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Island CPF money creeping up

REPORTER FILE PHOTO REPORTER FILE PHOTO  Shelter Island Community Preservation Funds could exceed last year’s totals by year’s end, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
Shelter Island Community Preservation Funds could exceed last year’s totals by year’s end, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).

Just released numbers on Community Preservation Fund revenues for East End towns show Shelter Island continues to be the only municipality where contributions are lagging last year’s figures, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).On the positive side, Shelter Island numbers are creeping up. The numbers Mr. Thiele released for the first six months of 2014 had Shelter Island down by 5.2 percent from the CPF revenues it garnered last year.

New numbers show it down by 0.7 percent from CPF receipts for the first eight months of 2013. This is the 2 percent money property buyers pay that is used by municipalities to purchase and maintain land for preservation purposes, keeping those sites free from development.

The Town has taken in $1.48 million in the first eight months of 2014 as compared with $1.49 million in 2013.

Overall on the East End, CPF revenues are up by 9.6 percent for the first eight months of this year as compared with 2013.

Riverhead holds the largest percentage gain, rising by 43.8 percent for the same period this year as compared with last year. That town’s CPF revenues are up to $2.33 million as compared with $1.62 million in 2013.

Southold follows with a 31.2 percent increase bringing its CPF funds to $3.28 million this year as compared with $2.5 million last year.

In the Hamptons, where property values tend to be higher than those on either the North Fork or Shelter Island, Southampton is seeing an 11.1 percent hike in CPF revenues from $34.07 million last year to $37.85 million. In East Hampton, there’s a 1.9 percent hike from $18.84 million in 2013 to $19.19 million this year.

“The CPF continues to see steady growth in revenues in the first eight months of 2014,” Mr. Thiele said.

That reflects “continued strength and stability in East End real estate and the continued availability to local towns of the necessary revenues to protect community character,” he said.

Looking at the numbers overall, he said CPF money is on track to produce $95 million on the East End by year’s end. That would be the highest annual total since 2007, “before the Great Recession,” Mr. Thiele said.

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