The problem here seems to be that the landowner did not consider endangered species before planning to develop. In addition, more of the public are beginning to accept that green spaces are better than developed concrete spaces.
Do we really need another water park or indoor ski mountain thingy that wastes natural resources? From the Conservation Report essay ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: To Act or not to act:
Before starting a project landowners should be proactive from the beginning by contacting the appropriate regulatory agencies to investigate any environmental concerns. This gives the landowner more flexibility and options. Another law professor through conversation noted that greatest conflicts occur when people do not contact their regulatory agencies and have already spent a great deal of money, thought and time on the project. He also noted that the greatest number of conflicts occur when non-residents try to develop land because the appreciation and insider knowledge as found with residents does not exist. Planning and including regulatory agencies in development not only produces a win-win situation but it prevents the landowner from being penalized. The 1995 Babbitt, Secretary Of Interior v. Sweet Home Chapter Of Communities For A Great Oregon United States Supreme Court decision determined that habitat modification, which kills endangered species is equivalent to harm as defined by the ESA.
From Newsday.com:
Riverhead’s efforts to develop the 2,900-acre Calverton site have led to repeated clashes with environmental groups and state officials, who say more caution is needed to protect vulnerable species and the underground aquifers beneath the property. Last week the town sued the DEC over Commissioner Alexander “Pete” Grannis’ decision to grant his own agency lead status for an environmental review of the water park being built there.The DEC documented the owls’ presence – along with that of the threatened northern harrier – at Enterprise Park earlier this week, after several reports from birders last month that groups of three and four owls were foraging near the runways. It is the largest group of short-eared owls to show up on Long Island in several years, said Trish Pelkowski, Pine Barrens site director for the Nature Conservancy on Long Island, who photographed the owls there last week.
Richard Amper, of the Pine Barrens Society, said the site can still be developed. Still, he said, if Riverhead “looked at the property instead of the projects, they might have discovered endangered species [such as the owl] and known better what would or would not be acceptable.”
