Landowner Roger Tilles, without authorization from the Town of Oyster Bay, instructed workers on Tuesday, Nov. 16 to bulldoze a portion of the Underhill property in Jericho and to deposit soil into several of the environmentally-sensitive parcel's kettle-ponds.

The purpose of the project was to dry up several of the property's kettle-ponds with dirt, allowing for the future construction of homes on those areas. In the process of digging up certain areas for pond-filler, workers were also grading the land; in other words, changing the slope of the land from that of hilly terrain to a more level surface.

Grading the land further facilitates Tilles' goal to build 270 housing units on the 81-acre Underhill parcel - a plan which local civic groups have been challenging in the courts and which the town has recently discouraged.

By noon Tuesday, the office of the Town of Oyster Bay was alerted to the morning's bulldozing activity and quickly interceded, issuing an oral "cease and desist" order to Tilles and his attorney Louis Soloway. "We swung right into action," said Town Supervisor John Venditto.

According to Venditto, Tilles violated two town policies. First, a landowner cannot have his property graded without a town permit. Second, construction of any kind is impermissible if it relates to a development project that has not yet completed the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process.

Part of the SEQR process requires the drafting of an up-to-date Environmental Impact Statement, which Tilles has not yet submitted. Years ago Tilles Investment Co. submitted an EIS for an earlier, higher-density development plan, but a judge ruled that another EIS was necessary after Tilles revised the project to accommodate lower-density housing.

Soloway denies that Tuesday's bulldozing violated the town code or SEQR law, explaining that he does not define grading, nor the filling of ponds with dirt, as an act of development or construction. Rather, he called it "pre-development" work - that which prepares a parcel for future construction possibilities.

Also, said the attorney, the amount of land affected by the bulldozing was nominal. "There was grading of a very small portion of the property," said Soloway. They attorney claimed that merely .004 percent of the entire property was impacted. "That's what was being disturbed. It was less than one-third of an acre," he said.

However, that small percentage of affected property caused a mighty uproar among those hoping the entire 81 acres can be purchased and preserved. Joe Lorintz, president of the Society to Preserve Underhill, said, "I find it abhorrent that anybody would do anything that would jeopardize the character of the land." He continued, "I would have to voice tremendous skepticism over the motives of bulldozing under the present circumstances."

Tilles immediately had the bulldozing stopped when the town interceded, but there is disagreement as to whether he had any choice but to acquiesce to the town's demands.

Soloway said that Tilles' cooperation was an act of courtesy, and not one of obeisance to a town order. He denied that a cease and desist order was ever imposed last Tuesday, characterizing the town's statement as more of a "request" to stop "until they could determine what exactly was happening."

But Supervisor Venditto said, "From my perspective, my counsel...directly communicated with the attorney of the owner and clearly put forth a verbal cease and desist order. Rather than waiting for papers to be drawn up and served, the order was given verbally." And just to avoid any future misunderstandings, said Venditto, "It will be followed up and put in writing."

On Thursday morning, Soloway confirmed receiving the written document, although he still would not call it a cease and desist order. He said that the town gave him a work-stop order.

Venditto said that the site will be regularly supervised to ensure that the order is observed, but added, "We're satisfied that the work has been stopped. We're not concerned that it will continue in any kind of unlawful manner."

Also, in light of Tuesday's events, Tilles also received a Notice of Violation, a document which can later serve as the basis for a summons.

Nevertheless, Soloway maintains that Tilles was justified in his actions, explaining that a permit for filling the property's kettle-ponds with dirt was indeed issued - only not by the town, but the Army Corps of Engineers, a branch of the United States Army that deals with domestic bodies of water.

"Yes, we did issue the permit," confirmed Jim Haggerty, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers' Permits Section, asserting that his branch of the Army has jurisdiction in matters concerning almost all United States waters. "For that particular project, we regulated the discharge of fill material into the waters. It [was] done to create dry land to facilitate construction."

However, when pressed about the extent of the Corps' jurisdiction, Haggerty would later admit, "Our jurisdiction does not supersede that of local or state government." Haggerty was then asked if he was aware that Tilles' development plans have been under the scrutiny of New York State's Appellate Court, or if he knew that the Town of Oyster Bay had not yet authorized any development on the property.

"We were not, until now, aware of that information," he conceded. "We did not consult with anyone."

Haggerty said that all Tilles had to do to acquire the permit was complete an application process. He would not speculate as to whether he would have granted Tilles a permit if he had been given full disclosure of the case. However, he said that based on the information he was given, his actions were "appropriate."

An infuriated Lorintz said that it appears as if Tilles attempted an "end-run" around the town's authority and the SEQR process by appealing to the Army Corps of Engineers.

"If anyone thinks that they're going to seek a permit to do this type of destructive bulldozing, we'll do everything that is legally within our power to prevent it. They're not going to ruin the land before we have the opportunity to preserve it."