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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-01/18/2022 PH COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK TOWN OF SOUTHOLD -------------------------------------------------- TOWN OF SOUTHOLD REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING -------------------------------------------------- Southold, New York January 18 , 2022 7 : 00 P . M . B E F 0 R E : SCOTT A . RUSSELL, SUPERVISOR LOUISA P . EVANS , JUSTICE JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN BRIAN 0 . MEALY, COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI , COUNCILMAN SARAH E . NAPPA, COUNCILWOMAN SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : I would like to invite anybody who would like to address the Town Board on any issue? MS . RANDY WADE : Randy Wade, 6th Street, Greenport . Is what you just did is what I think it was? The two night rental SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Yeah . We rescinded that . There was a procedural error in the adoption . I don ' t know honestly what the hesitation is . I can ' t for the life of me figure it out . MS . RANDY WADE : Here is one thing . There is a development proposed at Main Street and 48 with 40 apartments proposed in a residential and that is what it would been, two bedrooms . Affordable housing, you know, rentals can ' t compete against them. SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : It wouldn ' t be allowed . That wouldn ' t be allowed . MS . RANDY WADE : ( Inaudible ) but I didn ' t think was the case with office residential . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : None of that would be allowed . You know, just so people understand, from my perspective, it ' s so inconsequential that is why I never thought about it . It ' s a procedural issue . We should have voted to clear it as an unlisted action . I don ' t think it did . That ultimately would be with the Town Board . I think some Town Board members would disagree with that but I viewed it as so inconsequential , I didn ' t think twice about it because all you are really doing is , the use is already allowed . All you are really doing is saying the Town is not enabling the affairs of the lease . That from my perspective is what it was . So I don ' t know what all these concerns were . But look, we made a procedural error and we righted it by withdrawing it or rescinding it . MS . RANDY WADE : Thank you very much . And you have made me want to look at the Zoning Code and better understand it . Thank you . I heard at the Work Session the frustration and I totally understand the frustration of wanting to move a building and knowing things were inadequate . I just think we need to look at it from more perspectives . There is an urban and economic development perspective . And you are the biggest employers in the Town . And you can generate foot traffic to this hamlet that the stores can actually serve people year-round just with all you workers . And including the court house workers and people going to get food before and after . A court house, this is a lot of people . And so when you have a lot of people big generators , you want them walking around the hamlets like how you keep lively downtown . And there is also the idea of shared resources . I know the idea of trying to reschedule a meeting with the Transportation Commission, the only room I could get was in the Old School House . And I had to pick up the laptop and a projector here and bring it over there . And then find that there was no extension input . So I went to the Rec Center . And then the screen was too faded and useful for us to share the screen . So you would be so much better off if you had access to the courthouse as another meeting room for the days of the week when its not being used by a courthouse . So if you prioritize consolidating the work -- and I may have misheard, but it sounded like all be consolidated in a building in the back . If there was a ground floor meeting room like this , only with the particulars that are required for courts nowadays , then the courthouse could move there . And then once that is done, you could use this building space to tear down -- whatever you want to do . Have another meeting hall . And you could think more about how you want to interface with the sidewalk and what the -- to better serve the hamlet . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : So we have talked about all that over the years . And the size building that we could put on that lot back there, would not be enough room to house all the Town employees and the court . That is our problem. It ' s the space . Under the officer ' s of the court, you need certain space and you need certain space . And we have been working with engineers , outside engineers , our Town engineer for years . Jim and I have been working with them. And then the other thing too, we wouldn ' t have the space to keep the building and a new building . You need some -- septic is one thing and then parking is another thing . We wouldn ' t have enough parking . So there is a lot of issues . And we talked about all those things that you just mentioned and we can ' t make that work with that piece of property . MS . RANDY WADE : I thought that whole enhanced system -- maybe that could be something that could be shared with affordable housing nearby because you do want to have the density -- COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : So you need the space for that as well . So we would be taking from parking . It ' s a -- the engineers looked into all of that . MS . RANDY WADE : Sometimes people can park farther away . So especially during construction . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Well , I am not talking during construction . I am talking after construction . You have to some -- there has to be so many spaces for occupancy . And we wouldn ' t have the parking to house everything here and a court and be able to build a big enough building . I mean, we are pay a lot more money to it . MS . RANDY WADE : You are going to have to have an elevator anyway . So you might as well go to a second floor -- COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : That is the thing . We looked at not going to a second floor maybe and just doing -- MS . RANDY WADE : That ' s kind of sprawl . Because you can get more people walking and taking the bus -- COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Yeah, I understand that . MS . RANDY WADE : I mean, if you go -- Peconic Lane is exactly where you don ' t want to have an office . That is sprawl . That is the definition of sprawl . Right now it ' s clean . It ' s very rural . You know, that old school is really charming . Yeah . I just hope you will , you know, think -- SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : My honest opinion, we have supposedly been working on this for years . We have been working on it for years and the best we came up with is to dump $ 6 million dollars behind a recreational facility in Courthouse that we bought for community use, and we weren ' t doing a good job . That is my view . We were talking -- okay . So the building down the block is not going to work . It ' s in tough shape . I get it . But we were talking about these different ideas and the next thing in July, another $ 37 million dollars is out of no where . And I am getting confused about all these things . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : We have checked other buildings . We looking to different properties that -- different properties might work around here but they have to be for sale . We can ' t buy them if they are not for sale . We looked into building down the road . We looked into the big bank building down in Mattituck . We have looked and done our due diligence despite what Scott just said . And you know, there is a lot of factors that we ' re trying to work with . MS . RANDY WADE : You said maybe -- if we ( inaudible ) we should build something . I just feel like it is a puzzle . And I don ' t have the answers for you but I really like you to think about how to make the puzzle work here in Southold . And I -- I sympathize with the bank building becoming private because make it fancy and you know, it ' s hard for government to do that . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : We spent a lot of money on engineering to get the court to fit in there along with other offices and it ' s just -- doesn ' t work . MS . RANDY WADE : You have a good thing here in that it ' s nonconforming and you can get away with it . When you start to modify things , then you have to go out . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Exactly . MS . RANDY WADE : So if you stay here long enough and figure out a way to do multilevel in the back and squeeze it in -- COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : We wouldn ' t be able to squeeze the court in . That is the thing . MS . RANDY WADE : If you add a three-story, you probably could; right? SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Third story would be very difficult in the State of New York, a fire suppression systems , exterior -- fire escapes . A third-story -- MS . RANDY WADE : ( Inaudible ) . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : You get more expensive as you go up . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : On top of that, the Town Code doesn ' t allow it . So we would be giving -- we wouldn ' t be holding ourselves to the same standard with regard as we do with other people . MS . RANDY WADE : -- half of the floor maybe . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : And it ' s the character of the neighborhood to have three-story ' s . MS . RANDY WADE : I know, it ' s tucked in the back . So that ' s kind of a good location to do something like that . I really think there is an answer but you ' ve got a sprawling here and if it was done in phases where you could really do different phases , leave well enough alone here because you ' re going to be getting away with it . And get the consolidated -- the fact that the plotters are used by ( inaudible ) Planning and have a shared resource room. Having to use, you know, the courthouse as a potential good meeting room for all the rest of the week . COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : I think we could look to solve this problem. As we have talked about this in the work session today, figuring out what we ' re going to do at Town Hall and the office and the Annex . You know, that is another big problem that we have to solve here . Locating the courthouse over there, takes that off the table . And makes it somewhat easier for us to solve the problem. Because well enough right here is not well enough . It doesn ' t work . MS . RANDY WADE : Well , people can suffer through it for a little longer because they have suffered through it for a long time . Whereas , ( inaudible ) development over to Peconic Lane is just not a good solution from, you know, everything that you want to have . With Planning and walkable communities . It ' s the opposite . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I think our employees have suffered through long enough and it ' s up to us to stop talking about it and start doing something about it . And I do appreciate your comments and have taken them into consideration, and I think you know, before it becomes a dire situation, we need to do something and that is what we have discussed today . There are Town buildings on -- I agree with you, there are no other Town buildings . We ' re just putting them in the middle of a farm field and would be a lot different . The highway is there . The rec center . It ' s another Town area . The main Town Hall is still going to stay here . We ' re not moving anyone from the main Town Hall -- MS . RANDY WADE : -- benefit of the other meeting room if it ' s way over there? COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Well , we can -- that is going to be in the design in the new building, if we do a new building . But we have -- MS . RANDY WADE : Two meeting rooms . And then you got three . That is what I am saying . So much more practical if you can just focus on one good perfect building in the back and it won ' t be perfect, but squeezing it there will have so many more benefits to the Village and improve the liveliness of your stores . And to what we have talked about for so long, preserving the grain of the hamlets . Well , anyway . Thank you for listening . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Thank you . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Would anybody else like to address the Town Board on any other issue? UNKNOWN SPEAKER : I have somebody on Zoom who would like to speak . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Okay . UNKNOWN SPEAKER : Christopher North . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Hi , Chris . MR . NORTH : It ' s Chris North from Greenport . I do agree that the Justice Court needs to be moved for safety wise . I was listening to the Town Board earlier and do agree that it should move to Peconic for safety wise . The Police Department is there and convenient for the Police Department . It ' s convenient and much better . That is all I have to say . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Thanks , Chris . Anybody else like to address the Town Board? (No Response ) . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Brian? COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : As you may know, the Town Board ' s Zoom sites were attacked January 4th and Anti-Bias Task Force Meeting was attacked December 20th . The Anti-Bias Task Force wrote to the Town Board . We did discuss it in our work session . Chief Flatley did update us that incident was being a hate incident . And he said there may be further update through the DA ' s office . A representative from the DA may come to update us further about the next step for the incidents . We discussed as the Board, having a unified statement to answer the Anti-Bias Task Force for comment . I am going to read the statement now . The Southold Town Board strongly condemns any forms of bias , racism and hate that seem to disrupt, harm or threaten our community . As such, we are deeply troubled by the recent disturbing incident that occurred on a Zoom live feed of a Town Hall Board Meeting on January 4th at 9 : 00 a .m. where an individual placed racist and obscene comments and a death threat in the chat . This kind hatred of vitriol is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our community . The New York State Hate Crimes Resource Guide defines Hate Crime in the following way . A Hate Crime is a conditional offense that is motivated by bias . A person commits a Hate Crime when one of a specified set of crimes is committed targeting a victim because of a perception belief about their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age or sexual orientation . When such an act is committed of such a type or a perception or belief, these crimes can target an individual , a group of individuals or private property . The safety and well being of all citizens of Southold Town is our utmost priority . We are currently reviewing the Town ' s internal processes for conducting virtual Town Hall meetings in public forums in order to better understand this and similar previous incidents happen, so we can put the appropriate measures to prevent it from happening again . We have been in communication Southold Town Police Chief Flatley to express our concern and to request an investigation to this incident as possible hate and bias crimes . The matter has also been referred to the Suffolk County District Attorney ' s Office . We value the vibrant diversity of our community . All members of our community should be treated with the utmost respect, dignity and protection under the law . We wish to express our deepest appreciation for the community organizations who have reached out to communicate their outrage and concern including ( inaudible ) Community and Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force . Sincerely Southold Town Council Members , Scott A. Russell , Town Supervisor, Jill Doherty, Town Board Member and Deputy Supervisor, Greg Doroski Town Board Member, Louisa Evans , Southold Town Board Member, Brian 0 . Mealy, Southold Town Board Member, Sarah E . Nappa, Southold Town Board Member . Thank you . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Thank you . Brian is far too polite . I have to be honest, whoever you are and where ever you are, you got no courage and reality is , we ' re going to do everything we can to keep you outside of Town Government because you don ' t belong in the public domain . Your comments mean nothing . We have no obligation to you . That is not Freedom of Speech . That is just disgusting behavior by somebody who ' s got the courage of a keyboard . That ' s sad . Would anybody else like to address the Town Board? COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I make a motion to adjourn . COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Second . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : All in favor? COUNCILWOMAN SARAH NAPPA: Aye . COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Aye . COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye . COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye . JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Aye . SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Aye . (Meeting Concluded . ) 19 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, JESSICA DILALLO, a Court Reporter and Notary Public, for and within the State of New York, do hereby certify: THAT the above and foregoing contains a true and correct transcription of the Meeting held on January 18, 2022, via videoconference, and were transcribed by me. I further certify that I am not related to any of the parties to this action by blood or by marriage and that I am -i-n -no -way interested --n -the outcome of this matter. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of February, 2022 . essica DiLallo