HomeMy WebLinkAboutAppendix C – April 15 2016 Board of Trustees Correspondence Appendix C
John M.Bredemeyer III,President
Town Hall Annex
Michael J.Domino,Vice-President fir` 54375 Route 25
ru P.O. Box 1179
Glenn Goldsmith � f Southold, New York 11971
A.Nicholas KrupskiC
11 r Telephone (631) 765-1892
Charles J.Sanders
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Fax(631) 765-6641
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BOARD OF TOWN TRUSTEES ,
TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
TO: Donald Wilcenski, Chair
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Planning Board
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FROM: John M. Brederne lll, President
Board of Trust
DATE: April 15, 2016
RE: Inspection for Jurisdictional Wetlands Residential Site Plan Heritage at
Cutchogue
75 Schoolhouse Road, Cutchogue
SCTM# 1000-102-1-33.3
At the request of Planning Board Chairman, Donald Wilcenski, in a memo dated April
4, 2016, the Trustee Office began an investigation into the concerns of Steve
Tettlebach, Ph.D., that a number of the diminutive chorus frogs of the genus
Pseudacris, commonly known as "spring peepers" may exist on the proposed
"Heritage" project site in Cutchogue, New York. The primary concern being that their
presence might indicate the existence of statutory freshwater wetlands on the site
requiring protection under Chapter 275 of the Town Code through the site planning
process. On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 the undersigned contacted Dr. Tettlebach to
ascertain possible locations where he thought these frogs might be encountered on
the site. With Dr. Tettlebach's description and armed with two 2007 reports of the
Southold Town Trustees wherein they indicated they found no wetlands at GPS
coordinates provided them at that time (reports attached), a GPS utility on a tablet
pre-loaded with the approximate coordinates where wetlands might potentially be
encountered and a topographic map of the site from Principal Planner, Mark Terry,
Trustees Bredemeyer and Domino headed out on April 6, 2016 in search of wetlands
on the subject parcel.
The entire parcel was traversed on foot. It was noted as moderate-heavily vegetated
with 25+/- year-old old field successional growth. The Trustees focused their
attention on the northwest corner of the property which Dr. Tettlebach described as a
prime location where spring peepers were heard already this spring of 2016, which is
the area of the GPS coordinates from the prior Trustee report, and an area near the
adjacent trailer park which Mark Terry suggested from google earth and town maps
that seemed a potential candidate to find wetlands based on map color and the
topographic contours.
Found were no wetlands whatsoever, or standing water anywhere on site even
though the area had received nearly 2.0" of rain the previous week. Specifically, the
Trustees did not even encounter facultative wetland plants listed on the USDA plant
list such as Baccharis halimifolia, which is occasionally found on upland sites in the
Town where there are clayey soils. In fact, the remnant soils adjacent to a test well
the Trustees encountered that appeared to be left over from its' drilling, were most
entirely coarse white sand with almost no clay indicative of soils incapable of
substantial water-keeping qualities and support of vernal or"ephemeral" wetlands
where peepers might be encountered. The area was noted to be crisscrossed with
ATV tracks that were several years old. None of the ATV tracks led to any wet or
"mudding" areas popular for kids on "quads". A dug pit of about 12' deep with a
section of well pipe in the bottom was found and presumed left from agricultural
irrigation operations as the surrounding elevation of 33' plus makes drafting water
with a single stage irrigation pump impossible due to basic hydraulics such that a
pump in a pit would have solved the problem. The bottom of the pit contained no
wetland plants or standing water and appeared to have the typical dried over-
wintered stalks of old field plants such as orchard grass and upland goldenrod
species.
A follow up courtesy call was made to Dr. Tettleback describing these most recent
Trustee findings. He was encouraged to get back to the undersigned very shortly
should he ascertain that the our site visit was lacking in discovering any vegetated
wetland of local knowledge that we may have inadvertently omitted due to the
thickness of the vegetation.
I n M. IBreden III
esident, Southold Town Trustees
Attachments