To The Editor:
At a working session this week the Southold Town Planning Board reviewed a report from an independent consultant on the amended application for the Strong’s Yacht Center project on Mattituck Inlet.
The application reduces the project from two buildings to one big box, which would cover 62,310 feet. The project would still require a massive excavation, mining 83,650 cubic yards of sand destroying the natural bluff overlooking the inlet.
While there is a lot of detail in the report, the bottom line is clear: despite the reduction in scope of the project, the new plan does not mitigate the environmental impact that the Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS) called out as disqualifying in May of 2024. And, most striking, the report calls out that truck traffic during the construction will essentially be unchanged. The same traffic, noise and vibration impacts that the FEIS cited as unacceptable remain.
According to the report, there will be 77.5 truck trips per day, along narrow residential roads. This number is a slight reduction from the 80 cited in the original plan. But the report notes that the application miscalculates truck capacity and soil weight. As a result either the total number of daily truck trips will be higher than 77.5 trips per day, the excavation period will take longer, or overloaded trucks will create greater noise, vibration, and traffic impacts than previously reported.
The report recommends two options for the Planning Board: requiring a Supplemental Environmental Impact Study, which would revisit a range of issues or moving directly to issuing a SEQRA Findings Statement.
In the short term, the Planning Board has given the developer 30 days to comment.
This project was first proposed in 2018. In the years that followed, the Planning Board has given the developer repeated opportunities to address the significant environmental, quality of life and safety concerns. The independent consultants make clear that even with its current reduced scope, these concerns remain unresolved.
Jeff Pundyk and Anne Sherwood Pundyk
Mattituck
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