CALL TO ACTION!
TOWN BOARD PUBLIC HEARING
ON PROPOSED CHANGES TO LOCAL LAW 275
SOUTHOLD TOWN HALL, DEC 4, 2007 at 7:35 PM
Why should I go? Someone else will go won’t they? Sure, that’s how we got in this position; we left it to “someone else” to watch out for and look after our interests!
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ISSUE: Dredging
It was reported that the LWRP Coordinating Council Report stated “The fact that areas were dredged (our emphasis) is no longer a justification for dredging them in the future.”
- QUESTION: Was your street plowed and maintained last year? Wouldn’t you expect it to be plowed this year too?
- QUESTION: Did you buy on a NAVIGABLE creek? Wouldn’t you expect to sell on a NAVIGABLE creek too?
- QUESTION: What’s the difference?
ACTION: Tell the Board to keep the town’s creeks and harbors open, free from navigational hazards and accessible to all.
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ISSUE: Grandfathered Structures
The proposed changes say, in effect, “The exceptions/protections from permit requirements […] are limited to structures presently permitted by this chapter. “(Not preexisting, or permitted prior)
- QUESTION: Why should you be subject to all the expense, time and energy of getting a permit to conduct normal maintenance/repairs simply because your property was built prior to the 2004 effective date of Local Law 275?
- QUESTION: Can you even estimate the cost of completing the various applications required by the Trustees, and the LWRP Consistency Report? Do you know the cost of survey, engineer and expeditor’s charges? Do you know how many pages of applications must be filled out before you can make a simple repair that you could accomplish in minutes with ordinary hand tools?
- QUESTION: If your house is under Town jurisdiction and was built prior to 2004, the effective date of Local Law 275, it will be considered a non-grandfathered structure. If your house falls will you be able to rebuild? If you sell it, do you think you can estimate your financial loss?
ACTION: Tell the Board …
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ISSUE: Defining functional
The proposed changes define “functional” (bulkhead, dock, house, etc.) that in its current state primarily retains its purpose and use, as determined by the Trustees.
- QUESTION: If ice damages your dock, will the Trustees determine if it is functional in its current state? Why would you want to fix it if it were? Will they make you begin at square one, and apply anew for a permit to build a dock?
- QUESTION: If your house is within the Trustees’ jurisdiction and burns to the ground, will you be able to rebuild the house? Will the Trustees allow you to live there anymore? Will your former home site become a nature preserve?
ACTION: Tell the Board …
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ISSUE: Non-disturbance buffer zone
The proposed changes describe a non-disturbance buffer zone as a vegetated area, minimum of 30 feet wide as designated by the Board of Trustees, immediately landward of the wetland boundary, shoreline structure, or other line designated by the Trustees, where no operations, maintenance, placement of signs or other activities can may take place, except that man-made debris may be removed from such area by hand without the permission of the Board of Trustees.
- QUESTION: Will the trustee determine you need a vegetated area (non-disturbance buffer) immediately landward of a line that they determine and how large will the vegetated area be? 30 ft, 50ft 100ft or more, since it is designated by the Trustees?
- QUESTION: If a large tree falls or is washed up from a storm in this non-disturbance buffer zone, will you need permission from the town trustees to remove it?
- QUESTION: If you wanted to sit in a lawn chair and read a book in the non-disturbance buffer zone on property you own and pay taxes on – will you be able to since “other activities are not allowed?”
- QUESTION: What is the meaning of “other activities” and why are they not described in this amendment?
- QUESTION: If a storm-damaged vessel is washed up on your non-disturbance buffer area, that you cannot remove by hand, do you need to get the Trustees’ permission to remove it? (While you are awaiting the Trustees’ permission to remove the vessel, it might wash out into our waterways to become a hazard.)
ACTION: Tell the Board…
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ISSUE: Lack of actionable requirements
The proposed changes are full of phrases such as “as designated by/determined by the Trustees” and lack specific actionable guidelines.
- QUESTION: While we are aware of the need for flexibility, how are we to prepare an application for a project without numerous thousand-dollar revisions, thousand-dollar resurveys, each one causing a one or two month delay to reschedule Trustee hearings?
- QUESTION: How many “Once and Done” applications could possibly come out of these changes? Would not that be the objective of the board?
ACTION: Tell the Board …
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Click here to read the proposed legislation. If you have more questions, attend this important meeting.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR – CALL FOR ACTION at PUBLIC HEARING: SOUTHOLD TOWN HALL on DEC 4 2007 at 7:35 PM
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