The Greater Jamesport Civic Association has spearheaded the formation of the Blue Ribbon Panel for Preservation, a group of elected and community leaders, land preservation and agriculture advocates, which will be working to advise the Riverhead Town Board on the best methods of land preservation as it works to implement its recently-adopted Comprehensive Plan Update.
“The recommendations in the Comprehensive Plan are guidelines, and until they codify everything, they’re not in place,” said Laura Jens-Smith, a former Riverhead Town Supervisor who now serves as President of the Greater Jamesport Civic Association (GJCA). “The hope is to come up with a list of recommendations that they present to the Town Board, which we hope will take up the charge and incorporate them into the way the town preserves land.”
She added that the panel has been established, in part, in response to requests from Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard for new ideas for land preservation from the public.
Last year, the town floated the idea of creating a new zoning district for “Agritourism Resorts” on large parcels on the north side of Sound Avenue, which would allow developers to build soundfront resorts if they entered agreements ensuring the land fronting Sound Avenue was farmed.
That proposed code change was prepared with help from a resort developer and was widely panned by the public and the farming community, and by the neighboring Town of Southold, which is already dealing with the major traffic impacts of fall agritourism traffic along Sound Avenue.
After much public opposition, agritourism resorts were removed as a recommendation in the Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in September, though Town Board members said as they voted that they were concerned about the tax impact on residents if the land wasn’t developed and land owners were not paying higher property taxes.
“There is a lot of pressure to develop here at this point, and there isn’t a counterbalance to that for preservation. Between the agritourism resort code and everything else, it’s important that this is a priority,” said Ms. Jens-Smith. “It’s expensive to preserve land. It’s not an easy thing to do. We’ll be looking at using tools that have worked in other towns.”
Steve Green, Vice President of the GJCA, has “assembled a great group of experts to weigh in on this,” said Ms. Jens-Smith.
The Blue Ribbon Panel includes elected leaders ranging from Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard and Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski to Suffolk County Legislator Catherine Stark and Riverhead Town Councilwoman Denise Merrifield.
Environmental leaders on the panel include Group for the East End President Bob DeLuca, The Nature Conservancy Conservation Project Director Kevin McDonald and Defend H2O President Kevin McAllister, while the farming and land preservation community is represented by Peconic Land Trust Senior Project Manager Julie Wesnofske, Long Island Farm Bureau President Juan Micieli-Martinez and Schmitt Family Farm owner Phil Schmitt. Janice Scherer, Southampton Town’s Planning and Development Administrator, who is a Riverhead resident, and Ms. Jens-Smith will also serve on the panel, which began meeting in October.
“The Blue Ribbon Panel for Preservation is a volunteer group of professionals with experience and knowledge in land preservation, the environment and ecology, and regional government, who have committed to work together to address land use and preservation concerns, with a particular focus on farmland, shoreline and open spaces in Riverhead Town,” according to the Greater Jamesport Civic Association. “The mission of the Blue Ribbon Panel for Preservation is to recommend methods and tools that may be employed by the Town of Riverhead and potentially, other East End towns, to further the goal of preservation of farmland, shoreline and open space, while recognizing the fiscal constraints currently facing Riverhead Town. Although the panel’s primary focus will be on land preservation in the Town of Riverhead, many of the issues addressed will have applicability to the North Fork generally.”
The group is looking to make recommendations to the Town Board as it begins the process of developing code changes to implement the recommendations in the Comprehensive Plan in the new year.
“If the conversation isn’t ongoing, sometimes your eye isn’t always on the ball, and there’s a lot of pressure to develop on the North Fork,” said Ms. Jens-Smith. “Hundreds of years of farmland could disappear quickly. Farmers are aging up, and they need someone to take their place.”
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