Wetlands protectors or beachfront bullies?

Residents of Centre Island, a secluded community where modest midcentury homes sit beside the mansions of Rupert Murdoch and Billy Joel, have become local activists.

Controversy in the community is rare. But last month, dozens of residents stuffed a living room-size chamber to oppose plans for a house on pilings between Oyster Bay Harbor and protected wetlands. A total of 113 people, about a quarter of the population, signed an online petition opposing the project.

That number represented more people than typically vote in elections in this one-road village, Nassau County's second-smallest.

And they won - at least for now. By way of a lone dissenter blocking a needed 3-0 vote, Centre Island's Zoning Board of Appeals on Dec. 27 denied an elevation variance for the 3,300-square-foot, 36-foot-high Colonial-style home.

"This thing would destroy a lot of wildlife and vegetation, and stick out like a sore thumb," said Jack Williams, a former village mayor who co-founded the Friends of the Bay environmental group.

Officials had never seen a resistance so loud and large. Neither had Robert Jonas, the Florida resident planning to build on a 3-acre lot his family has owned since the 1950s.

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"I don't believe that I should surrender what property rights I have under the Constitution to what amounts to an angry mob of bullies," said Jonas, 87, whose father co-founded Oxford Penda-flex Corp., an office supply firm.

Jonas' son, William, 62, a painter who lives on Centre Island, said the family just wants to build a "nice little beach house."

Opponents said its septic system would be vulnerable during floods and possibly contaminate the wetlands and harbor, and they worry about a precedent being set.

Jonas called that "an exaggeration."

Blueprints for the house show it is elevated 18 feet above ground, on pilings hidden by a breakaway facade. The site sits about 8 1/2 feet above sea level, but Centre Island building codes restrict dwellings to sites at least 12 feet above sea level.

Jonas has already received a tidal wetlands building permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The village imposes stricter construction requirements than the state.

Centre Island, a curving 2-mile-long peninsula, boasts an unbroken beach and no commercial development. Only 12 of the island's 236 houses have been built since 2005. Residents have a median household income of $141,250, according to U.S. Census data, modest compared with some neighboring North Shore communities.

"It's not the size of the village, it's the size of the controversy," said Rich Guardino, dean of the Wilbur F. Breslin Center for Real Estate Studies at Hofstra University and former Hempstead supervisor. Social media have created "a whole new arena in terms of communication from civic associations," he said.

Carter Bales, a longtime Centre Island resident and chairman of the North Shore Land Alliance, worries about Jonas' home being built on a narrow strip of sand - dotted with dozens of starfish on a recent morning.

"It's going to be flooded several times a year, no matter how good the septic system is," Bales said. "Then you have sewage in the harbor and in the wetlands."

Jonas' Mineola-based attorney, Judy Simoncic, countered that the septic tank would be 100 feet from wetlands, sealed from groundwater with concrete.

Simoncic said she would review the zoning board's decision before deciding what steps to take next, but opponents - organized as Concerned Citizens of Centre Island - expect the dispute to end up in court.

"We'll continue to fight," Bales said.