After more than two years of research, and five public hearings this year alone, the Southampton Town Board on Tuesday adopted its Wireless Communication Plan, an initiative aimed at blanketing the entire town while limiting the number of unsightly cellular towers.
In the works since March 2006, the master plan was prepared by the consulting firms of Miller & Van Eaton in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey-based Comp Comm, with input from officials with the town’s Department of Land Management. The initiative was sponsored by Town Board member Nancy Graboski.
To lessen the environmental impact of wireless structures, the town commissioned Hauppauge-based Cashin Associates to conduct an environmental study, which was completed in December after a series of work sessions and public hearings. The goal of the study was to maximize coverage with a minimal number of cell towers. The motivation behind the new plan is to keep up with the rapidly growing wireless industry and to provide the town with enhanced services.
While increasing the blanket of wireless coverage, planners and board members have been insistent that cell towers and antennas not mar the rural character and landscape of the town. A key element of the plan favors the installation of a greater number of smaller, more easily concealed structures rather than fewer, larger ones.
Ms. Graboski explained that there is no set limit on the number of cellular structures that can be installed in the town in the future. She said the intent of the law is to encourage carriers to build fewer and smaller towers.
Southampton Town residents, like Elizabeth Haderer of East Quogue, who wish to hang their clothes to dry in the sun can now do so legally within the township.
The Town Board has adopted a resolution, introduced by Town Board member Anna Throne-Holst, that repeals earlier restrictions on clotheslines that forbid them from being placed in the front yards of homes, and in the rear yards of waterfront lots.
According to the resolution, public awareness over the environment has grown and hanging clothes to dry in the sun saves energy and money. Ms. Haderer explained that she has been hanging her clothes outside to dry since 1955, even after the town outlawed the practice in 2002.
Town Supervisor Linda Kabot explained that her predecessor, Patrick Heaney, introduced the original legislation after receiving complaints that the clotheslines were ugly and unsightly. She said the violation, which has never been enforced to her knowledge, carried with it a fine of up to $1,000 a day and possible imprisonment for up to one year.
“It really has become a joke,” said Ms. Kabot, regarding the lack of enforcement.
Ms. Haderer said that drying clothes outside is not only good for the environment, it is good for the clothes as well. “They last longer, smell better,” she said. “Where do you think lint comes from?”
Ms. Haderer was so passionate about the ban on clotheslines being lifted that Ms. Throne-Holst dubbed the resolution “Betty’s Law.”
Ms. Haderer said she had to keep her eyes out for the police when hanging her clothes in the past. “Now I no longer have to,” she added.
Though it was set to enact a yearlong moratorium in Hampton Bays, the Town Board on Tuesday opted to wait another two weeks before setting the building ban in place. The proposed moratorium targets the hamlet’s commercial corridor along Montauk Highway.
Town Planning and Development Administrator Jefferson Murphree said he requested additional time because his office had not yet received input on the proposed moratorium from the Suffolk County Planning Commission.
While some hamlet residents are pleased that the town is finally addressing overdevelopment in Hampton Bays, others who addressed the board on Tuesday said they do not think the ban goes far enough.
Bob McAlevy, president of the Hamlet Bays Civic Association, said the building ban should include work on the town facilities at Jackson Avenue. He said the proposed conversions of motels into condominiums, and all properties upon which three units could be constructed, should also be addressed in the study.
Mr. Murphree said a public hearing to discuss a moratorium focusing solely on motel conversions would be held on June 24, after a series of Town Board work sessions.
As it stands now, the moratorium’s targeted area runs along the Montauk Highway corridor, from Jones Road in the west to Peconic Road in the east. The southern boundary falls south of the Montauk Highway extending to Hubbard, Shore, Suffolk and Argonne roads, and Fanning Avenue. The northern study area, between Jones and Bellows Pond roads, is bordered either by the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way or Montauk Highway, whichever is farther north. Sunrise Highway marks the northern boundary east of Bellows Pond Road.
Arguing for a hamletwide moratorium, Hampton Bays residents Eve Houlihan and Mary Jean Green said they fear that the current target area would not adequately address overdevelopment in the hamlet. “If we’re not careful, Hampton Bays is going to look like Route 58 in Riverhead,” Ms. Houlihan said.
Ms. Green said she had “high hopes” for the moratorium when she first learned of it, but she told the Town Board that she was greatly disappointed by its narrow scope. “I was counting on what I was led to believe was going to happen,” Ms. Green said. “This is a crisis for Hamlet Bays.”
Town Board members Dan Russo and Anna Throne-Holst asked Mr. Murphree if the boundaries could be extended to include a larger section of the hamlet. He informed them that to do that, they would have to close the hearing on the proposal and schedule another one before broadening the scope of the study.
Town Supervisor Linda Kabot said she too would like to see a larger area covered in the moratorium, but that it was important for liability purposes to have a narrow and defined area. She added that she was content to go with the boundaries recommended by Mr. Murphree and the town’s Department of Land Management.
Mr. Murphree said the ban’s proposed borders target the majority of land that could be developed. “Outside of that area is mostly single family residential,” he said.
Ms. Kabot attempted to ease concerns by explaining that an environmental study, which will run concurrent to the building ban, will examine the entire hamlet, not just Montauk Highway. She also said the town has to consider the rights of property owners.
“A moratorium is a police power,” Ms. Kabot said. “You’re suspending individual property rights. It’s not something you go into lightly.”
Once adopted, the building ban would suspend the acceptance, processing and approval of applications before the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Board and Town Board for a change of zone, subdivision, site plan or variance. The Hauppauge-based firm Cashin Associates will conduct the environmental study.
The Town Board on Tuesday signed off an environmental impact study that covers 800 acres of East Quogue, an area that had been targeted by developers prior to the adoption of a hamletwide moratorium nearly two years ago.
The consulting firm Allee, King, Rosen and Fleming Inc. completed the Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS, for the hamlet during the building ban, which is set to expire on August 11. Based on a recommendation by Town Planning and Development Administrator Jefferson Murphree, the Town Board closed the public hearing on the environmental study, allowing for a 14-day written comment period.
The next step in the process, after the written comment period, is for the town to complete a final environmental analysis, known as a FEIS. That final statement will incorporate all public input offered on the environmental study. Upon finishing the FEIS, the town will put together a findings statement which, according to Ms. Kabot, is the vehicle by which the town can begin to enact zoning amendments and changes recommended in the study.
Brian Bossetta on May 28, 2008