Shelter Island Comprehensive Plan Committee member says its independence is compromised: Town attorney denies charge

A Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee member Monday night accused Town Attorney Stephen Kiely of usurping the responsibilities of the Comp Plan group by instructing that its section on housing had to be the same as a report to be written by the Community Housing Fund Advisory Board and its hired consultant.

Mr. Kiely said the Comp Plan section could be “massaged,” but essentially had to be the same.

A municipality’s Comprehensive Plan dictates policy on multiple fronts, including development, land use, the environment, transportation, housing and other aspects of community life. It’s not merely a statement of beliefs and a guide to successful planning, but shows a commitment to serious ideas to improve the municipality, which in turn is used to attract funding from the state, federal, county and other entities.

Comp Plan Advisory Committee member Lily Hoffman had previously objected to sharing the consultant — Melville’s Nelson Pope Voorhis — with the CHF Advisory Board. She maintained the two groups should each have their own consultants.

The Town Board chose to hire consultant Kathryn Eiseman to serve both groups in a money saving move, while assuming the information needed by the two committees would essentially be the same.

Comp Plan Task Force member Councilwoman Meg Larsen said she thought the CHF Advisory Board plan could be an addendum to the Comp Plan’s section on housing, while it did not have to be the same.

In a statement to the Reporter, Mr. Kiely said Ms. Hoffman misunderstands the applicable law.

“Pursuant to New York State Town Law Section 64-k(7)(d), ‘[t]he town housing plan shall be an element of the town’s comprehensive plan.’ Thus, the Housing Plan unequivocally needs to be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan, ideally, as a sub-chapter of the Housing Chapter.”

A draft of the housing plan should be available to the public the first week of September, Mr. Kiely said. The plan “should be weighed accordingly,” he said.

Whatever Ms. Hoffman’s views of the housing plan are, the plan needs to be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan “as the law requires,” Mr. Kiely  said. At the same time, the requirement “in no way usurps the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee’s ability to do their job,” he said. “Quite the opposite, as it will provide a publicly vetted resource in order to fulfill their mandate.”

The Comp Plan Task Force and its Advisory Committee has drafted three sections of its report while still taking public comments on what has been written to date.

Various public comments have been incorporated into the drafts on Cultural Resources, Public Health and Human Services and Transportation. The drafts are available on the town website at shelterislandtown.us under the Comprehensive Plan tab.

New chapters being examined by the Task Force and Advisory Committee deal with Utilities, Economic Development and Community Services and Facilities, are also on the website.

It was the section on Economic Development that dominated this week’s discussion. Ms. Larsen noted that national data currently listed about various industries doesn’t reflect businesses operating on the Island. Some industries listed as basically dormant are active on the Island, and others that thrive nationwide don’t exist in the Town.

Advisory Committee member Jo-Ann Robotti and Petra Schmidt agreed to work on identifying those industries that are represented locally. They asked others to contribute their thoughts to the process.

Ms. Schmidt noted that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are working from home and many of them are spending more time on the Island than they did before. Recognizing many Island jobs are in services to residents, members agreed that could have an impact on the local economy.

The chapter is intended to look at ways to stimulate the economy and, perhaps, encourage more seasonal businesses to operate year-round.

Comp Plan members want to hear from business operators about how the government can assist them in expanding their businesses and/or operating more efficiently. At the same time, they acknowledged there probably aren’t a lot of steps the government can take to stimulate business growth.

Zoning might come into play, but that’s a subject on which the Comp Plan group hasn’t focused yet and won’t be addressing in depth until some time in 2023.

For employees who don’t live on the Island, committee members talked about how the cost of ferries might discourage those who don’t live in town to forego working here. Many Island companies and Shelter Island School District employees are provided with rates equal to what Town residents pay. 

Each section of the draft includes a list of specific goals and objectives and the challenges to achieving those aims. The public is encouraged to review any of the sections drafted to date and provide thoughts about changes they might like to see.