The Southold Town Board on Wednesday approved a series of changes to its wetlands code in a five to one vote.
The proposed changes were pitched by the Southold Town Trustees, who oversee development near the town’s shorelines, earlier this summer, in response to thorny issues that have arisen during its processing of permits for structures within 100 feet of wetlands.
Pictured Above: Open grate decking on Orient Harbor.
The changes include increasing the distance a pool can be built from a wetland from 50 to 60 feet, and new definitions of several innovative approaches to construction near the shoreline, including “open grate decking”, “innovative/alternative septic systems” and “vegetated non-turf buffer.”
It also prohibits docks on several small freshwater and brackish lakes and ponds that had not been included in a ban on new residential docks in saltwater bodies adjacent to the Peconic Estuary adopted in 2007.
The proposal adopted Wednesday will also change the percentage of a structure that can be repaired without a permit from 75 percent to 50 percent. The initial draft called for a reduction to 25 percent.
Several people who have houses adjacent to ponds where docks were be to prohibited spoke against the proposal at an Oct. 7 public hearing, while Group for the East End President Bob DeLuca urged the board to pass the changes, as the pace of development on the North Fork continues to accelerate.
The town “is going to be sued by people who don’t like the outcome,” he said at the Oct. 7 hearing. “I encourage you to not give up, so you can put your strongest foot forward.”
Perhaps emboldened by Democrats’ election victory in most town races Tuesday evening, the Democrats on the board backed the proposal with impassioned statements before their votes, while Republican Councilwoman Jill Doherty — who could be the only Republican on the board with the retirement of Justice Louisa Evans in January if Alexa Suess’s election night lead holds — cast the sole vote against the proposal.
Ms. Doherty, a former Town Trustee, said she agrees with a lot of the changes — especially the reduction of the amount of a structure that can be rebuilt — but she said that when she was a Trustee the board had allowed “narrow catwalks, with elevated open grating, to have access to the water body.”
“There would be disturbance during construction, but afterward the marine life underneath is undisturbed,” she said.
“This really is just codifying a long-standing precedent they’ve had in denying docks in the water bodies listed,” said Councilman Greg Doroski before voting for the bill. “It’s an improvement of the code, and it clearly signals to property owners what they’re allowed and not allowed to do. Then they won’t be put in position where they pay to apply for a use that will be denied based on past precedent… It will be clearly defined in the code.”
“I want to compliment the Trustees for bringing forward these issues they see month by month, and helping the public better understand the code,” said Councilwoman Anne Smith. “They brought this information to us very clearly and are looking for consistency with the 2007 law banning docks.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of development pressure on the shoreline,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski, a former Town Trustee, before casting his ‘yes’ vote. “They see firsthand every month the effects of changes to the wetlands on each parcel…They have to look at the uses in those areas in their jurisdiction and how they affect the water quality.”
Mr. Krupski added that many of the comments at the public hearing were in response to a dock ban on Hashamomack Pond that had already been in place since 2007.
“All these structures impact not only the environment, but public access to all those water bodies for future generations,” he said, adding that private docks also limit the public’s ability to traverse the shoreline.
“It’s a public resource. If you see it the way the Trustees are looking at it, it’s a fragmentation of habitat and also a fragmentation of public use,” he said.
Here’s the text of the proposed changes, which was modified slightly to change the percentage of a structure that can be repaired without a permit from the original proposed 25 percent to a final 50 percent.
Town Attorney Paul DeChance said that, because the change was making the proposed law less restrictive than the original draft, it did not require a new public hearing.
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