Dock on the Bay meeting July 10th
July 8, 2008 by joanna · 8 Comments
From Dave Bergen:
I wanted to provide everyone with the latest update on meetings concerning docks on the bays. I received notification today that there has been a meeting scheduled for this Thursday July 10 at 9 AM in the Town Hall Annex. Invited to the meeting are all Town Board members, all Trustees plus additional town employees to hold a conversation with Steve Resler with the NYDOS. The agenda includes overview of the moratorium, historic court decisions on the regulation of docks, town authority and jurisdiction, types of regulation to include designation of areas and the zoning of underwanter lands to “advance public interest”, the economic impacts of banning docks, what is the legal authority of the DOS Significant Fish and Wildlife Habitats and availability of model laws. This meeting will be followed by the evening session on Thursday at 6 which is a roundtable discussion. My feeling is that the information discussed during the morning meeting will be significant. Both meetings are being held in the Town Hall Annex conference room.
Thanks for the update! I had only known of the evening meeting. I expect to be at both as time allows.
I will be at the morning meeting and others who are concerned about becoming victims of more “property rights erosion” should attend as well. (See my post on the soapbox)
Because we have a SoutholdVOICE board meeting Thurs nite, I won’t be able to attend the roundtable. I hope someone can attend and take notes and post a comment or on the Soapbox what they heard. This is to be about Docks on the Bay, but….. One only has to look at what has happened in CA., Fl. to see how the creation of “overlay districts” marine zoning overlays, and “critcal habitat zones” can change your waterfront property to one which you can only look at the water and enjoy the view. Soundfront, Bayfront, Creekfront, you may have an “erosion” problem as this process continues .
my error, the meeting on Thursday evening is at 5, not 6. Same location, the Annex.
John Kramer, chairman of SoutholdVOICE, Inc. attended the morning meeting and reports:
The evening meeting with Steve Resler will be a wake up call to those who think this is just about stopping some idiot who might want to build a dock in a storm-prone bay front location. this is a nuts and bolts, how-to session on how the town of Southold can implement their agenda. Their agenda happens to be contrary to the interests of property owners, boaters, aquaculturalists, and anyone other than recreational clammers, beach walkers, those who go wading, swimmers, kayakers and picture takers.
In the morning session he covered all the how-tos, and answered objections like, “Don’t we need to prove the science about…?” answer: “No, just come up with a program and implement it.” “There is no science and it isn’t needed. Just do what you want to do, it’s under your jurisdiction now. Why do you think your control ends at the high tide mark? The town controls half the bay to Shelter Island, Southampton, etc. Zone it and zone the Sound too, you control half way to CT.”
“What about property values?” answer: “You change property values all the time with upland zoning, what’s different about the waterfront? don’t worry about it, it isn’t important.” “Don’t we have to be very specific as to what dock is allowed or disallowed, how do we do that?” answer: “You write a rational for your zoning code and enact a zoning overlay that prohibits what is undesirable. It therefore is impossible for an applicant to comply with the requirements … and don’t worry, the Dept of State will give you the materials you need to make your policy unchallengeable in court. you can do this, just write a policy and implement it.”
Stay tuned for updates on this bald effort to pre-empt YOUR rights. Check http://www.SoutholdVOICE.com for my further reports.
John Kramer
I attended the 5 O’clock session on July 10th, albeit a little late, to find some of our town’s elected officials extremely animated and happy that their agenda would finally go through, while the State runs interference and in fact shields them from prosecution. This was a scene very reminiscent of the Downing Street Memo, where a group fixes the facts to support their intended outcome. Does LWRP stand for “Loose Waterfront Rights Pronto” or something else? I can never get that right.
Most trustees sat around the table like the cat who ate the fish from the fish bowl, being told by Mark Terry just to pick a reason and you will be able to do overlay zoning. Overlay zoning seems to stand for a way to do what a few would like to do, like the Trustees and the Supervisor, at the expense of those who own waterfront property and all who may want to enjoy the waterfront. Al Krupski seems extremely excited at the prospect of forcing the trustee agenda through. One of the trustees said that any property that once had eel grass should be “dockless”, because at some point it may grow back. There was discussion of sending a boat out to measure the depth at the end of each dock, and using existing aerial photographs. Someone even offered his boat, and Mark Terry said that if there was a particular place they wanted photographed, to let him know as they have aerial photography scheduled for August.
The Supervisor, appears to go along with the talking points and the taking away of any rights waterfront owners thought they may have had in the past. At one meeting quite a while ago for real estate professionals, Supervisor Russell said that he looked into what it would cost the town to get out of the LWRP. I guess the money that the State is paying to the Town is too overwhelming for him to follow those convictions. I hope that when Cornell has expanded their lab to include the whole North Fork, that they will clean up the beaches and pay the taxes as well. This represents a slow and subtle taking of property rights from the owner.
How many complaints have actually been lodged by anyone denied access to the waterfront? When the town officials were asked how many applications were placed for building new docks, before they imposed the moratorium on docks, I think the answer was none. This does not seem a compelling reason for what both the trustees and the supervisor are attempting here.
I walked away from this meeting feeling as though town officials think that Southold is an Etch-O-Sketch, and that when a hurricane comes through they will be able to erase the people and their property once and for all. Then it would make a nice park for the rest of New York and the country, with no residents allowed.
The Resler quotes are outrageous! I would strongly suggest that the Voice’s legal folks start looking into the requirements and procedure to force a Town-wide referendum on any proposed Town law based in any part upon comments of that sort, and we should force a referendum on ANY proposed Town law on this general subject, not just one inspired by Resler’s comments. Also, I bet the Suffolk Times and Newsday would be very interested in the info in your report. Somebody from the paper could call Resler in Albany and do a telephone interview and ask some probing questions.
Jim Fitzgerald
I bet Resler does not have to run for reelection. On the other hand, we know who, in the Town of Southold, do.
The Town Board already has in their collective mind that they do not want docks in certain areas: the Bay and the Long Island Sound. How far that area exends will be on a map which was not available at that meeting. There is discussion about creating zoning districts which will regulate marine structures- they have been advised that this method is the most enforceable in the courts. They are also writing justifications for this. Backfilling with justification (environmental, visual impacts, etc.) for the action they plan to take.
If existing structures become “nonconforming preexisting structures” zoning laws make the elimination of these structures the zoning goal.
I and other SoutholdVOICE volunteers will be watching and reporting as this legislation begins to take shape.