The Suffolk County Legislature heard unanimous support for new legislation that would protect working waterfront properties at a public hearing Tuesday evening, Aug. 5.
The legislature is expected to vote on the bill at its next meeting Sept. 3.
Pictured Above: Greenport, one of the few deepwater ports on Long Island, as seen from the harbor.
In conjunction with $9.5 million in Capital Project Funding earmarked in the county’s 2026-2028 Capital Project Plan, the bill would enable owners of commercial waterfront property to seek conservation easements ensuring that their property remains used in perpetuity for a variety of water-dependent business purposes, at a time when many commercial waterfront properties are being sold off and converted to large homes for the wealthy.
East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys said at the public hearing that the entire East Hampton Town Board is in favor of the legislation, which he said is a “milestone moment for the protection of the commercial fishing industry.”
He add that blind LLC corporations have been buying up waterfront land that had been used for marine industry purposes in East Hampton, “taking value an industry has relied on for hundreds of years. This is an industry in severe need of a buoy…. The valuation is increasing so high, we need to have funding in place and use that funding to secure the property at today’s valuation.”
He added that he has discussed the proposal with many members of the Montauk fishing fleet, and he hopes they filled the legislature’s inboxes with letter of support, and that the bill will also benefit communities from Oyster Bay to Amityville to Sayville.
“We all have working waterfront disappearing now,” he said.
Karen Rivara, an oyster grower in Greenport and former President of the Long Island Farm Bureau, also lent her support to the bill.
“If people don’t have a place to land their product, it’s all for naught,” she said. “I believe oysters are keystone organisms, and a thriving oyster industry will help bring back fisheries. My colleagues in the fin fish industry are having a hard go of it now. If we continue to be good stewards of our waters, those fisheries will come back, and they’re going to need a place to land product. If we’re losing those places to the highest bidder, we’ve lost our ability to feed ourselves.”
Greenport Village Board member Mary Bess Phillips, who owns Alice’s Fish Market and whose husband, Mark, runs the F/V Illusion out of Greenport, said her family has the last fish pack-out facility in Greenport.
“My family’s welfare is intimately tied to the sea,” she said. “These spaces are so vital. Protection should be a priority for every resident of Suffolk County. The pressures on the waterfront favor short-term profits over longstanding community needs. It’s about protecting a way of life that has defined the region for generations. Our harbors and inlets are sites of daily work, resilience and intergenerational knowledge. They are irreplaceable.”
“This working waterfront bill would be a massive support, physically as well as spiritually,” said Eric Koepele, President of the Long Island Oyster Growers Association, adding that, while Suffolk County runs a very successful aquaculture lease program on underwater lands in the Peconic Estuary, “it’s very difficult to find space for oyster farmers to do their work” on land.
“The overall seafood industry on the island is definitely facing struggles, but one of the bright spots is the oyster industry,” he added.
Tom Kehoe, who has worked in the seafood industry for much of his life and serves on the Board of Directors of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, said he’s seen “waterfront properties being gobbled up by wealthy hedge fund operations out of New York City.”
“The good Lord isn’t making any more waterfront property,” he said, adding that, without a similar county program enacted 50 years ago to protect farm land, “we would not have a wine industry on the North Fork.”
“This is the modern equivalent of farmland preservation 50 years ago,” he said.
The bill has the support of East End County Legislators Catherine Stark and Ann Welker, who advocated on its behalf at the Legislature’s Capital Project Working Group meeting on May 20, where Sarah Lansdale, County Commissioner of Economic Development & Planning, gave an overview of a recent county survey about working waterfront properties and the needs of the property owners who wish to keep these historic uses on their land.
Ms. Lansdale said the county has found that “there are 2,400 acres of waterfront commercial properties that comprise of 964 parcels” in Suffolk County.
Fifty-five percent of the 164 respondents to the survey said they’d been approached about selling their property in the past five years, though the vast majority said it was “highly unlikely” they would sell their property within the next five years. Ninety percent said they’d be interested in participating in a program to preserve working waterfront.
According to the text of the legislation, Suffolk County is home to 2,949 maritime-related businesses employing approximately 38,419 people. According to NOAA, in 2023, New York State fisheries landed over 17 million pounds of fish valued at more than $28 million.
The bill would protect property used by threatened industries including aquaculture, fishing, marine repair and recreational boating.
If adopted at the Legislature’s next meeting on Sept. 3 in Hauppauge, the law would allow owners of property considered working waterfront to apply to a new, 17-member Working Waterfront Committee that would determine if the property meets the criteria for a conservation easement based on several factors, including the economic significance of the property to marine businesses.
Written comment is still being accepted. It may be sent to the Clerk of the Legislature at Guy.Calla2@suffolkcountyny.gov or via U.S. Mail at: Clerk’s Office at the Suffolk County Legislature, William H. Rogers Building, 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hauppauge, New York 11788.
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