Planning Board: Coastal barrier rules still a moving target

The Shelter Island Planning Board reviewed the most recent draft of Coastal Barrier legislation Tuesday night, which proposes tightening of the wetlands code for construction projects on the Ram Island causeways.

A zoning code revision is also in the works for the causeways. But defining the exact boundaries of the areas affected is a crucial remaining step, board member John D’Amato argued at Tuesday’s meeting and the previous meeting on January 11. The most recent revisions were not made available to the public at Tuesday’s meeting.

Earlier drafts of the Town Board’s coastal development law proposed limits to house size, height, lot clearing and more in certain coastal areas. Originally proposed for all low-lying shoreline lands in the Undeveloped Coastal Barrier District, the latest legislative efforts have zeroed in on the causeways only.

The original proposal drew protests from residents during a December 3 public hearing, who argued that the restrictions shouldn’t apply to properties that already have houses on them and that the causeways were the environmentally sensitive areas. The Planning Board was asked by the Town Board to provide recommendations on the legislation following the hearing.

The town hopes to adopt a law by March 31, when the moratorium on construction in the coastal barrier zone expires. Town Councilman Glenn Waddington has said in previous meetings that he doesn’t want to extend the moratorium again, though Emory Breiner argued at the January 11 meeting that the board is taking on a job that’s too big to finish by March 31. Mr. Pasca noted on January 11 that the board could simply continue working on the law after the moratorium expires.

According to Planning Board attorney Tony Pasca, the town has legal grounds to impose heavy restrictions on the causeways due to unique features that distinguish them from other parts of the Island. As suggested by Tony Pasca in a December 22 memorandum to the Town Board, the criteria the town can use to define which areas are affected by the restrictions are areas that:

• Are contiguous tracts of land with water on both sides, that form perhaps the only “mini-isthmuses” on Shelter Island;

• Are low-lying and prone to flooding from opposite directions;

• Have extremely low depths to groundwater and little traditional “upland” to be devoted to development without the need to bring in fill;

• Are generally undeveloped;

• Are in or adjacent to both the Federal FEMA line and the state’s coastal erosion hazard area line;

• Provide scenic benefits along a public roadway;

• Are not otherwise protected (through preservation efforts).

The law still needs to designate exactly which areas on the causeways meet that criteria, Mr. D’Amato said. Don Kornrumpf argued during the January 11 meeting that there are more areas on the Island that meet those criteria than just the causeways: “The characteristics of the causeway apply to much of Shell Beach, the outer part of Crab Creek, parts of Mashomack. So if you simply take the causeway, the argument would be that you’re being inconsistent.”

The Town Board plans to review how to restrict other sensitive areas on the Island after the current causeway law is completed.

WHITE SUBDIVISION

Size and location: nine large lots on 53 acres on West Neck Creek.

Richard Warren of InterScience Research Associates spoke on behalf of the applicants at the Planning Board’s January 11 meeting. He and the board reviewed a letter from the Suffolk County Planning Commission outlining the commission’s recommendations for conditions on the application. The board disagreed with some of those recommendations and Planning Board Chairman Paul Mobius suggested that the board communicate better with the commission in the future so the board won’t have to override the commission’s recommendations.

ANNUAL BUSINESS

At its January 11 meeting, the board also conducted its annual new year business, including re-electing its chairman, Paul Mobius, and deputy chairman, Emory Breiner. The board also reappointed Danielle LiCausi as board clerk, the Raynor Group to provide a board engineer and Essex, Hefter & Angel to provide legal counsel. The board designated Shelter Island Reporter the board’s newspaper of record. The town of Shelter Island also reappointed Mr. Breiner for another term, to end December 31, 2015.