In an extraordinary meeting Monday night, the Waterways Management Advisory Council (WMAC) considered imposing a dock moratorium but instead decided it would simply stick to Town Code.
[Editor’s note: This UPDATE clarifies member Al Loreto’s position on a dock application; initially, our reporting indicated he was in favor of an application when, in fact, his view was more nuanced. The corrected information is below in the post. We apologize for the error.]
As a result, it rejected two applications for non-conforming docks. It also tabled an application for an otherwise conforming dock next door to The Ram’s Head Inn because the proposed location hadn’t been staked.
The meeting agenda included applications for six docks, two moorings, and a bulkhead, prompting WMAC Chair John Needham to say he couldn’t recall a summer meeting agenda so packed with requests. The council didn’t get to everything, putting some applications off for a future meeting.
A dock moratorium?
First up, WMAC member Bill Geraghty presented a dock moratorium proposal. The goal: “to protect, preserve, and maintain” the Town’s shoreline from the demands of “rapid growth and spread of development.”
Geraghty, an attorney, argued that the current Town Code provides insufficient guidance to appropriately deal with the potential build-out of 400 additional docks. The code, he said, “does not take into consideration the extremely diverse nature of the Island’s shoreline. One set of rules and criteria is inadequate to address the needs and requirements of each portion.”
Over the past year, he said, the WMAC has received 20 dock applications, including 13 that required code variances and three “presenting situations not addressed by the current code.” By comparison, in 2019, the WMAC vetted eight dock applications, with six requiring variances.
A moratorium, he said, would “prevent further construction of useless, impractical and potentially dangerous structures that are generally harmful to the public and the environment.” The WMAC, he said, could use the ensuing time to “determine suitable criteria for each portion of the Isand’s shoreline and consider design alternatives.”
Such a hiatus would also “prevent hasty decisions that could adversely impact landowners, the general public, and the environment,” he said in a written proposal read aloud at the meeting.
But after a wide-ranging conversation about the WMAC’s role and responsibilities, and the potential impact of a moratorium (on property owners and marine contracting firms), the members decided they’d instead commit to permitting only docks that conform with local requirements while rejecting those that need variances.
And they agreed to devote substantial meeting time in the months ahead to review Town Code dock provisions, perhaps with the support of a consultant, and recommend changes to the Town Board.
WMAC denies Prager and Elioff docks
After the lengthy discussion, it was not surprising that the WMAC denied a request from Todd Prager to build a dock at 78 Peconic Avenue. It was nearly identical to a dock just five parcels away that the council had endorsed — albeit with solid reservations — in May 2021.
The council heard from neighbors, including Karin Lissakers Mayer of 66 Peconic Avenue, who argued that the dock approved in 2021 at 68 Peconic, next door to her waterfront home, had worsened erosion there.
The WMAC, with six of seven members voting, unanimously refused Prager’s proposed 125-foot dock, which exceeds the Town Code limit of 100 feet. Member Al Loreto agreed it was a bad location but expressed concerns about the property owner’s right to a dock if it met code. He was participating via Zoom from Italy and, due to videoconferencing rules, wasn’t permitted to vote.
“This is the poster child for the dock that shouldn’t be built on Shelter Island,” Geraghty said, arguing that wind, waves, and wakes from considerable marine traffic in the area make a dock in that location unusable.
He said Prager’s riparian rights could be satisfied with a mooring instead.
WMAC member James Eklund agreed and said his mother-in-law owns a home with a dock a few doors down. Even if he had no other place on Shelter Island to put his boat in the water, Elkund said he wouldn’t use her dock due to rough conditions.
[Disclosure: I live three parcels away from the Pragers and own a vacant Peconic Avenue waterfront lot, where in 2011, Hurricane Irene entirely smashed to bits a 100-foot bulkhead and severely damaged other marine infrastructure nearby. Like other neighbors, my husband, Eddie, who keeps his boat at a marina, wrote to the WMAC opposing the Prager dock due to its excessive length and the bayfront’s rough conditions, among other concerns.]
In the past, the WMAC didn’t receive applications for docks along this southwestern shore, Needham said, because the regulator in charge of vetting permits for the state Department of Environmental Conservation let it be known he’d approve no requests in the area.
Indeed, the few docks permitted along the windswept waterfront typically remain empty, although the roof of a gazebo atop one otherwise unused dock is the summer residence of an osprey family.
The WMAC also rejected a dock proposed by Amanda Elioff at her Cove Way home, ruling it did not conform to a Town Code requirement that the length be no more than 15 percent of the distance between mean low water marks on opposing shores.
The proposed dock designed by Costello Marine Contracting Corp. was 18 feet too long, the WMAC said in voting unanimously to reject the request.
Big Ram LLC dock requires clarifications
It was a tough night at the WMAC for Jack Costello, whose company also designed the Prager dock.
The WMAC also tabled a third Costello proposal at 2 South Ram Island Drive, a property next door to The Ram’s Head Inn and controlled by an LLC owned by the inn’s owner, Aandrea Carter.
If you’ve been following the saga of contested docks at and around The Ram’s Head Inn, the one currently under consideration is known as the Big Ram LLC dock. It’s proposed for property in front of a home next door to the inn formerly owned by the Bennett family. Carter purchased the home shortly after buying the inn.
The Bennetts long ago owned the inn and built a dock that came ashore on inn property during their tenure. But they reserved exclusive use of the dock via an easement to their neighboring private property.
In previous WMAC discussions, that dock has been called the Bennett dock. A request to extinguish the easement that would result in ownership of the former Bennett dock by The Ram’s Head Inn is reportedly in process at the county.
Carter’s lawsuit against the Town over another dock abutting the opposite end of The Ram’s Head Inn property along the causeway was discontinued in May after the judge dismissed numerous claims and the parties agreed to drop the year-long dispute.
The WMAC noted that the Big Ram LLC proposal meets Town Code dock requirements. But rather than placing the dock in the center of the property, the design calls for it to be 53 feet from the property line on the inn side.
While this conforms with setback requirements, the location — it has been suggested — could result in the dock’s use, even if inadvertently, by the inn’s guests.
At one point, the WMAC discussion heated up. Eklund (a former Ram’s Head Inn owner) and WMAC member Marc Wein (a nearby neighbor who has spoken against commercial use of the inn’s marine infrastructure) insisted that the other man recuse himself from decision-making.
Eklund agreed to leave and disconnected from Zoom for the remainder of the meeting. Wein said he had no financial interest in the discussion and was entitled to stay put in Town Hall.
It’s worth noting that Needham had asked all WMAC members at the outset of the meeting to read the Town’s new Ethics Code and sign and submit a required acknowledgment that they’d done so.
[The Ethics Board met Monday and continued to refine documents relating to the new Ethics Code; read our coverage here.]
Open questions
Costello said the off-center location for the Big Ram LLC dock was preferred because it best aligns foot traffic with an existing stairway down the 20-foot bluff connecting the residence to the shorefront. Moving the dock to the center of the property would mean constructing additional infrastructure along the bluff.
Needham said the location was preferable because it concentrated marine assets. Others argued that while the placement works for Carter, who owns both properties, future owners may prefer to be further away from the inn’s dock.
In tabling the application, Needham advised Costello to stake the proposed elements of the dock, as required by Town Code. Inn neighbor Pam Demarest cited the absence of required stakes in a letter that included numerous other objections to the proposal.
During the meeting, she reiterated certain points via Zoom, but Needham noted that some of her observations were incorrect. For example, he said she was wrong in stating that the dock’s linear measurements exceeded what was allowed. The proposed dock and float, he said, are code compliant.
However, Needham did ask that the WMAC’s Town Board liaisons, Jim Colligan and BJ Ianfolla, clarify whether the proposed wooden catwalk connecting the dock to the existing stairway requires additional approvals.
As it falls within the property’s 30-foot sideyard setback, the catwalk may require a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. It also falls within the Town’s regulated wetlands buffer and may require a wetlands permit from the Planning Board.
Ianfolla said she’d check with the town attorney about these issues and whether Carter’s name had to appear on the application (her signature appears twice). The applicant also needs to supply an up-to-date insurance waiver specific to the property, Ianfolla noted.
Approvals
The WMAC approved a Costello mooring application for David Cohen at 62 Westmoreland Drive and signed off on the firm’s proposal to reconstruct a portion of the aging bulkhead on the Brienza property along Oak Tree Lane in Silver Beach, where construction of a new home is underway.
The WMAC also approved the application that Costello Marine handled for Bradley and Margaret Tolkin for a dock and basin dredging at 6 Charlie’s Way.
The council also approved the mooring application for Sanford Rosen at 32 HiLo Drive, managed by Bert Waife.
With WMAC recommendations in place, these applications move to the Town Board for public hearings and final approval.
