The Shoreline Access Review Task Force met Wednesday to further refine the list of sites it will assess and to develop standard criteria for reviewing the locations.
The Town Board appointed the Shoreline Access group to “take a global look at public access to our beaches and other shoreline assets.”
Bay Constable Peter Vielbig, the task force chairman, began the Zoom meeting by asking the newest member, Al Loreto, to introduce himself to the other members. Loreto, who also serves on the Town Waterways Management Advisory Council (WMAC), said he’s a relative newcomer to Shelter Island, having owned a home here since 1985.
“But I’ve been coming to the East End my whole life,” he said, noting his family owned a home in Sag Harbor from “before I was born.”
“I spent all of my summers here and always spent time out on the water.”
Establishing a database
The group devoted most of the meeting to reviewing a draft database of the Town’s shoreline access points. It identifies about 70 locations, dividing the Island into east and west sides, each with its own spreadsheet. (See a working draft of the spreadsheets here.)
Included among them are marked Town landings, docks, bulkheads and public beaches, as well as some places that “have fallen off the radar,” Vielbig said.
For example, the public may once have enjoyed shoreline access at an extension of Rocky Point Road that has long since been absorbed into a private property and was the subject of a court proceeding.
The task force won’t try to evaluate all the sites at once; instead it will focus on generating a list of about a dozen access points based on input from the task force members and Town Board.
On the Town Board’s proposed shortlist when it formed the task force was Bootleggers Alley, where a great deal of time was spent in public meetings debating what to do in response to the recent rising popularity of this usually of quiet strip of beach as a fishing destination.
While multiple-use sites, like Bootleggers Alley and the Town dock at Congdon Creek, will certainly make the final high priority list to be delivered to the Town Board by April, Vielbig said, the task force wanted to implement a process for a thorough review that takes into account numerous factors.
“We asked all committee members to come up with 10 shoreline access points that they identify as priority for some reason or another,” said Bay Constable Beau Payne, who represents the Police Department on the task force. “We’ll use that to hopefully start generating our top priority list.”
Only those shoreline access locations that have public ownership are under consideration. But Fire Commissioner Andy Reeve, who represents the Fire Department on the task force, shared concerns about access to water for firefighting. Firefighters have identified areas where public shoreline access is very limited, such as on the Westmoreland Peninsula and in the Hi-Lo Shores neighborhood.
Payne said these areas could appear together on a separate spreadsheet.
Assembling the data
Much is known about various shoreline access points around the Island, but data about them are not currently assembled in one place. Job one for the task force is identifying the properties in question.
Task force member Town Engineer Joe Finora created sample spreadsheets and explained how they would operate. For each access point, the task force member reviewing the property will provide the following information, choosing from drop-down menus where appropriate:
- the facility name
- address (linking to GPS coordinates, where suitable)
- structure type
- structure condition
- parking
- additional issues
- adjacent property type
- shoreline type
- adjacent shoreline conflict assessment (low, medium or high)
- emergency vehicle access
- utlities
- signage
- trash collection
A final section would leave room for inspectors to provide additional notes. What’s more, for each site the task force will provide at least four photographs: view from shore, view from water, view up shore, and view down shore. These could be stored on the Town’s SharePoint platform, Finora said.
“The idea behind creating this form is to help standardize various efforts to go out and visit our landings and assess them,” he said.
Vielbig said that task force members would also work on definitions — what is a bulkhead, what is a dock — pulling where possible from existing Town Code.
Top priority areas
The task force will identify top priority areas and then Vielbig will assign members to follow up on certain sites before its next meeting. Filling in the spreadsheet data for just a limited number of sites will provide “proof of concept” for the assessment form, Payne said.
“We can use Joe’s form at least initially on those sites to give us an opportunity to flush out deficiencies in the form or anything we’re missing,” Payne said.
Town Supervisor Gerry Siller and Councilman Mike Bebon are liaisons to the task force and sat in on the meeting. Siller said he hoped the group would include “problem” areas already identified by the Town, among them Menhaden Lane, Bootleggers Alley, Daniel Lord Road and Hiberry Lane.
“Then we have long-term goals for some of the other ones,” he said.
Bebon agreed, and added that input from the Police Department regarding “where do we have the most problems and complaints” would also be useful.
SIPD Chief James Read said the process the task force had developed “will give us nice direction.” The problem areas already noted “are going to rise to top anyway.”
Other business
In other business, the task force will review relevant county, state and federal shoreline access documents, and look at legislation in other similarly situated communities.
“We’ll be reading them and culling what’s pertinent for a our mission,” Vielbig said.
The task force also wants to expand stakeholder involvement, drawing on expertise from people in the Shelter Island community. It invites anyone with an interest in attending future meetings to send an email requesting Zoom login details to bpayne@shelterislandtown.us.
Vielbig opened the meeting for public comments. Bill Geraghty, who also serves on the WMAC, said that if restrictions are recommended, he’d prefer favoring use by locals rather than by purpose. Limiting parking can help restrict access from land, he said, but the Town also needs to consider those to access the shoreline from the water.
Vielbig noted the task force will also have to consider whether and where to permit sea planes to land.
Bob Kohn, chairman of the Tuthill Drive Neighbors Inc., noted concerns about a public landing there with constricted access. In a slide show, he also proposed banning certain activities within 150 feet of any Town Landing — areas specifically intended for the launching of boats — as a safety measure. Neighboring property owners would be excluded from the restrictions under his proposal.
Sandra O’Connor, who has been an active participant in discussions relating to Bootleggers Alley, asked if the meetings could be recorded so that people who were unable to attend them could watch them later.
Supervisor Siller said that committee meetings generally are not recorded. Anyone can review minutes of meetings, which are posted on the Town website once they’re approved.
Mathew Wells questioned whether allowing swimming at beaches with no lifeguards present is a safety concern for the Town. Chief Read said the Town has just two designated bathing beaches — Wades and Crescent. Parking is regulated at Menhaden Lane and Shell Beach, but they are not considered bathing beaches.
Bran Johnson praised the task force for including “lost” resources in its review, and encouraged the group to think of ways to improve shoreline access for swimming, fishing and boating.
“I think that’s why we live here and why we love this Island,” he said.
The committee will meet on Tuesdays at 10 AM, with next sessions scheduled for February 2 and 22, and March 16.
