Town Board ponders pending applications
Shelter Island Town Hall
A missing document or, perhaps, one that never existed has been delaying action on a wetlands permit sought by Mike and Camille Anglin.
The Anglins, who operate Jack’s Marine on Bridge Street, have a Suffolk County Department of Health Services permit to finish a second story to be used as an apartment above their business.
But the town Conservation Advisory Committee turned thumbs down because the permit doesn’t apply to the new nitrogen-reducing septic systems that are approved for use in residences.
The Anglins were before the Town Board Tuesday arguing that there are no new systems approved for what is a commercial business, even though it would have a residential apartment upstairs.
But the Town Board wanted to see a previous town approval of the project to determine if there are any restrictions in that document that might prohibit what they propose to do now.
Neither Town Board members who have searched nor Town Attorney Laury Dowd have been able to come up with such a document and Mr. Anglin said he also doesn’t have the document, but doesn’t recall any restrictions.
Planning Board member Emory Breiner, told Town Board members that if they turned down the pending wetlands application, they would be overriding the county Department of Health.
Round and round the discussion went until Supervisor Jim Dougherty finally said if the document couldn’t be unearthed within a week, the board would go forth and act on the application next week.
At the same time, Town Board members reviewed several pending applications that were subject to public hearings at the October 6 regular meeting. They authorized Ms. Dowd to draft approvals that would be voted on at a future meeting for:
• Joshua and Elana Levine of 37D Westmoreland Drive to receive approval for previously removed debris and a previously damaged screen room to construct a new deck and remove an old patio from the property. Ms. Levine told the Town Board Friday that she and her husband are trying to legalize work done on the property by previous owners.
• Thomas Roush of 2 Little Ram Drive to receive a special permit and wetlands permit affecting work on his house. Neighbor Larry Winston had an 11-point list of concerns, but Mr. Roush responded to every one and agreed to stay in touch with Mr. Winston throughout the construction period to assure that nothing was being done that would affect the neighboring property.
• Virginia and Richard Homan of 1 and 3 Montclair Avenue for a wetlands permit needed to place a 179-foot row of boulders on their property to the east of boulders installed in 2013.
At the request of Matt Sherman of Sherman Engineering, the Town Board agreed to consider tweaking the system involved in enabling removal of aged septic systems without the necessity of going through a long process of gaining ZBA approvals. He has a few projects pending that will involve such removal and replacements will come into play and go through the regular system of approval as the projects take shape. But for the simple removal of the old systems that will result in less nitrogen leeching into groundwater, there should be a streamlined system, Mr. Sherman said.
The Town Board agreed and said they would work on a revised system.
To what might be the consternation of those who didn’t attend Sunday’s candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Shelter Island Association, the first 45 to 50 minutes of the event failed to record, Mr. Dougherty said.
He also announced that Mattituck engineer John Congdon would likely be called to help coordinate the new septic system project between the Youth Center and Shelter Island School. Former town engineer John Cronin had been the point person on that project, but left town employment on September 1.
Democratic Town Board candidate Albert Dickson suggested Shelter Island look to get involved in shellfish reseeding projects being funded by the state to the tune of $10.4 million as announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He also said the town should look to get involved with the county reseeding program that is starting in Orient Harbor.
The programs help to remove nitrogen from the water and are also economic drivers on the East End, Mr. Dickson said.
