by Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips
When the Southold Town Board met on July 28 for its Work Session, the agenda told a story that Greenport residents have seen too many times. The Board entered Executive Session to discuss a possible land acquisition under the Community Preservation Fund (CPF).
Yet nowhere on the full agenda was there any mention of updating the CPF Land Preservation Plan or creating the long‑overdue CPF Water Quality Improvement Plan. Once again, land deals move forward, quietly and behind closed doors, while the planning work that is supposed to guide those decisions — and ensure equity for the Town’s only Disadvantaged Community — is left off the agenda entirely.
This imbalance is not procedural. It is structural. CPF is built on two pillars: land preservation and water quality. Both require publicly adopted plans. Both require transparency. Both require equity. But Southold continues to advance land acquisition discussions without updating the plans that justify those acquisitions, and without addressing the water‑quality obligations that directly affect Greenport’s harbor, economy, and public health.
When planning stalls but acquisitions proceed, the public loses the ability to understand how priorities are set, how decisions are justified, and how equity is ensured.
For Greenport, the consequences are immediate. Our waterfront infrastructure is aging. Our stormwater systems are strained. Our shoreline is increasingly vulnerable. These are not abstract concerns — they affect businesses, residents, and the regional economy every day.
CPF Water Quality funds can support stormwater upgrades, shoreline stabilization, bulkhead repair, harbor‑water quality improvements, and infrastructure that protects water‑dependent uses. These are exactly the projects Greenport needs.
But without an updated Water Quality Improvement Plan, the town cannot prioritize them, cannot score them, and cannot fund them. The plan that unlocks these investments remains stalled, while land acquisition moves forward.
Greenport’s designation as a Disadvantaged Community under New York State law is not symbolic. It carries legal obligations for municipalities: equitable benefit, equitable investment, and equitable access in all CPF planning.
Yet the July 28 agenda contains no indication that the town intends to meet those obligations. Water quality is not mentioned. Stormwater, shoreline resilience, and harbor infrastructure are not mentioned. The Water Quality Improvement Plan is not mentioned. Instead, the town spent its time in Executive Session discussing land acquisition without the updated planning framework that state law requires.
Transparency is a fiduciary duty. CPF is a public fund, paid by the public, and its use must be governed by publicly adopted plans. When land acquisition is discussed in Executive Session while the planning documents remain outdated or nonexistent, the public is left without a clear understanding of how decisions are made or how equity is ensured.
Greenport residents deserve — and are legally entitled to — a transparent, accountable process that demonstrates how CPF dollars are allocated and how disadvantaged communities (DAC) requirements are being met.
The July 28 Work Session should have been a turning point. Southold must commit to updating the CPF Land Preservation Plan and completing the CPF Water Quality Improvement Plan before advancing further CPF acquisitions. It must document DAC compliance clearly and make that documentation available to the public. It must prioritize water‑quality and resilience projects in Greenport, which are both eligible and urgently needed. And it must publish project scoring and criteria so residents can see how decisions are made.
Greenport has carried the region’s maritime economy for generations, often with limited support and chronic underinvestment. The continued sidelining of water‑quality planning — and its absence from the July 28 agenda — is simply the latest example of a pattern that must end. Southold now faces a choice: continue advancing land acquisition in isolation, or finally acknowledge that CPF planning must be updated, transparent, and equitable. Greenport deserves better. And state law requires better.
Mary Bess Phillips is serving in her fifth term as a Village of Greenport Trustee. She is owner and manager for Greenport Seafood Dock, Inc., commercial fishing pack out facility for local baymen, offshore fishing vessels, and aquaculture land facility operations providing shore-side services and F/V Illusion. She serves on numerous volunteer boards including the New York State DEC’s Marine Resources Advisory Council and Suffolk County’s Working Waterfront Committee.
