give us this truck route and then we have to give them the intermodal that they want."

Stern disagreed.

"I've already said that the only way I would be involved in this project is if we look at the roadway for its own merits and not have it tied to any other project," he said.

"If we move the trucks off Commack Road, off Deer Park Avenue and off Wicks Road, it will have a tremendous beneficial impact," Stern added.

The task force on which Varrone serves was asked to examine not only the truck route, but the entire Sagtikos Regional Development Zone, a 2,500-acre development area that includes land in the towns of Huntington, Babylon, Islip and Smithtown.

According to Israel's office, the zone includes 2.6 million square feet of retail space, 3 million square feet of commercial space, 1.3 million square feet of industrial space and approximately 9,000 housing units.

Tanger's Deer Park outlet center sits in the development zone.

Stern said that it's important that they figure out if the plan is feasible and what impact it will have on the region, how the road will look and be utilized and to study the consequences.

"All too often in government — at any level — the government comes up with a plan and doesn't get meaningful input from area residents and people wake up one day to find a Wal-Mart in their backyard. I brought in area residents before we even put pen to paper, so that doesn't happen."