Letters

I live on Humphrey Street in the Village of Westhampton Beach, which was a quiet, shady lane until several years ago, when a developer was allowed to cut down hundreds of trees on an empty lot and put up three multimillion-dollar houses that now are largely uninhabited. This transformed our street from an idyllic, almost rural lane into another piece of hideous suburbia. Neighbors who stood up to protest this development were completely ignored.

Recently, there has been of rash of development projects, all contributing to the denuding of our landscape on Montauk Highway and along Depot Road.

Today, the village is planning to allow 10 acres on South Country Road, abutting the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, to be razed to put up a solar farm by the energy company CVE [“Quiogue Homeowners Turn Out in Force To Pan Westhampton Beach Solar Lease,” 27east.com, March 12]. This would be a disaster for countless wildlife and the ecology of surrounding natural areas.

There are many alternative areas around here, where trees have already been eliminated, that could be used for a solar panel array. For example, the Westhampton Long Island Rail Road Station parking lot (Patchogue has done this), on or around the huge Amazon warehouse at Gabreski Airport, the parking lot at Rogers Beach, or the high school.

Once you start thinking about it, countless options are available that would not involve destruction of our limited natural surroundings, which are the most precious aspect of this area, and the reason we all want to live here.

I strongly ask the trustees to reconsider and rethink this plan. The loss of profit to CVE and the village is minuscule compared to the benefit to the residents of this area, and future generations.

Mary Saunders

Westhampton Beach Village