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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStefanie Bassett_114864055792Southold Zoning Update - Full Responses Name: Stefanie Bassett Respondent ID: 114864055792 Q1: General Feedback: Do you feel the proposed zoning updates reflect the needs of your community? Yes / I believe they do but because it's a draft, I think its really great that you are receiving community input s everyone has different wants and needs. I do believe that a major focus should be on how businesses are able to be supported and thrive here. It is very hard to be a sustainable small business. Leases are high and affordable housing doesn't exists. Small business owners have no financial incentives to continue to try and keep their doors open. Q2: Land Use & Zoning: Do these updates make sense for how you want to see land used in Southold? Yes Q3: Which zoning rules or land-use changes—if any—don’t work for you? No response Q4: Housing & Affordability: Do the updates support the kind of housing you believe Southold needs? Yes Q5: What—if anything—would make housing options better for you and your neighbors? I believe they are heading in the right direction. Especially with farm housing. Could there be financial assistance for building farmer housing on existing farms? As a farmer, the costs associated with infrastructure is not in the budget. Q6: Natural Resources & Environmental Protection: Do these updates adequately protect Southold’s natural resources, such as water, wildlife, and woodlands? Yes Q7: If not, what else would you like to see in the zoning code for environmental conservation? It would be nice to include Aquaculture in environmental conservation, specifically creating a program with the Trustees to allow oyster farmers farm directly off the shoreline in the bay. Moving farms closer to land does 3 things: 1. Environmentally, oysters will filter the runoff immediately before it even enters the water column and will naturally spawn giving wild set oysters a better chance of survival and natural reef growth. 2. It allows farmers to farm safer. To be able to wade into the water to farm oysters will be a lot safer than what we do now in the middle of the channel. Our job depends on weather, wind, waves, tides and safety is #1 to farming. Boaters these days are very dangerous and throw massive wakes at our farms. 3. It moves all gear close to the shoreline away from boating traffic, opening up the bay space and removing obstacles from boaters. Q8: Community Character & Historic Preservation: Do these zoning updates help retain the character of the Southold you know and love? Yes Q9: If not, what do you think could be improved to preserve Southold’s unique charm? I love the "shingles code" that exists in Cape Cod. Any house that is built or exists has to have at least 3 sides of their house shingled. It's a aesthetic thing and really sets the look for the Cape Brand. Not saying Southold should do something like that, but I do think that community character can include anything from paint colors used on houses to junk and clutter in yards being cleaned up to not being able to build massive homes that don't fit into the landscape of the area. Q10: Traffic, and Safety. Do the proposed zoning updates adequately address concerns related to traffic congestion and pedestrian safety? Yes Q11: If not, what changes would you recommend to improve or prevent further traffic congestion and improve pedestrian safety in Southold? I don't think we have a traffic problem right now. Our local businesses thrive on tourism. As long as we create good parking at new and existing businesses, traffic in the area doesn't seem to be a major problem in my opinion. Q12: Support for Agriculture: Do the zoning updates provide sufficient protections for Southold’s farming industry and farmland preservation? No Q13: If not, what changes would you suggest to further support agriculture and prevent the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses? It's definitely on the right track! And we appreciate the thought and effort going in to the hard work you all are doing to help Farms. Some thoughts around Aquaculture. Our sector of Agriculture is really growing and is still in the development stage. Southold has an opportunity to really take the reigns and push our industry to a level that our neighboring states are farm beyond and ahead of. 1. Working Waterfront- waterfront access and on- land working facilities don't exists anymore. We see aquaculture allowed within many zoning parcels but the definition of what that means is still unclear. For parcels that allow aquaculture, could a commercial dock be considered an accessory use if only used for that farm? Being able to pull a work boat up to the on-land facility is critical in aquaculture and the only way around that right now is asking for a zone change to becoming a marina which many of the parcels would never be or be able to be. This would need to be worked out with the trustees as well as right now it seems that new docks are not allowed to be built on the bay. Without a dock, aquaculture cannot exist. 2. Sales is also a tough thing for oyster farmers. There are two ways to sell an oysters. First way is through distribution. Each oyster is sold anywhere between .65 and .85 cents per oyster. You need to grow a heck of a lot of oysters to make a living off that. It takes three years for an oyster to come to market so we are growing three years of product at a time. The gear required for the amount of oysters to grow to be able to create a sustainable business is putting farmers out of business or in serious debt (in our case) year after year. The better and best way to sell our product would be to shuck them and well them anywhere from $2.50 - $3.50 per piece. The only way to do that now is to shuck your oysters at other businesses. That is dependant on their schedule, their success and of course we have to pay fees to those businesses as well. For parcels that allow Aquaculture, would a restaurant be considered an accessory use? Q14: Economic Development: Will the proposed zoning changes foster sustainable economic development while balancing environmental and community concerns? Yes Q15: If not, how could the zoning updates better support the local economy and businesses? We hope so! We are on the verge of shutting our doors as it is too hard to keep staff given the lack of housing options. We are leasing a space that is way to expensive for what we do. And we are working too hard for too little money. There are better models, we just need the support of the town to make those models a reality. Successful businesses that draw tourism will only lift other businesses up. Q16: Additional Comments No response Q17: Demographic & Contact Info. Click this link to enter your email if you'd like to receive updates on meetings and future drafts. Stefanie Bassett / stef@littleramoysters.com / Southold Q18: Are YOU responding as a: Both