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 No-build zone is no longer Despite rules, Brookhaven Town's moratorium on development along County Road 51, enacted earlier this year, is no longer absolute. In a 6-0 vote, the town board last week approved a site plan by a developer hoping to build 64 single-family houses on a 76-acre parcel in Eastport. Developer Nicholas Cassis originally applied to develop the parcel in 2004. Responding to conversations with town and civic leaders, he modified his plan repeatedly, clustering the houses to create 37 acres of open space, widening the buffer between the development and the road, and improving landscaping, among other changes. Members of the town planning board "were happy," Cassis said yesterday. "They basically designed the project." Then the moratorium hit, blocking all new development in the area along County Road 51 in Eastport and other communities. "There were so many projects in the pipeline that they wanted to step back and see what they wanted," said Garrett Gray, the partner at Melville-based Weber Law Group, who represented Cassis' development. But Cassis' mortgage was about to come due, and the bank was unlikely to extend it under the moratorium. Gray said his client requested an exemption "almost immediately," and that the town was equally responsive, holding a hearing on Oct. 3 and approving the exemption on Oct. 17. The application was successful because "it was really a cooperation between the private sector and the town," Cassis said. He said that the site plan needs final approval and that he hopes to begin building this spring. 
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