Over the past several months, Greenport Village Trustee Lily Dougherty-Johnson and Southold Town Councilwoman Anne Smith have been working together to hash out where the village and the town can find common ground on priorities for use of Community Preservation Funds (CPF), after several contentious meetings between the town and the village over the course of the past year in which each side dug in its heels.
Pictured Above: Fifth Street Beach in Greenport, one of the areas where Greenport Village believes Southold Town can use CPF money for water quality projects.
The two lawmakers have met about a half dozen times over the past several months, developing a list of about a dozen projects they believe could be candidates for town funding.
But the relationship between the town and the village still remains tenuous, Ms. Dougherty-Johnson reminded the Town Board at its Dec. 2 meeting. She said she’d listened to an account of the recent work on CPF issues by Town Land Preservation Coordinator Lilly McCullough at the Town Board’s Nov. 18 work session, and found it “a little dismaying to hear not a lot of progress has been made.”
“There was talk that some things on our chart were not eligible,” she said. “After working really hard, we believe all of those projects are CPF eligible…. I think I speak for the whole [Village] Board. We’re willing to meet to do anything to move this forward.”
What Does Greenport Have In Mind?
The list includes numerous water quality projects, some historic preservation projects and small lots for acquisition that would depend on having a willing seller, said Ms. Doughtery-Johnson in an interview this week with The Beacon.
The water quality projects include extensions of the Greenport Sewer District to areas east of the village like the Safe Harbor marinas and Sandy Beach, and stormwater projects in areas often subject to coastal flooding, with the areas near the ends of Fifth and Sixth street a top priority. Other projects, she said, could include marine habitat and shellfish restoration.
The village is also requesting the town look into using CPF money for historic projects like upgrades to the East End Seaport Museum, Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church and the Greenport Auditorium on Main Street, and consider acquiring a small number of open lots or lots with vacant buildings.
“These are very limited in the village and need willing property owners to sell,” said Ms. Dougherty-Johnson.
“There are a lot of needs, especially with water quality, where the CPF is not necessarily going to fund an entire project, but it would be great to have the matching funds for grant funding,” she added.
“The extension of the sewer to Sandy Beach and Safe Harbor is a big priority, and would do wonders for water quality with all that outdated septic there,” agreed Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi. “And the road ends at Fifth and Sixth Streets and renovation of the park and cresting bioswales there is a big opportunity…. We often see salt water coming out of our storm drains here before the water from the bay crests the beaches and floods the roads. We also then see major runoff from the roads running towards it and it’s quite a confluence.”
How Has the CPF Changed?
The town collects CPF money generated through a 2 percent real estate transfer tax in a dedicated fund that it uses primarily to buy farmland, open space and development rights from farmland.
The state law that allows CPF funds in the five East End towns has since 2016 also allowed 20 percent of that funding to be used on water quality projects, but Southold has not yet set up a priority list for water quality projects, which is required before CPF money can be used for water quality.
As of this year, the state also requires 10 percent of CPF money to be spent in state-designated “disadvantaged communities.”
Greenport has been designated a disadvantaged community, but Southold has been slow to acknowledge the need to use CPF money within the village.
Four out of five East End Town Supervisors, and nearly all of the East End’s mayors, had signed a letter last year to Governor Kathy Hochul asking for amendments to the CPF law, including allowing 10 percent to be spent in disadvantaged communities.
Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski, who has repeatedly and publicly called the disadvantaged communities set-aside an example of government overreach, did not sign the letter.
Greenport residents and Village Board members began approaching Southold Town in 2023 asking the town to spend some of its money in the village, before it was designated a disadvantaged community, pointing out that the town receives quite a bit of CPF revenue from real estate sales within the village.
Unlike towns on the South Fork, which have a surplus of CPF funding due to the high prices and frequent real estate turnover there, Southold had not yet begun to use its limited funding on water quality projects, arguing that it is best spent on farmland preservation. Southold has also developed a pipeline of other funding sources for its own water quality projects.
But Greenport officials argue that the costs to acquire property on the North Fork are also significantly lower than on the South Fork. Mr. Stuessi pointed out that East Hampton Town recently spent $56 million on a 30 acre parcel, while a similar 36-acre parcel in Southold, priced at $4.5 million is still on the market after two years.
The state law also allows the funding to be used for historic preservation, a purpose for which it is widely used on the South Fork but not on the North Fork.
The Village Digs In Its Heels
The Greenport Village Board sent a formal letter to the Southold Town Board in October asking for more progress on the use of CPF funding in the village, and sent a follow-up letter on Dec. 8.
“The lack of funding allocated to the Greenport area for 2025, despite its designation as a disadvantaged community under CPF law, remains a significant concern,” the Village Board wrote in its Dec. 8 letter. “The law stipulates that “not less than 10 percent of the annual proceeds of the fund shall be utilized to benefit such disadvantaged communities.” There remain only weeks left in the year, and to our knowledge, there have been no funds expended in compliance with this requirement.”
According to data collected by New York State Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni’s office, Southold Town collected nearly $5.86 million in CPF revenue in just the first half of 2025 — $585,000 of which would be earmarked for Greenport Village under the disadvantaged communities provision. The town’s CFF revenue was up from $4.6 million in the first half of 2024 — a 27 percent increase.
“I ran on the issue of bringing CPF funds back to the village,” said Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi in an interview this week with The Beacon. “We were originally focused on getting the town to put together a definitive water quality plan and use the fund for historic preservation, and that still has not happened.”
“It has been a year since that law has gone into effect… We have projects that could be in Greenport using the 10 percent that is required now,” Ms. Dougherty-Johnson said of the disadvantaged communities funding when she spoke at the Dec. 2 Southold Town Board meeting. “You could let us know what the process is to get this moving.”
She said she doesn’t think it would be the best use of Greenport’s time to go through another discussion with the town that would be a “CFP 101” primer.
“It feels like having more meetings and talking about things is not really moving us forward,” she said. “We have plenty of water quality needs, historic projects… The village is a little bit at your mercy…. What upsets me about this is I don’t think any of you sitting up there don’t want to follow the law and give a disadvantaged community what it’s due, but that’s really what it’s felt like.”
“Greenport is part of Southold Town. It’s an important part, our little downtown city for the whole North Fork,” she said. “It deserves the same kind of preservation and protection that the whole North Fork does. It’s a little different, for sure, but we have a lot that everyone should be wanting to protect.”
While Town Supervisor Al Krupski told Ms. Dougherty-Johnson he was encouraged she was working with Ms. Smith on the list of properties, he doubled down on his belief that the disadvantaged communities requirement “was a total overreach, for the state to change those laws. We’re trying to adapt to it.”
He added that the town is trying to do its part to be involved in the 11-member Regional Advisory Committee that was formed as a result of the same changes to the state law that required the 10 percent for disadvantaged communities.
“The town decided it would forge ahead with our best guess on how to implement that law,” said Ms. Smith of her meetings with Ms. Dougherty-Johnson. “That’s a high priority for us.”
Ms. Smith added that the town would now like to set up a working group with members of both boards to try to move the process forward.
What The Town’s Working On
At the Town Board’s Nov. 18 work session, Ms. McCullough, the town’s Land Preservation Coordinator, had given an overview of the list of projects the Village has asked be funded, which she referred to as a Natural Resources Inventory, and on the formation of the Regional Advisory Committee, which she said “is meant to bring heads together to answer questions the town has about administering the fund.”
“It’s meant to be a resource. We’ll get there,” she said.
The committee, which has been meeting since March, includes one representative from each of the five East End towns, one village representative and five members in expert categories who have knowledge about land preservation and water quality issues.
Mr. Stuessi represents the East End’s villages on that committee.
Ms. McCullough said at the Nov. 18 meeting that she’s next been tasked with matching “the needs to the resources, which could include CPF…. What does the village want to see, generally, which projects are CPF eligible, which does the town want to fund using CPF and what other funding is available? Some projects, as a legal matter, couldn’t be met with CPF.”
Ms. McCullough added that, if the town was to use CPF funding for water quality projects in Greenport, “it would have to look at water quality needs across the entire town.”
“The projects we have suggested, at a very high level, meet the standards of the CPF and water quality law,” said Ms. Stuessi. “We’re confident, if given an opportunity, we can submit projects that meet the standards. I hope very much they can be received.”
Mr. Stuessi said several members of the Village Board plan to attend the Southold Town Board’s Dec. 16 meeting to advocate for use of CPF funds in the village. Ms. Doughtery-Johnson said she also plans to attend.
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What is the proceedure for the town of Southold to allow development of a property whose development rights were bought by the town?
Are you referring to agricultural development? The town is discussing making changes to what agricultural activities can be done on development rights sold land…. we’re expecting to hear more in the new year.
This is a complicated question and issue that is not easily answered. Development rights can be purchased by the Town or the County, with or without State of NY or Federal funds, each with their own requirements that may or may not be recorded in the deed. CPF funded projects vs. ones done prior to CPF (1970’s-1999) possibly adds another dimension and the deeds of these properties run the gamut from a couple of paragraphs of restrictions to our current town easements of 20+ pages. I’m always happy to share whatever knowledge I have gained in over a decade of volunteering on the Southold Town Agricultural Advisory Committee and I think I can speak for the Committee in saying we are open to having the rare member of the public come to a meeting and try to educate themselves on the issue.