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Our view: Shelter Island Reporter edtiorial

 

REPORTER FILE PHOTO

News came this week that the Island’s Community Preservation Fund just got a lot healthier via a large cash injection.  This brought smiles to the faces of Supervisor Jim Dougherty and Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who released the figures.

But it also produced frowns from many who see this as another indicator of our Island changing forever, and for the worst.

The CPF, also known here as the “2-percent fund,” is financed by a two-percent tax buyers pay on real estate deals. The money goes into the fund and is solely dedicated to open space acquisitions.

The new report shows a 205 percent increase in the first six months this year over the same period last year. Shelter Island led all other East End towns in gains by percentage. Time to celebrate, according to Mr. Thiele, Mr. Dougherty and others who cited two significant benefits. First, there’s more money to preserve land from being paved over by development and the natural beauty of these parcels is preserved forever. And second, more property deals is a bright sign the real estate market is roaring back from the dark days of just a few years ago.

But we can almost hear the groaning of those who say a growing CPF fund is an indication of the cliff we’re barreling toward.

When we ran a story a few months back (“Un-Hamptons or new Hamptons?”) looking at a suddenly healthy real estate market led by listings of multi-million dollar estates, there was plenty of protest. The Island, some people said, was becoming just another “discovered” place and our unique character was being smothered by high-end brands and lowlife characters with money.

The Island was changing, and not for the better, it was said. We have lost something and will never get it back. We agree. We also note that just as everyone who reaches a certain age faces the situation that there are things that are never coming back, so places change. It’s a cliché that older generations distinguish themselves from younger ones by telling them tales — and boring them — of how it was all so much better in the old days.

You can’t stop progress, is a tired old saw, which holds some truth, but doesn’t apply here. The 2-percent tax on real estate deals is stopping progress, considering that money collected goes to preserve land for all of us and not just the wealthy.

If it wasn’t for the efforts of the town’s Community Preservation Advisory Board, led by Chairman Peter Vielbig, targeting property to preserve, and Supervisor Dougherty and the Town Board that pulls the trigger on open space acquisitions, there would be precious little left to remind us of what this place was and continues to be.
And if it wasn’t for the realtors — who provide work for Islanders in multiple professions, businesses and trades — making deals, there wouldn’t be money to make decisions to keep a large part of Shelter Island green.