Reich ready for dock code hearing

Note: The story in the Dec. 12 Reporter had the wrong date for the public hearing on the dock code. It is Monday, Dec. 16, at the 6 p.m. regular Town Board meeting.

It has been a prolonged period of work on the proposed changes to the Town’s Dock Code, with much work done by the Waterways Management Advisory Council (WMAC) and input from the public and Town Board members.

With changes that have been made, Islanders will be able to take part in a public hearing on the latest draft at a regular Town Board meeting Monday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.

Former councilman and liaison to the WMAC Peter Reich had tried to weigh in many weeks ago prior to the first public hearing, but was told no comments would be heard outside of a public hearing.

Now he’s done more homework and is prepared to raise some questions at that Dec. 30 hearing.

His opening gambit, he said, will be an inquiry to the Town Board about how many miles of shoreline Shelter Island has.

Using his Navionics navigation program, he used close to 5,000 points carefully following the shoreline to determine his own answer.

But his theory all along has been the draft dock code subject to the first public hearing lacked sufficient understanding that he and other knowledgeable people could have contributed had they been allowed to offer vital information at work sessions where the proposed code revisions could have been further adapted in advance of any public hearing.

As it happened, there were so many speakers at that first public hearing opposed to various sections of the proposed revisions that the Town Board had to go back to the drawing board and make many changes to ready a document for a second public hearing — the one scheduled for Dec. 30.

At the first public hearing in October, Mr. Reich appealed to the Town Board not to adopt the code revisions that were written at that time.

He specifically referenced three issues that he found troubling:

• Mention of seaplanes as defined by the Code of Federal Regulations had been dropped from the local draft. Given that the United States Coast Guard regulations include seaplanes among other watercrafts, that reference should not have been dropped from the local code.

• Regulations in Town waters set speed limits at 45 mph and even less in creeks and some harbors and that’s less than seaplanes need for takeoffs.

• Helicopters are banned from landing on the Island and seaplanes should also be banned.

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

How the latest dock code revisions will stand with speakers at the end of the month remains to be seen.

The draft is posted on the Town website for review in advance of that sessio