HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/21/1983 D
T
Y
Southold, N.Y. 11971
HENRY E. RAYNOR, Jr.. Chairman
JAMES WALL
BENNETT ORLOWSKI, Jr.
GEORGE RITCHIE LATHAM, Jr.
WILLIAM F. MULL~N, Jr.
The Southold Town Planning Board held a public informations
meeting with the consultant firm, Raymond, Parish , Pine &
Weiner, Inc. Wednesday, December 21, 1983 at the Senior
Youth Rec Center at 7:30 p.m.
TELEPHONE
765- 1938
Present were:
C~man Henry E. Raynor, Jr.
Member G. Ritchie Lath~m, Jr.
Member William F. Mullen, Jr.
Member Bennett Orlowski, Jr.
Stuart Turner, RPPW
Paula Gilebert RPPW
George Raymond, RPPW
Mr. Raynor informed the public that the purpose of the meeting
was to gather suggestions and to make the public aware of the
Master plan and what it entails. Mr Raynor also explained
that the town is presently in the second phase of the plan.
Phase one consisted on fact finding, background and leg work,
phase two is getting recommendations for land use, zoning; phase
three is the legislative. THere were several workshop groups
that represented various agencies and groups such as the
Chamber of Commerce, Southold / Greenport Chamber of Commerce
League of Women Voters, north Fork Environmental Council,
Mattituck Chamber of Commerce, East End Real Estate Association.
TH~ representatives of these groups gave input to the town Planning
Board and the Town Board .
Stu Turner spoke to the public regarding the development of the
plan. He said that this phase will be a refining land use of the
plan. He explained further that the plan is a statement of what
the community wants to be, the quality of life wanted. It was
stated that the plan is one of physical development with many
variables such as the physical condition of the land, economy
of the Town, social aspirations of the town. Mr. Turner then
presented a slide show of the various maps representing the
plan.
Page 2
Mr. Turner presented twenty two maps to the audience.
The maps illustrated such things as agricultural and
vacant land, electrical and sewage systems, water supply,
park areas, recreation areas, beaches, historical and
cultural sites, existing zoning and subdivision activity,
traffic flow and volumn, as well as , the possible sites for
an airport, He also stated that ~he plan is based ona
series of goals which are discussed as follows: the issues
of the community, protecting a certain quality of the community
and preserving the present character of the town because
of its coastal location' and its rich cultural and historical
backgound, and the fact that it is an old, solid residential
area. The big question to consider is how much growth
should be encourad. He mentioned that the plan is a state-
ment of where the people of the town want to be going, it
is not a rigid blue print that can't be changed or shifted.
Mr. Turner said that the low density areas should be encouraged
to st aylow density areas with the understanding that if
there were to be water in these areas, then they could be
developed as one unit per acre, DDwever, very carefully because
most are lying along waterways.
There was a question from the audience with regard to
what vacant areas were. Mr. Turner clarified them to be
wooded areas, or simply lots which were not being
developed or used in any way.
Mr. Turner pointed our several aspects of the plan that
were rather important such as economic development, and
commercial development, particularly along the highways.
He also said that there were some areas, such as Matticuck
and N. Southold which could be accommodating to industrial
parks if such should occur. With regard to uses, what is
called a hamlet density, residential is really part of the
medium denisty development in the centers of the hamlet
areas. This would be developed possibly to produce a broader
range of housing opportunities. These areas are around
Mattituck, but also around Southold and Cutchougue. The
density of these areas will be the same 4-units except that
some incentive might be provided if a zoning could be agreed
on. The incentive might be that if it were developed,
there would have to be some presentage of lower cost housing.
For example, 6 dwelling units per acre with one unit being
low cost.
Mr. George Raymond presented the idea of Transfer of
Development Rights, TDR. This concept can be used without
special legislation; however, it may be needed to define
the proceedure. He explained that the TDR was a concept
where by you could purchase develOpment rights, and then
when people want to develope in the development areas,
sell the developer's rights. The people will transfer money
into the "fund" in exchange for thr rights to develop
buildings in the development areas, in that way an initial
"seed money fund" may be used to retire all the development
rightsin the agricultural areas by replenshing what is being
spent through the sale of development rights to someone
who will develop inthe development area.
Page 3
The basic underlying concept of the transfer of development
rights as presented by Mr. Raymond is there are areas
of development which cannot be zoned out of development
as the Town wishes, without jepardizing the legality
of the zoning. There are other areas of the Town which can
be developed to a higher density- the hamlets, and
that development can be achieved by exchanging the
development rights, ky~ ---~^--~--
from the first area to the development areas.
In a development area in order to achieve the density of
4 units peracre the buyer would have to buy three
development rights per acre, from people who oWn
land in preservation areas. ~ This must be done because
his own land is zoned for oneunit per acre, in order to
achieve 4, he would have to obtain development rights from
the agricultural area. The value of the development
rights would have to be deceided by the market, but the
value would not be determined only by wha he owns,
but the value of the place which they are going tossed.
The owner of the land remains the owner after transferring
the development rights and can continue to farm on it.
In this' way, the person can keep dOing what he was doing
on the land, and can put the development where it belongs.
This preserves the land. This can be done as a series of
lot transactions between private owners--all the town
does is to zone areas for developement and areas to farm.
In this aspect, if someone wants to transfer farm land, he
has to find a developer, and if someone wants to develop
he must find someone who is willing to transfer rights.
Another way to achieve this is to set up a development
right fund which enables the Town to do two things:
1. private transaction can occur in an appropriate
manor, or 2. pay into the fund with the flow of excess
rights that will be used.
After this presentation, the floor was opened to the
public for any questions or comments they may have.
There were many questions with regard to TDR:
Q. Who has the development rights on a farm that
has been given up?
RPPW. The rights remain with the land regardless of
who owns it.
Q. Does any other town have TDR?
RPPW: Yes, on a large scale in parts of Maryland and
parts of Jersey. Mr. Raymond stated that if the Town
wants to preserve~Qpen space, TDR is proven to be
an effective way since we cannot dictate to people
not to use land.
Q. Is TDR simply a roll-over of property?
RPPW: No, it is not.
Page 4
There were a variety of other questions based on the
water supply, amount of units the land would hold, and
population:
Q. What about water shed?
RPPW: part of the development,should be clustered
so that the open area could be used for recharge.
Q. What about cluster development?
RPPW: We are dealing with areas that should be left as
open space, and these can be incorporated into areas
of development.
Q. Will water be on site or not?
RPPW: It is possible to develop a system that could be used
with a series of individual systems, however, the land
can only accommodate a certain amount of waste. In order
to answer this a detailed study of each individual
site will have to be done.
There was opinions from the audience that the water is
much more important for recharge than for agriculture.
A speaker from the audience noted that there would not
be 50 houses on 1 acre each, but in fact, 50 acres with
out homes, and that many extra houses in the hamlets, RPPW
noted that this was correct. They named this a very
large scale cluster.
Q. How much development can the..town~ handle before going
into a t oK water and sewer system as in Greenport, based
on the current 2 acre zoning?
RPPW: The same number of houseswould exist because instead
of hav ing~ those homes bulk. on every 2 acres in town,
the owner of the 2 acres could sell the rights to those acres
to someone who wanted those somewhere else, except that
by being more concentrated they would require some
assistance.
Q. Taking the availablity of water into consideration
at the moment, how much development would the water
support, and how much devel pment will the ground take
as far as sewage is concerned?
RPPW: The area of zoning is for 2 acre lots, sooner or
later every two acres is going to have a house on it;
therefore the answer.is what is zoned now.
Q. What would the total population be?
RPPW: That depends on how you figure, with vacant and
agricultural land all developed, under present zoning,
is a co~acity for 9 thousand additional units.
there
Page 5
RPPW cont: That is in our estimate what would occur in
the present zoning and what is approved. 9 thousand
includes the approved Lots, the total would be 20 thousand
11 thousand now, plus the 9 thousand additional.
Q. If there is 20 thousand now in the Town of Southold
what would be, the the total population and by what year~
RPPW: The year is not relevant dwelling units seasonal
and year round, 9 thousand additional.
Q. Would that be for the whole North Fork?
RPPW: No the Town of Southold , this figure included all
the lots approved already. ~he ERM would indicate that
there would be a sufffcefnt amount of water for what is presently
zoning, there is a capacity for 9 thousand additional units.
Q. Would there be a commision to oversee the TDR?
RPPW: yes, the Town Board.
Q. What about the highway and bottlenecking occuring
with traffic congested in the middle of nothing?
RPPW: It is the understanding that it wouldn't be solved
completely, however, there wouldn't be much development
beyond~ the point of the highway ramps
Q. What happened to the old Malcum Perdy report which
said that 36,000 was the limit that the Town could
support.
Rppw: It is actually less, because ~t includes year-
round homes. For planning purposes, the plan focuses on
year-round residences to get an accurate picture, because
RPPW wanted to get the worst case situation for the
water supply.
Q. In 1969, 34,000 was said to be the maximum the Town
could hold, now you are saying 40,000?
RPPQ: Water is not the only determinate that should be
considered, what the town wants should also be considered.
Q. How is the final report arrived at, what is the final
statement that the Town makes, who puts it together and who
how does the public have a chance to review it.
RPPW: The public review it by the meeting such as the
one hear tonight.
There was a comment that the audience made saying that
there was not enough information given and it wss an unwise
deceision to call the meeting at this t~me of year due
to the Christmas season. It was felt that perhaps the
public didn't know exactly what was to take place at this
meeting.
· '' Page 6
In conclusion RPPW summed what the general feeling
of the audeince was. They brought up some of the
issues form the Question/answer period. Reidential
areas designed to accommodate large conference center/ hotels
at the same density as the residences within a low
desinty area, could be done by working out a system
whereby the number of rooms related to the same demand as
to the number of people in a house on 2 acres. With regard
to t~affic, the existing zoning would double the population
in the Town year round, and the North Road could be
developed as a by-pass for the summer traffic. However,
you're not really able to relieve the congestion in the
road without improving it.
Mr. Turner stated how much he enjoyed working with the
representatives of the workshop and reminded the audeince
of what was earlier. Becuase the plan is not a blue print
it can be changed. The Town Board has the final word with
the plan as a guide. The Plannning Board does not have
to adop~ the plan as we recommend it, it is a continuing
discussion with the people of the community and plan can
be amended.
Mr. Raynor thanked everyone for coming~ and the meeting
closed at 10:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
CHULTZE, SECRETARY
SOUTHOLD TOWN PLANNING BOARD