Southold Town’s draft update of its Community Preservation Fund Project Plan will soon be sent out for review to other stakeholders, but it does not yet include a component long wished for by lawmakers in Greenport — a plan to guide funding for water quality improvement projects.
Pictured Above: At Greenport’s Commercial Dock this winter.
The Community Preservation Fund — which began as a land preservation program in each of the five East End towns in 1999, received approval from voters in 2016 to expand to include water quality projects. But Southold Town has not yet created a Project Plan for water quality projects — which is necessary before it can spend the money — and has not updated its overall Project Plan since 2016, despite the fact that state law requires town project plans to be updated every five years.
In addition to the water quality component, changes to the CPF law in 2024 also require that 10 percent of a town’s CPF money be spent for the benefit of a “Disadvantaged Community,” or DAC.
The DAC designation is determined by a complicated formula assessing an area’s ability to adapt to climate change, created by New York State’s Climate Justice Working Group in 2023. Greenport Village is the only designated Disadvantaged Community on the North Fork, and while Southold has been reserving CPF funds to be applied toward this program, it has not yet used any.
Southold Town Land Preservation Coordinator Lillian McCullough and the town’s Land Preservation Committee have nearly completed their update to the open space portion of the CPF project plan, Ms. McCullough told the Southold Town Board at its Aug. 11 work session.
Greenport Village Board members have repeatedly approached the Southold Town Board over the past year asking Southold to put in place a process by which funds can be used to benefit the village, and Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips penned an Op-Ed in The Beacon last week urging the town not delay its assistance to the village.
But Ms. McCullough said her office is intent on finishing the open space portion of the project plan before focusing on water quality.
“The open space program is up and running — it’s the lowest hanging fruit,” she said. “We need to pick one area and focus on it, and then go on to the next one.”
Ms. McCullough said her office is also working on determining how the the Disadvantaged Communities formula ties onto CPF.
“The DAC formula was created statewide, and it was looking at a much broader scale — how to distribute funds from the states around the state, instead of towns distributing funds to hamlets,” she said.
For example, she said, state grants for Disadvantaged Communities often consider projects within five miles of a disadvantaged community, but Southold may decide to consider only projects that are in or within half a mile of Greenport, “in order to preserve walkability.”
Members of the Town Board were agreeable to the half-mile guideline.
“Demographics are such a large part of this… It’s about the impacts of climate on people,” said Councilwoman Alexa Suess.
“I like the half mile — I visualize people and the impact on their health,” agreed Councilwoman Anne Smith.
Ms. McCullough said she and other CPF managers are still trying to figure out how to apply the DAC guidelines, which are different than the state’s guidelines for another similar program, the DEC’s Potential Environmental Justice Areas.
“The entire town has serious environmental and climate change needs, and our DAC has more specific needs,” she said.
Ms. McCullough, Land Preservation Coordinator John Sepenoski and the Town Board then hashed out a few details of the open space plan’s guidelines, including whether to include subdivision open space, land that isn’t contiguous to other preserved land, parcels in hamlet centers and smaller parcels in the updated project plan. They also urged the town to not consider properties that already have houses on them.
Ms. McCullough said the CPF is not the only potential source of funding in hamlet centers, and pocket parks created with other funding could also later be accepted into the CPF program for long-term stewardship and management.
Ms. McCullough suggested the board refer the draft plan to stakeholders for feedback over the next four weeks, after which formal public hearings would be held.
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