Shelter Island Community Preservation money still lagging
Shelter Island continues to lag in Community Preservation Funds for the first eight months of 2015, while only Southold and Southampton show increases among the five East End towns, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).Real estate professionals working the Shelter Island market noted last year that sales were slow to close. It wasn’t until the end of the fourth quarter of 2014 that Shelter Island CPF money showed a positive increase from the previous year.
Shelter Island realized $1.48 million through the end of August 2014 and still lagged other areas. This year’s take for the same period is $1.25 million, a 15.5 percent decrease.
Still, all five East End towns combined saw a 1.7 percent increase in CPF money, bringing in $64.55 million during through the end of August compared with $66.14 million for the same period last year.
The number of transactions for the period were up to 4,995 as compared with 4,277 last year, Mr. Thiele said.
CPF money comes from a 2 percent tax buyers pay when purchasing property in East End towns and has been used to preserve open spaces and farmland in those towns. In some cases the money has gone to provide maintenance of municipally owned sites.
The New York State Legislature recently passed legisaltion that would allow East End towns, if passed by referendum in November 2016, to spend 20 percent of CPF money collected on water ground and surface water remediation.
Southold recorded the largest percentage gain in CPF money for the first eight months of this year, showing a boost of 11.6 percent by bringing in $3.66 million compared with $3.28 million for the same period last year.
Southampton also registered an increase, although much smaller percentage-wise than Southold. It raised its intake of CPF money by 2.6 percent, going from $37.85 million for the first eight months of 2014 to $38.85 million for the same period this year.
East Hampton and Riverhead both showed a downturn. Riverhead dipped by 6.9 percent from $2.33 million last year to $2.17 million this year. East Hampton dipped by 3 percent going from $19.19 million last year to $18.61 million this year.
Since its inception in 1999, the fund has brought in $1.056 billion and has generated a total of $108.2 million for the past 12 months, Mr. Thiele said.
