Should the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, which was created to preserve Southold’s farmland and open spaces, be used to support water quality protection efforts in the Village of Greenport?
That was the question at the heart of an impassioned debate between Southold and Greenport officials at Tuesday night’s Town Board meeting over how to allocate the funds.
In 1998, the five East End towns of East Hampton, Shelter Island, Southampton, Southold and Riverhead approved a 2% real estate transfer tax to be used for protecting farmland and open space from development and preserving community character. In 2016, the water quality amendment was adopted by some East End towns, but not Southold.
Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi said that for months, without success, he has been petitioning the Town Board to adopt the 2016 amendment, which would allow Southold to allocate 20% of its CPF funding for water quality protection initiatives.
On Tuesday night, Greenport’s entire Village Board and dozens of residents turned out to support the mayor’s position, which he outlined in a guest column in the July 4 edition of The Suffolk Times.
Southold Supervisor Al Krupski, who responded to Mr. Stuessi’s concerns in his own guest column in last week’s paper, said at the meeting that, in a variety of ways, the town and county are already funding water quality preservation projects throughout Southold — including in Greenport.
The supervisor seemed intent on keeping Southold’s CPF fund dedicated exclusively to land preservation, and outlined alternative funding measures as well as partnerships and town-funded projects already underway to protect water quality.
Mr. Stuessi pressed for CPF funding for the village.
“Water quality is every bit equally as important [as land preservation], and so we are asking you to please expedite with us the planning and use of this funding so that we can work together on issues that are so important the village,” Mr. Stuessi told the board.
“We have … houses that are flooding because of poor drain-off. We have water that is running down to Front Street and into businesses and basements every time it rains. We have pollution that is going into our bays, and we need this as part of a toolkit of options for our village to use in order to solve some of our problems, which also includes an antiquated sewer system that we’re in the middle of a study on.”
Deputy mayor Mary Bess Phillips said Greenport has long sought CPF funds for water quality projects in the village.
“Since 2009, I, along with previous mayors and village trustees, have tried to overcome the resistance from previous Town of Southold governing boards of this funding that we contribute [to] with each property sale within our village.”
She said the village’s central pump station is an example of a project that should have been funded by the CPF.
Mr. Krupski responded that the town has “a long history” of being proactive in protecting water quality.
“We just got a notice yesterday from the Suffolk County Health Department of 68 beach closures in Suffolk County … and it’s been a constant all summer long. How many [closures] in Peconic Bay?” Mr. Krupski asked, making a zero symbol with his fingers. “Because there’s been a concerted effort over the past few decades to manage stormwater, because we take it very seriously.
“As far as spending money on water quality improvements, the town has made the commitment not to use the CPF money, but instead is using bonded money,” Mr. Krupski added. “I just signed a purchase order for $60,000 for drainage just east of Greenport High School … That’s going to take place. The town did all the engineering and the town’s going to do installations and upgrades. The town’s very committed to doing that kind of drainage work.”
Greenport Village trustee Patrick Brennan said that refusing to use CPF funds for village water quality projects could be construed as a “failure of leadership.”
“I believe, in fact, that you are obligated to secure readily available funds and deploy those resources judiciously and effectively for the benefit of your constituents,” Mr. Brennan said. “A reasonable person might argue that a failure to employ CPF funds for water quality initiatives is actually a failure of leadership. So the time has come. Let’s not ignore delay or obstruct. Let’s be leaders, protecting our water quality. It’s within your grasp.”
Greenport High School student council president Faith Welch told the board that the CPF should also fund historic preservation in the village.
“Imagine using the Community Preservation Fund to preserve historic buildings like the AME Zion Church, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year, or maybe even the old Greenport Auditorium on Main [Road]. These places tell the stories of our past, which is why it’s important to keep them alive and around.”
Cutchogue vineyard owner Russ McCall, who is very active in local land and historic preservation, said he supports Mr. Krupski’s proposal to bond money for water quality projects, rather than take it from the CPF.
“It’s so important to preserve these farming communities, and we have this one way to do it,” he said of the fund. “I think it’s very sacred. I just suggest solving the problem another way. Do a bond issue, do something else. I don’t mind borrowing the money. Let’s solve it. You got problems — they should be solved right away, but having this fund go to preserve farmland is probably the very best way to achieve water quality.”
Mr. Krupski invited the Village Board members to Southold’s next work session next month to “flesh out some of these details.”
The supervisor went on to say that Southold’s CPF is tiny compared to those of other East End towns, particularly on the South Fork.
“I think a lot of people are thinking about the amount of money that’s been collected — over $2 billion collected and spent in the five East End towns. I think it’s important to see the breakdown of the five East End towns, of how much money’s been collected out of that money and where it’s been spent.”
In his recent guest column, Mr. Krupski said that “between 2021 and 2022, Southold Town generated just $28 million in CPF revenue compared to East Hampton’s $127.2 million and Southampton’s $224.4 million.”
Mr. Krupski also said at Tuesday’s meeting that Southold Town bonds $250,000 every year to mitigate stormwater runoff, and that in recent years, “the town engineer and the town highway department, with a dedicated crew, cut off 77 outfalls, mostly into Peconic Bay and the Peconic Bay watershed.”
Assemblyman Fred Thiele, a key architect of the original CPF legislation, said that the use of the funds is ultimately up to the individual town boards.
“For the most part, in each of the five East End towns, there’s been either a formal, or in some cases, more informal, process whereby the town and the villages agree how to use the funds, and obviously that isn’t happening here — and has been an issue, quite frankly, between Southold and Greenport at different times over the last 25 years. But the town board gets to set the priorities ultimately.”
Even so, he said, water quality protection is “one of the biggest environmental issues in Suffolk, and certainly on the East End.” He noted that in 2016, “70% to 80% [of voters], depending on the town, voted to allow up to 20% of the fund to be used for water quality purposes.”
Mr. Thiele said the 2016 statute “provides maximum home rule flexibility to each town to determine what their own priorities are. And the North Fork and the South Fork have always been different. First of all, 85% of all the revenue gets generated on the South Fork. It’s a different real estate market. So Southampton and East Hampton have had far more money than the North Fork, and that has given them, I think, more flexibility to do water quality. Plus there’s less open space left on the South Fork.”