New laws taking shape at Shelter Island Town Hall
New legislation is in the works as the Town Board prepares to send regulations on construction rules for the causeways, nonconforming businesses and stormwater site planning to public hearings.
Drafts of the proposed laws are now posted on the town website, shelterislandtown.us (under “Upcoming Hearings and Laws”). The draft laws may be changed prior to board votes that send them to public hearings.
In addition to the four laws summarized below, the board is also nearing completion on new rules for town-rented slips at Congdon Dock. The most recent draft of those regulations has yet to be publicly posted.
CAUSEWAY CONSTRUCTION RULES
The board is drafting two sets of new rules for construction on the causeways to Big and Little Ram Islands. One amends the wetlands code to address construction on the causeways. Another establishes a new zone for these properties, a fundamental land use change that requires a State Environmental Quality Review Act filing.
Under proposed amendments to the town’s wetlands code, Chapter 129, causeway property owners will have to come to the Town Board for a permit to build on any causeway property. That chapter of code currently restricts activities in other zones only on land within 100 feet of tidal wetlands. The amendments add construction restrictions not applied to wetlands permits in other zones, including limits on dwelling footprint (1,000 square feet for properties of less than 1 acre to 1,800 square feet for 3-acre or larger lots); clearing of native vegetation (excluding invasives, no more than 25 feet beyond house footprint or around well and septic sites); and use of fill (except for raised septic system or landscape screening). Many of these restrictions were included in proposed rules for the Coastal Barrier District, aired at a public hearing in December. The board did not act on that law, and instead drafted the proposed causeway regulations.
While the wetlands code changes add many restrictions, a table of permitted uses indicates that some activities prohibited in the vegetated buffer of other zones would be allowed under a causeway wetlands permit, including new construction, driveway construction and septic tank installation within the vegetative buffer.
One part of the proposed changes to the wetlands code states that “no new bulkheads, docks or shoreline hardening structures can be built in the causeway zone.” The table of permitted uses also indicates that docks are prohibited.
The bulk of construction regulations for the causeways is embodied in the causeway wetlands permit rules rather than in the weightier code proposal creating the causeway overlay zone, section 133-4 of the zoning code.
The proposed law would define the bounds of the causeway zone from Menhaden Lane in Hay Beach down Gardiners Bay Drive, along Ram Island Drive for the width of the First Causeway, then east to the Jaicks property. The bounds also extend from county-owned land at the west end of the Second Causeway, across the causeway’s width and east to Middle Har-Bay Road.
The two laws are connected by this stipulation: “Activity on any portion of property lying within the Causeway Overlay District shall require a Causeway Wetland Permit as specified in Chapter 129.”
NONCONFORMING BUSINESS RULES
The primary purpose of revising section 133-23 of the zoning code is to clarify what constitutes an expansion of a nonconforming business use. A nonconforming business is one that predates rules prohibiting most businesses in the residential zones of Shelter Island.
The proposed amendments would define an expansion of a nonconforming use as “any alteration in building or lot size, configuration, amenities, capacity or similar changes, which requires a building permit.” The amendments further stipulate that “any expansion of a nonconforming use outside the existing building footprint requires special permit approval.” That special permit would be granted by the Town Board, not the Zoning Board.
STORMWATER SITE PLANS
The Town of Shelter Island must adopt several runoff prevention laws in order to comply with state-imposed Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems rules under the Clean Water Act. The most recent one would require Building Department review of Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans for “construction activity including clearing, grading, excavating, soil disturbance or placement of fill that results in land disturbance of equal to or greater than one acre, or activities disturbing less than one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale, even though multiple separate and distinct land development activities may take place at different times on different schedules.”
The required plan would include a detailed topographic site map and descriptions of: soils on the property, construction phases, pollution prevention measures, construction and waste material storage, structural and vegetative soil stabilization measures and the implementation schedule for all construction and runoff prevention activities.
The law also would require a post-construction water quality and quantity controls for sites disturbing more than an acre or those discharging pollutants to impaired waterways.
Inspection and maintenance requirements would be stipulated by the law, as would certifications. Some training of both the Building Department staff and contractors would be required, Town Attorney Laury Dowd has said.
Penalties for violations of the rules would begin at $1,000 for a first offense and up to $5,000 for subsequent offenses; each day of continued noncompliance constitutes a separate violation. Appeals of notices of violation could be filed with the town.
The proposed law is modeled after a state law and is the minimum the town must adopt as a holder of a state MS4 permit, Ms. Dowd has said.
