Town Board: Nearly half of First Causeway found to be protected wetlands
Close to half of the approximately 13 privately owned acres on the First Causeway are tidal wetlands from which any construction must be set back at least 75 feet under town regulations. And if DEC methods are used to further define the wetlands there, an even larger fraction is protected wetlands.
Those were two conclusions that could be drawn from a presentation made by environmental consultant Louise Harrison before a standing-room-only crowd at Town Hall Tuesday. Ms. Harrison was hired by the Town Board this summer to delineate the wetlands on the causeway as the board refines its controversial legislation to restrict causeway development. Ms. Harrison is a biologist, a former official of the state DEC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who used vegetative indicators to find the wetlands boundaries.
After her presentation, the Town Board and audience members talked of the importance of her findings and the need for any legislation to control causeway development to reflect them.
That’s why several speakers urged the board to once again delay enacting a new causeway code beyond December 31, when the latest extension of a moratorium on causeway building permits expires. Supervisor Jim Dougherty said that would be legally feasible. Councilman Ed Brown urged the board to take more time. Councilman Peter Reich noted there had not been a building permit application for construction on the causeway in 40 years except for the Zagoreos house, which was rebuilt this summer after a fire -— a sore point that overshadowed much of Tuesday’s discussion. Many say the house, first erected in the 1960s, should never have been allowed in the first place and that approvals granted in 2010 to rebuild were a mistake.
Critics have said the board’s proposed legislation, which has been under review for months, would open the door to development by establishing a procedure for it. Ram Islander Kim Noland noted at the meeting that current town wetlands rules prohibit any development within 75 feet of wetlands while the proposed causeway code establishes a review procedure within a new causeway zoning district. “It creates ambiguity,” she said. “Previously it was just you can’t do it. Now it says a permit is required,” Ms. Noland said.
Many people have said the town should find a way to acquire the causeway to save it from development. Several speakers in the audience called for that again on Tuesday. A new revision of the proposed causeway legislation was posted on the town website on October 19, Town Attorney Laury Dowd disclosed at the meeting. To see it, go to shelterislandtown.us and click on the “upcoming hearings & laws” tab near the bottom of the vertical menu on the left. Ram Islander Connie Fischer, scanning a copy of the new version at the meeting, said she was happy to see it included six changes to tighten the restrictions that she knew had been suggested.
According to Ms. Harrison’s analysis — a formal written version of which won’t be ready for two weeks, she said — the four lots in private ownership on the First Causeway include 235,158 square feet of protected wetlands out of the approximately 13-acre total of 469,357 square feet, a ratio of 41 percent.
But the buildable portions are even smaller. She pointed out that the state DEC, which regulates protected wetlands, would certainly have a larger wetlands percentage because it would include isolated, non-contiguous upland hummocks in the wetlands total even though they are dominated by plants that do not tolerate a wet or salty tidal environment. She said her work had been certified by the DEC after an on-site inspection.
The Town Board hired Ms. Harrison, a certified wetlands delineator, to help it determine how many building lots the land might yield for development in the area. That would affect the value of the land if the town ever moved to acquire it — something that Supervisor Jim Dougherty on Tuesday told the crowd in the board room Tuesday was highly unlikely.
The owner of the largest lot of about nine acres, whom the supervisor identified as a builder from Mastic-Shirley, has told the town his lowest price was $4.1 million, Mr. Dougherty said. By law the town can’t pay more than the average of three appraisals, he added, and the property is assessed by the town at about $1.1 million.
That prompted Tim Hogue, president of the Shelter Island Association, to ask what would be so wrong with acquiring it through condemnation, with a court determining the fair market value after a forced town takeover. “If the yield is so limited, what is its true market value? Is it so outrageous if we condemn it and pay based on the yield” with a bond issue?
Mr. Dougherty dismissed the idea with a quip that he hadn’t heard condemnation had become politically popular. He also dismissed Councilwoman Chris Lewis’s comment that she would favor floating a bond to raise the funds necessary to preserve the causeway. “It’s an easy thing to say but you need a willing seller,” he said.
Ms. Lewis was the only board member who openly opposed imposing a new six-month moratorium on causeway construction to begin January 1.
According to Ms. Harrison, there’s evidence the causeway is getting wetter. Some stands of red cedar, which form a maritime forest habitat that is very rare in New York State, are dying. She said they were in decline because of wetter ground and higher salt concentrations. She offered no theory why it’s happening but said rising sea levels might be a factor.
