Waterways Management: No grid for West Neck Bay

There won’t be a moorings grid in West Neck Bay — at least not anytime soon. That was the decision of the Waterways Management Advisory Council Monday night. The idea of creating a grid for existing moorings had been suggested by Councilman Peter Reich but he and committee members bowed to the thinking of Emory Breiner, a Planning Board member, who appealed to the WMAC not to take action he said could start a run on moorings.

In an April 30 letter to the Town Board, Mr. Breiner wrote that creating a grid would unnecessarily tighten the number of available mooring spaces, prompting people to request them even if they didn’t yet have boats.

“A West Neck Bay mooring will be coveted like a rent-controlled apartment,” Mr. Breiner wrote. “West Neck Bay is not on the way to becoming another Dering Harbor,” he said. The existence of the Shelter Island Yacht Club in Dering Harbor with more than 300 active boaters, Piccozzi’s Dering Harbor Marina and the Dering Harbor Inn’s dock are what have created congestion there, he said.

“West Neck Bay is strictly a residential bay,” Mr. Breiner wrote. “There has not been the buildup in moorings to justify the closure,” he said about the impact of creating a grid.

The board agreed to informally move a planned southeastern borderline of the field further south but it won’t be proposing any formal arrangements to the Town Board to redefine the field.

At the same time, members grumbled that while they understood their role as an advisory board, they wished Town Board members would take their advice more often.

Councilman Ed Brown insisted that 99 percent of the time, the Town Board does follow WMAC recommendations, but member Bill Geraghty said he didn’t believe that statistic.

The board also discussed adopting standards to guide its review of applications that come before it. Unable to agree on what those guidelines should be, they said they’d go back to the drawing board and try to come up with some specifics on which a majority could agree.

Nor could the advisory committee agree with Marc Wein’s suggestion that a waiting list of those seeking moorings be published annually in the Reporter. His colleagues argued that those on a waiting list could find out their status by checking with the Town Clerk.

DECISIONS

WMAC members grappled with an application from Richard Walsh of 49 Dinah Rock Road to install a boatlift to handle a 25-foot center console  Dusky 252 Fisherman’s Cuddy. The major bone of contention among members was whether an 8,000-pound lift would suffice. Mr. Geraghty and Chairman John Needham weren’t convinced that a 10,000-pound lift was necessary but the other five members voted to recommend it.

Committee member Michael Anglin said he wouldn’t want to trust an under-sized lift. All agreed that a forklift design would be appropriate.

The advisory committee will recommend approvals to the Town Board on the following:

• Bill Smith’s application to place a private mooring in Coecles Harbor near his house at 14 Hudson Avenue.

• Stephen Houston’s application for a Riparian mooring in Dering Harbor near his house at 50 Winthrop Road.

• Philip and Dianne Bailey for a Dering Harbor mooring near their house at 56 Menantic Road.

• Richard Radigan for a private mooring in Dering Harbor near his house at 5 Community Drive.

• Richard Sesti for a stake, mooring and pulley system to serve him from his house at 7 North Brander Parkway.