After a public hearing, the Shelter Island Town Board agreed Friday to approve a proposed Sylvester Manor Quaker Corner easement. The Community Preservation Advisory Board recommended this $2.055 million conservation purchase, along with two land acquisitions.
The Town approved the three projects, spending about $4 million in all from the Community Preservation Fund (CPF). The CPF is beneficiary of a 2 percent tax that buyers pay when purchasing property here. The Town can use the CPF for land preservation and certain water quality projects.
[Read about the other purchases in this Gazette post.]
Quaker Corner easement
Lisa Kombrink of the law firm Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, LLP in Riverhead reported to the board at Friday’s meeting in her capacity as special counsel to the Town in CPF.
The Town’s action creates a conservation easement for about 16 acres of land along North Ferry Road (Route 114) in the southwest corner of Sylvester Manor, she said. The easement includes headwaters of Gardiners Creek, and abuts another Town-owned preserve in this scenic and environmentally-sensitive area.
Sylvester Manor retains ownership, Kombrink noted. It can use the land consistent with the terms of the easement, which preserves the scenic, ecological, natural resource, cultural, educational and archaeological values of the property, she said.
The cost was negotiated after independent appraisals and doesn’t include miscellaneous additional expenses such as conducting a survey.
Benefits of Quaker Corner easement
“The Quaker Corner has long been identified as a preservation priority for Sylvester Manor,” said Stephen Searl, the non-profit’s executive director.
The late Andrew Fiske — the last Sylvester descendant to occupy the Manor — had identified the Quaker Corner for preservation. And, his heirs Eben Fiske Ostby and Bennett Konesni, endorse the sale, Searl said.
He described these benefits:
- contiguous to other Town-owned preserve lands (see the stewardship plan for the adjacent Gardiners Creek Preserve acquired in 2009)
- scenic vista protection along North Ferry Road (Route 114)
- shoreline and tidal wetlands protection
- aquifer/groundwater protection
- ecosystem and wildlife networks protection (riparian, wetlands and woodlands)
- passive open space and trails for public recreation
- cultural and historical significance
- open space and cultural resource protection consistent with the goals of the Town’s comprehensive plan
Cemetery, monument and Quaker Meeting
The easement does not include the Quaker cemetery and monument, or the rustic, open-air Quaker Meeting area. That’s where local members of the Society of Friends gather weekly from May through October. Searl said that excluding these assets from the easement provides Sylvester Manor needed flexibility for historic interpretation in this culturally-significant area.
Also, the easement preserves rights-of-way to two privately-owned parcels located within Sylvester Manor lands.
The Quaker Corner easement is the sole Town-only acquisition of rights within Sylvester Manor. Sylvester Manor has combined with the Town, Suffolk County, the federal government and/or the Peconic Land Trust for other preservation purchases within its 240-acre property, Searl noted.
About Sylvester Manor
Once a Native American hunting and fishing ground, Sylvester Manor from 1652 was home to 11 generations of its original European settler family. Begun as a provisioning plantation worked by enslaved laborers, it evolved over time into an Enlightenment-era farm, and then, a pioneering food industrialist’s estate.
Today Sylvester Manor is a non-profit educational farm open to the public, with cultural arts programming throughout the year.
For more information, visit sylvestermanor.org.
Note: Julia Brennan, editor and co-publisher of the Shelter Island Gazette, serves on the Board of Directors of Sylvester Manor Educational Farm Inc.
