Arthur Kunz County Park - Letter from John Turner

Four Harbors Audubon Society Opposes Suffolk County Bill to Give Away County Parkland Suffolk County Legislator Trotta has introduced a county measure to swap county parkland, at Arthur Kunz County Park, which the adjacent private property owner has usurped in exchange for the property owner's backyard. We strongly oppose the measure and have spoken three times at the Legislature expressing our opposition to the measure. For the past decade the property owner has taken control of a portion of county parkland by mowing it and putting a fence around it, thereby eliminating the public's right to use the property. At one point they had installed a putting green. This encroachment takes up about one-quarter of an acre. Instead of requesting that the state approve the land swap, as is required for any effort to alienate parkland, we believe the county should follow through on its lawsuit by seeking monetary damage and requiring the property owner, at their expense, to revegetate the property. Private property owners must not be rewarded for undertaking inappropriate and illegal behavior which is precisely what Trotta's measure would do. Further, parkland should be held as sacrosanct, being subject to alienation only under the most extraordinary circumstances in which the public benefits. In this case, county taxpayers and park users clearly do not benefit - only the adjacent property owner does so. This action would also establish a dangerous legal precedent. On Tuesday, November 26, 2019, John Turner, 4HAS Conservation Chair, spoke at the full meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature to express the organization’s opposition to passage of the message. Fortunately, there was significant opposition to the measure from other County Legislators, and Legislator Trotta withdrew the proposal; we hope this issue is now dead, but will provide updates if and when the need arises.