Residents pack Shelter Island Town Hall on Dock code debate

After months of work by members of the Waterways Management Advisory Council (WMAC) and input from the Town Board, Monday night’s public hearing on changes to the dock code was greeted with serious doubts about its viability.

“The law should probably be thrown in the garbage,” resident Angelo Piccozzi said, referring to the draft being discussed.

It’s back to the drawing board and if another revision is forthcoming, it will need a new public hearing, since changes appear to be major.

It was revealed that a 7-0 vote by members of the WMAC to bring the draft to the Town Board was not a vote in favor of all the code changes. There were agreements on some changes and a lack of agreement on others.

The vote represented an impression that the Town Board should pick up the discussion and decide whether to take it forward, revise it or send it back to the WMAC with requests for changes.

To those who said there were bitter arguments among members, James Eklund, who has long served on the WMAC, denied that was the case. There were differing opinions on some of the changes, but discussions were polite and respectful, he said.

On Monday night, a standing-room-only crowd showed up at Town Hall, with more people participating in the Town Board meeting online.

One after another, people went to the podium to express disagreement with the proposal. Others online were equally passionate about their views of the proposed revisions, most of them opposed to the draft.

Cliff Clark, president of South Ferry, told the Town Board, in some ways they have a solution with no problem. And, there were speakers who spoke glowingly about the changes, pointing to needs they said were important to protect neighboring properties and safety measures.

Among the speakers were two key individuals with long histories with the WMAC — longtime former chairman John Needham, and former member and former councilman Peter Reich, who had served as the Board’s liaison to the council.

Mr. Needham said the number of changes proposed were “overwhelming to digest. I’m not aware of a lot of problems with docks.”

Pointing to a clause about keeping a log of times when a boat is pumped out is “more bureaucracy,” he said, which is just one of the changes he doesn’t believe is necessary.

Mr. Reich addressed three issues he said were troubling. Asking the Town Board not to pass the existing draft, he said the entire Town  Code needs to be rewritten to address conflicting information in various sections.

Mention of seaplanes as defined  by the Code of Federal Regulations has been dropped from the revisions, he noted.

The United States Coast Guard regulations provide seaplanes with regulations as they do to other watercraft. Regulations in Town waters set speed limits at 45 mph and even less in creeks and some harbors and that’s below what seaplanes need for takeoffs.

Just as helicopters are banned from landing on the Island, seaplanes should be banned, he said.

“Why would we now want to encourage seaplanes as our waters are getting busier?” Mr. Reich asked.

Former town engineer John Cronin, a lifelong sailor and a former captain for North Ferry, told Board members the complexity of the issue needs the attention of experts, not volunteers. As well intended as they are, to rewrite the dock code requires professionals, he added.

Current WMAC Chairman Bill Geraghty  talked about the months he and his committee members spent poring through the existing dock code to try to create a draft that would eliminate a proliferation of applicants needing variances from the existing code.

The increase in requests for variances demonstrated the current code is out of sync with today’s Island, Mr. Geraghty said. The code is filled with conflicts and ambiguities that should be eliminated.

He denied the charge made by several who spoke at the public hearing that the revisions change riparian rights — the right to all residents to have access to navigable waters. He has also objected to those who said the draft eliminates the rights to have docks in all outside waters.

There are a few areas where allowing docks poses dangers for neighbors, and even the owners who want docks, Mr. Geraghty said. These are areas where currents are swift and winds strong, he said.

Several speakers talked about such areas. Resident Karin Lissakers commended the Town Board for taking the initiative to tackle the issue of changes to the dock code. 

Longtime residents understand the safety issues, but newcomers to the Island just want docks where they want them, Ms. Lissakers said.

One of her neighbors had a dock built that has resulted in Ms. Lissakers losing her beach to erosion and smashing a recently built jetty because of the neighbor’s dock being impacted by dangerous currents.

There needs to be “a good balance” between the interests of boaters and those who want to enjoy the water in other ways, she said. “Some very wise changes” were made in the draft code, Ms. Lissakers said.

Attorney John Bennett said one of his clients has been caught “in limbo” by the moratorium on building new docks. He told the Town Board that others whose applications were in process when the moratorium was put in place should have been grandfathered in and allowed to proceed with construction of their docks.

Bobbie DeCarlo said she would have loved to have a dock, but winds are extreme in the area where she lives.

“Much as I’d like to have a dock, it’s not appropriate,” she said. But the existing code doesn’t stop others in her neighborhood from having a dock constructed.