Southold Planners to Give East Marion an Update on Comprehensive Plan

After a break this past year in their public outreach on Southold’s comprehensive plan update, town planners will give an overview of the remaining steps in the plan at the next meeting of the East Marion Community Association on Thurs., Aug. 27  at 7 p.m.

According to EMCA, residents “will be asked to discuss the zoning in East Marion and what uses they feel should and should not be permitted in the hamlet as the town drafts the Comprehensive Plan.”

Southold Planning Director Heather Lanza gave an overview of the remainder of work to be done on the Comprehensive Plan, titled “Southold 2020” at a town board work session in late July.

She said when the remaining three chapters are finished, the planning department plans to hire an outside firm with graphic design experience to create an easily digestible document for the public to use, at a cost of about $70,000.

Ms. Lanza said the planning department plans to finish the land use chapter of the plan by the end of February 2016.

That chapter, which will contain the meat of the zoning recommendations in the plan, will include subsections for each hamlet, she said, and will focus “on broader land use and zoning topics that do not fit neatly into one of the other more specific chapters.”

After the land use chapter, the planning department plans to finish the transportation chapter by June 1 of 2016.

Ms Lanza said the chapter will focus on transportation planning, traffic and traffic calming, and will include goals to improve mass transit (trains and buses) to help alleviate traffic, as well as alternative transportation, biking and walking.

The plan’s final chapter, on infrastructure, will focus on electric service, gas service, public drinking water and other community-wide infrastructure. Ms. Lanza said she hopes to have that chapter finished by Sept. 1 of 2016.

Between September and the end of 2016, the planning department hopes to complete their final revisions of the plan, which will then be sent to the graphic design firm for a final presentation to be finished by March of 2017.

She said the plan will then undergo SEQRA review, which is expected to be completed by the end of June, 2017, after which public hearings will be held in the summer of 2017.

She anticipated the plan would be adopted in November of 2017.

The total cost of the remaining work on the project would be $330,741, much of which is staff time for planners already working for the town. That number includes $142,226 in salaries & wages and  $184,000 in contractual services.

More information and completed draft chapters of Southold’s Comprehensive Plan update are online here.

The EMCA meeting will be held at the East Marion firehouse.