Town gets break on cost of Sylvester Manor development rights
Thanks to Suffolk County’s pro-rated sharing of proceeds from a federal grant with Shelter Island, the local investment in the Phase 1 acquisition of development rights at Sylvester Manor will be reduced by $272,000.
Supervisor Jim Dougherty told members of the Town Board at Tuesday’s work session that the town had originally allocated $728,000 in proceeds from its 2-percent preservation tax revenues — taxes paid by purchasers of real estate — to fund the acquisition.
The town’s share of the development rights on 36.1 acres of property at Sylvester Manor now will be $456,000, thanks to the money the county is getting from the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program grant.
That will have “a significant impact” on the acquisition of development rights in Phase II, Mr. Dougherty said.
It’s still unclear when Phase I, which had been expected to close at the end of March, will actually close, but Mr. Dougherty said last week he expected it would be sometime this month.
The county’s share of the overall acquisition costs is 70 percent of the $7.25 million cost of the development rights on both parcels.
While the Sylvester Manor development rights acquisition is assured, Mr. Dougherty said he’s still keeping an eye on the Suffolk County Legislature because Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) is restructuring her bill that would have imposed a 90-day moratorium on open space acquisitions. Ms. Hahn’s fellow legislators tabled her original bill after raising questions about whether 90 days would be sufficient time to vet parcels in the pipeline; there also were questions about who would be vetting those parcels.
NO MERGER
The Town Board put to rest any thought that its new Emergency Medical Services Department might merge with the Shelter Island Fire Department after hearing from Edward Holohan, an actuary and president of Penflex, a service award program specialist in Latham, New York. Mr. Holohan told the board that not only would a merger of the two departments deny EMS workers the five-year look-back on their years of service, but said it posed other problems.
More departments that had merged fire and emergency services have been breaking them up because members of a merged department would have to have training as both firefighters and paramedics.
That was enough for fire department member and Assistant Chief Will Anderson. He pointed out from the audience that having to be trained in both areas would be so time consuming that there would be no time for the volunteers to hold paying jobs.
The board agreed.
NON-CONFORMING
Councilwoman Chris Lewis asked her colleagues to submit their final comments on proposed legislation affecting nonconforming parcels in residential areas. The main bone of contention is how much time a property should be maintained as legally nonconforming if its pre-existing use has been discontinued. The original plan called for giving an owner a year to restart a business that had ceased operation and then allow up to five two-year extensions. Now board members are focusing on either a three-year or five-year limit.
“We really have beaten this thing to death,” Ms. Lewis said, appealing to her colleagues to take their last shots before she and Town Attorney Laury Dowd rewrite the resolution and submit it to a public hearing.
TARLOW DECISION
Councilman Ed Brown raised additional questions Tuesday about a draft decision approving construction of an oversized house proposed by owner Richard Tarlow on his lot at 29 Nostrand Parkway.
“I’m not looking to hang it up,” he said about the decision. “I just have some concerns.” He wanted to assure that the written decision requires a cistern for the two pools proposed on the property. And he wanted to assure that the pools wouldn’t be topped off using a hose.
If the new resolution can be written by Thursday’s regular Town Board meeting, it’s expected to be approved. Otherwise, it would have to be delayed and voted on at an upcoming special meeting that could be scheduled in conjunction with a work session.