Town Board - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. First thing we have is public comment.

Mr. Gaynor. I'm here at the yesterday when I appeared at the town board meeting that I should come and make this statement today. My questions yesterday were about, we had four permits that were issued for outdoor assemblies, several of which were going to have loud music or whatever, they're going to have amplified noise. And I want to know why Sylvester Manor isn't being required to have one. On June 27th, they're going to have a massive event over on that property. It's the 13th time, it'll be the 13th time they've had that event. There's usually around 500 people show up, 250 cars show up, alcohol is served all night. They are at dance floor, multiple tents. And they've applied for a permit every year. And in May of 2024, you denied that permit. You, Meg, voted on that. Al voted on that. And Amber voted on that at the May 17th work session. We were short a board member at that time. Ben recused himself, as he's the former president or whatever you call it of that organization. And your rationale for denying them that noise variance for that permit was that they were under a current violation from the building department for operating in illegal use in a AA zone, which still exists today. They still don't have all the permits. They're going in for a site plan review, which is the last step inside of this process. And so I'd like to know why you're not requiring them To get a permit for this event they're going to have 500 people there they're going to be getting gassed up all night drinking dancing the night away they're going to be playing amplified music. My property as the crow flies is exactly 2040 feet away from where that amplified noises that. And you can hear it loud and clear, as can my other neighbors. No one wants to get up here and do this inside of this small community because no one wants to take dirty looks from the people over at Sylvester Manor when they go into the IGA. I'm not that guy. And so I'd like a truthful answer as to why you are not requiring them to get that permit. They've had to get it every other year. Why is this year so special? Does it have something to do with the fact that they're under site plan review on August 29th and they don't want to confront this issue? Because all the things that are covered inside of there, well, why aren't they required to have it?

so the triggers that require an outdoor assembly permit are listed in the code right so it's a race a circus a carnival a tent show a music performance fireworks display a music performance is a dance floor a need for town services like police fire ems highway for things like closing off roads monitoring traffic things like that

What about all the policemen working that evening, Amber, out on the street when 250 people ply into their cars? I'm sorry, 500 people get into 250 cars and start going zooming around the island. When are you guys going to be happy with this? When somebody gets killed? When one of those drunk drivers swerves into a lane or worse yet, hits an officer? That's 250 cars. We all live here on the island. We know what 250 cars look like on 114. You've been put on notice by the Department of Transportation that that New York State Department of Transportation that that entrance in and out of that place is dangerous. Phil DiOrio acknowledged it on record in September and his only word of appeals to me. He said it was dangerous. We all know that it's dangerous. It's about this wide. You have to lube up to get out of it. And these people are going to be liquored up. So I just want you to acknowledge truthfully that you've got an unsafe situation there and you're allowing it to happen because they are politically well-connected group.

No. So they're not using town property. They're not using town resources. They're not requesting a noise exemption. So if they choose to not request a noise exemption, they'll get a ticket if it's violating the noise code. There are no triggers. Size of the event is not in the code as a requirement for getting a permit. So none of the things that they're doing, everything is on private property. If they hire people to manage their parking, that's on them. And if they don't need our help with that, then they don't have to request this permit.

Shelter Islanders are not stupid, right? Anybody, any sensible adult person would know that that event versus all of these other events, if any event, there is not a comparable event of that scale anywhere on this island ever. It doesn't exist, and you know it. And so any rational, reasonable person would say, yeah, that's unsafe, and the town should have an opportunity to review it. If it were anyone else, if Andrea Carter went to go have a 500-person event up at her hotel, would you be required to have an outdoor assembly car? Yes, you would. Thanks so much, Margaret. Have a great day. You guys are lying through your teeth for the community. And we can't stop you from doing that. The only thing we can do is vote you out of office. And I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that that happens for each and every one of you. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

Have a lovely day. All right. Next up, the site plan review applications. So we had Suffolk County Water Authority.

Good job.

Suffolk County Water Authority came for their site plan review. There were a few things that we need to look into. So, 1 of them was the easement, right? So, unfortunately, the access that they've been using forever isn't technically. So, it's still open though, right?

It's still open. Since it got adjourned and continue to any discussion of it has that the meeting.

Oh, okay. So, because I was just going to say, we're just going to ask the town engineer to go look at it. Yeah. But were there any other notes? Because it's open, did we want to give notes to Suffolk County Board on a majority of things we need addressed?

Yeah, I think that happened yesterday, but also, because it's not. Because it's a public hearing, and it's not notice for today. I don't and it's still open. I don't think that the porch, it's just the application in any subsequent way.

All right cool. Moving on. Okay, thank you, Thomas. History museum. So we closed this 1 last night, right? Yeah. Okay. So history museum, we got our memo from the engineer and he was okay with the parking because it's so infrequently that it might get used like that.

And I mean, that was kind of like all I, all my questions were just around the parking. So feel like, I mean, I understand what he's saying and I, I get it, you know, it's not ideal, but I also understand not paving it.

So, right, especially if it's like a 1 off event once a year where they need all of that is parking. It's better to keep green space.

I mean, I think that. I mean, it's not, I'm also not an engineer, so I will defer here.

It's not the most user friendly. Plan for parking, but it's also, I think very unlikely that they actually have to. With you to.

our parking lot that we lend them.

And if they have a big event, they could always have someone shuttle people back and forth to parking in some other location.

That's sort of been a problem today. They've worked with us.

I mean, they manage the parking lot now for Saturdays for the Yeah, you know, really well, they have people there.

This is in case we take back our parking lot for some other purpose because it is town property.

The other thing to think about and I think I raised it is that they. At least I know in the past, they have used the back. Which they are not supposed to and I think that. It's, you know, especially as we kind of start to to work on that project. I think it also would be. I don't know, like, that should have a restriction. I can only so I would, I would want to see in when we approve this, I would want to actually see a restriction just to say, like, you, because I know that, like, when I was doing. Housing outreach there and stuff like that, they would have all the vendors parking the way back. Right, which you're not supposed to be back there. And so I would actually put a restriction that they, they should not have cars. Also. It's just like, we're going to develop it. And also it's like. It's not kept up and so that should not be overflow parking. That is not what we're releasing them. So that's like, my only. That would be the only restriction I would like to see in there because that makes me.

Yeah, as a person who's had to park back there very uneasy. So I have no problem with that. I think I actually drew a map already for Thomas that showed that they were only allowed to park on the front.

Yeah. Yeah.

No, I know we've had the conversation, but. Yeah, but I think it's, I think. You know, and who knows if it's not getting passed along to the, but it happens a lot. Right. And so I think that if we're going to do this, this is a great opportunity because what I don't want to happen is them getting used to. Parking back there, which they have been doing again and again, and we, you know, we're going to need to start building back there and now we're going to have a building site and they're using, you know what I mean? Like. There's been a lot of confusion around how this works. So I think this is a great opportunity to straighten it up.

Are there any other conditions or concerns about this application?

No, along with that. It should be made clear that they can't block access to that back portion of the lot. Because sometimes they park across the lane. And once we start building and there are things going on back there, you want to make sure that they're not blocking that right away.

Do we have a lease?

We do. At the beginning of the year. I think we have an agreement with them. TAB, With that agreement, they were given a map right showed them no go zone yeah if they're not following that we can follow up yeah.

TAB, No, I would just I. TAB, Think this is it's a year to year license. TAB, It is yeah yeah.

TAB, We made it a license so that we could revoke it. TAB, Okay awesome. TAB, I just want to like. And it's year to year. So if we start using the property for housing and we need the front part for material storage or whatever else, then they're going to have to find alternate parking. Cool. All right. So are we good with this? I'm good with that. Yeah, absolutely. With that caveat. hundred square foot wetlands exemption genteel navarro is the application david would you like to explain your project to us sure i'd be happy to my video is disabled if you want me to turn Christina will give you permission to turn your camera on.

Sure.

Hi, everybody. Hello. Hello.

Hi. Thank you for your time today. So we're on Point Lane, right on the wetlands. And our project involves just a tiny little bump out to the deck. and a staircase to allow better access. And the town code provides a 100 square foot exemption so that you can do up to 100 square feet of construction within the wetlands without having to obtain a wetlands permit with just the regular Department of Buildings permit. And so we started that process. And the Department of Buildings has sent us to you guys. And here we are. It's incredibly minimally invasive. It's the deck. It's just an addition to the deck. We're pushing one section out, a couple of feet, and it is over a garden. So it's not as if it were over the wetlands, you know, natural type area. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

So you're just squaring off because you have this odd shape, so you're just squaring it off so it's... or easily used space.

Exactly. That area is, we have a dining table there and it's just so that, you know, people can sit comfortably.

And then you're adding some stairs so you can access it from the outside.

Yes, or actually more so that we can get down to the lower level, yes. There's a brick patio and garden underneath. And I think you can kind of see that in the pictures that I attached.

Yes.

On page two with the pictures, the second picture is the best view. You can see the table there in the weird shape.

Yep. So they're currently stairs on that side right now? i'm sorry the on the side of the deck so it says like the new deck extension new deck like there were not stairs so the stairs are new on the if we're like looking at the at the water so the stairs are you looking at the photo or the drawings I'm looking at the drawing. I guess what I'm asking is, are there stairs? There are not stairs currently there?

There are not stairs currently there. The brick patio is underneath there.

So currently you can only access the deck from the house?

From inside the house. Or there is an old set of stairs at the far, far end that are really not used.

Got it.

And as far as, as best I understand, this is just like an as of right exemption that we're applying to make use of, and it just needs to be recorded so that obviously, so that we can only use it once, so that we can't come back in three years and say, hey, we want to use that 100-foot exemption that you don't remember that we used to, you know, take advantage of. And it needs to be recorded so that it can only be done once.

Yes, that is correct. So we're just here to officially put it on the record and put it in your file. Does anybody have any questions or mitigations?

I don't know.

All right. So we'll write that up. Send a letter to the building department.

And I guess my only question would be, where do we go from here? What's the next steps?

We'll approve this. Do we have to do a resolution for it? I think we did, right? So we'll do a resolution at the next meeting. And that'll get sent over to the building department for your file. And you'll be able to move forward with your project.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

No problem. Have a great day. All right. Next on the list, we're flying through the agenda. canceling the June 16th work session. So as of now, we don't really have anything on the agenda. And South Hold is actually going to have a meeting. They have their work session at the same time we do. And they are going to have representatives from the state come and talk at their work session about the new budget and some of the changes that went into this year's state budget that are going to have a direct impact on local taxes. So they've made changes to the state retirement program to make tiers five and six closer to tier four, which will have a direct impact on our budget next year. Amber was saying that she would go in person to their work session to hear the presentation and see if she can get them to come and do a presentation here for us. So I am also not, I won't be here for June 16th. And there's actually nothing currently on the agenda for that day. So the question is, do we want to keep that meeting or do we want to cancel it? So, because it sounds like it would just be the three of us then? Yeah, it would just be the three of you. I mean, there's nothing on the agenda, so it may not be worth having the meeting. That's what we were thinking. Yeah, it looks like we've moved it to the next.

So I mean, we can have

i mean it's not with i'm finally canceling it yeah yeah last time you and amber were away i had to run the meeting that wasn't fun um yeah because i mean we were looking at it we're like there is actually nothing landing the only thing on the agenda is public comment so we can have public comment on the 23rd um there's plenty on the 23rd agenda so we figured we wouldn't really be missing anything if we cancel the 16th so if everyone's okay with that yeah we'll put it on the calendar

All right.

And we have board member reports.

All right. I'll start. I don't have time to report because we were off. And then I was on a trip. So just kind of reporting back for CPF. So we went over the stewardship plan assignment. So we're getting those together. The funds are about $9.2 million. Obviously, we have approved Tedford. There's a couple other things in the works. So it'll be, anyway, it's interesting to see how that's going. We might be kind of going through that catch rather quickly, which is interesting. The 1 thing I did want to flag is we still do not have an acquisition plan. It was supposed to be sorted, so I'm going to go back to Chewy. I'm just have to say to this board that I'm increasingly uncomfortable. Um, so it's supposed to be almost done. Um, but, uh, yeah, that is, that is, I did want to flag, uh, where we're kind of operating and potentially taking all the stuff out of the, without a plan on record.

And, um, I, I would really like to see that come.

I'm, you know, I know, I know that they've been working on Tedford for a long time. And so I didn't want to jam that up. But I don't know how comfortable I am with approving any more purchases until they can finish a plan. This is a lot of money. This is a lot of money not to have anything on record. We are really out of compliance here. So I don't know how everybody else feels about it, but I don't understand why we can't get it sorted.

We've had an almost complete document for a very long time. Yeah, I was like, we just need to like, it's the code tells you what it has to be. Yeah. And so I. We need to just finish it. Yeah, I don't really excuse anymore.

Yeah, this is 2 years. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, this is, it's been, we've been out of compliance for that long and we're spending. A lot of money with nothing on the record of how we should be doing this. Yeah, that's my, that's my. 2 cents on that. CAC, I'll kind of just do like a little update for Amber just because she and I chatted at CPF. We, they still need to work on the mission statement and we've definitely had some attendance issues at that meeting. So that's something that we might have to take up. Where we've had to cancel a couple of meetings and especially as we get into just our application season and, you know, needing the board to weigh in. I'm a little, again, nervous. I think it can be remedied, but I think that that board might need us to like lean in a little bit just to like help out, just kind of get ducks in a row, just because we don't, I wouldn't want to, yeah, I wouldn't want to like hold up any applications just because they can't get a quorum to meet to get, you know what I mean? Like this, like we're kind of getting to that point. So, mostly what I have. And yeah.

Yep. On the third, I went to the Suffolk County planning directors meeting. It was in Hampton Bays on Dune Road and I like remodeled postcard house from the 1800s. It's very cool. But what we were talking about is things that kind of affect all of Long Island and so all the different towns. So we talked about battery storage. We talked about AI data centers coming into New York State. The state is considering a moratorium on data centers because they're receiving a lot of applications for different locations. And it's a concern. They take up a lot of power and they use a lot of water. And so for Long Island, our aquifer is limited. And so that's a big concern is where to cite them, how to cite them safely and how to make sure they don't have negative impact on the community.

How many applications in Suffolk County?

There was the possibility of one in Brookhaven, but it got pulled before it actually made it to the docket. But they're bouncing around. So we were talking about that a little bit. So those were kind of two of the big things we talked about.

It's astounding the water that they use and the carbon dioxide that they generate.

The numbers are... Astronomical.

Yeah.

unbelievable um so uh we talked about potential codes adjustments that people can make because right now you know nobody has data centers covered in their town code at all why they just came online it's just a new issue so um you know all the communities around us are kind of scrambling to help with some kind of code You know, some towns have put in a moratorium for data centers, but if you're put in a moratorium, it means you're going to consider them when they come back online, right? So, you know, it might be easier to just make code amendments. I don't really foresee a data center happening on Shelter Island. There's literally no space for it. But for our neighboring communities, it is a concern. So that's just something that we were talking about as far as, like, planning for the county goes. Same thing with battery storage and things like that, like talking about appropriate locations and a lot of more interesting.

And it's not really realistic. There's no infrastructure to support a data center in eastern Long Island. It's not going to happen. This is no power, no water. But the battery storage is actually a real issue. And what was the discussion around that?

Really how to generate code that's appropriate for your town. So there are a couple of places that have developed codes for battery storage. So we can get copies of those and kind of look at them and see what would apply for us, what we could implement here. Because once again, we don't have anything in our code that addresses battery storage. So I'll get a list of those from the Southern County Planning Commission. They can help us do research on what works, what doesn't seem to work. But it was a very interesting meeting. Sounds interesting. Very cool.

And that's the fire department way, yeah. Yeah. They're the ones who are going to have to deal with it.

Yep. And ICELP, the town of ICELP, did an update to their code and they used consultants. who specialize in fire prevention and mediation and things like that. And so we can get a copy of what they've done. A lot of what they've done is restricting the size of them because, I mean, ISMIP is much larger than us. They do have space and they probably have industrial areas where you could have battery storage. But we can look at their code, we can look at Southampton, East Hampton, what they've come up with and kind of decide what works for us this is important wrestling with it as well right now probably yeah I haven't heard specifically um and then uh Pep came for the second half of our discussion about wetlands process procedure recommendations ideas for our new wetlands code update I put a book in everybody's mailbox that um it's from Pep and it shows you all the different Processes like the process for the, the process for army course, when it comes to approving an application, the process for the 10 shelter island, Southampton East Hampton. Okay, then so we could see how everybody around us. Handles wetlands applications, and it also has recommendations for different ways. We could look to streamline the process or make it so that. We are the initial approver of the application, and then it would go to the DTC. So those are things to consider. But it's an interesting resource, so I wanted to give everybody a copy to look at so that you guys can have it in your head when we look at the wetlands code.

Speaking of wetlands code, Do we have a sense of when that's on the dog? Yeah.

So right now, Rick is doing another modification.

So we had our meeting was it last week or the week before that was like, I feel like I was like, I feel like it just happened. Right?

So we had that meeting on the 27th. We didn't get through the entire document, but we got through most of it. So Rick was doing the changes for our discussion then. And then once he's done with those, he's going to send the back to us. We're going to set up another meeting to finish the document and then it should come to the board.

Okay.

So that's where we are with that.

Cool.

I think that's all I have. We have planning board tonight, EMS dinner on Thursday, bike presentation at Town Hall on Friday at 6 o'clock if you want to learn all about safe biking and how to adjust your bicycle correctly.

Here you should wear, it's Bill. Bill is going to do a presentation on biking on Shelter Island.

the pros and cons and the safety things you should take into consideration. So it should be a great presentation. He's very excited about it. So six o'clock at town hall, highly recommend people join. And it should be informative. Cool. Awesome. That's exciting.

I'm glad to see all of this.

Yeah. No, it's very exciting. I'm happy with everything that they're doing. They're working so hard. And then we do have openings on some of our committees. Green Options has an opening. We have an opening for the building department clerk because Kim has retired. What else do we have? We have WQI has an opening as well, Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board. So if you're interested in any of those, please send the talent clerk an email and we'd be happy to put you on our list. All right, that's all I got.

The deer and tick committee met. Of course, now we're in the summer season.

Yeah, they're everywhere, those ticks.

It's an educational time of year. As Julia Weisberg, they put in three full-page ads, and they're a reporter, and they've been running postings on Facebook just to try to educate people on ticks and procedures, what's best case. They're actually going to go into the school, uh, and meet with reps from a Shama can go through the school kids and talk to them about ticks and safe procedures and actually what, what to do. The children's archery program has started, and they're also this year offering adult archery in July and August. So sign up, sir, sign up if you want to. participate great young instructor who happens to be there excellent and the wqi advisory board met and they have continuing discussions on um grant funding for commercial ia systems on the island Eddie Bishop, one of the members of the committee, reached out to East Hampton to get more further information about how they handle it, what the parameters, their system, how they approve, and it's going to be a continuing conversation. Let's try to bring that to the aisle to look into it, which would be a good thing. And the other thing that I have, I have a question for Thomas. The facilities master plan. Yeah. What is the status of that contract?

I think it's fully executed. It's been fully executed for a couple weeks. I think Joe, I'll have to ask Joe. He's been kind of, I just made some edits. But yeah, I asked him at least a week ago and he said it was fully executed. So they should be getting started.

Last I heard from Joe he's trying to set up the initial meeting to get them everybody out here to start the process okay um so that was the last I heard was I think early.

mid last week he was trying to set up a meeting my ultimate concern is like i know that they had like a hard signing date when the contract is signed the clock ticks for 12 weeks is that true is it hard i'm concerned about them being involved that the public being involved with them during public hearing i'm pretty sure it was i'll test joe but i'm pretty sure it was that they would take about 14 weeks from when they started okay

so whenever that was you know whenever they get started it takes about 14 weeks for them to do what they want to do um so yeah i'll ask joe and send you guys an update but i'm pretty sure like it's been executed for a couple of weeks i think he's trying to set up an industry okay that's all i just i don't want the time to run out and that they don't the public doesn't have access to that when they discuss their plan that's all okay all right

That's all I had.

All right. Yeah, Joe's trying to get that set up. Is there anything else?

All right.

I'm going to make a motion that we go into executive session to talk about contracts. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, everybody.