The owners of Strong’s Marine submitted a substantially scaled-back site plan for the proposed yacht storage facility the family-owned business has been seeking to construct on Mattituck Inlet.
Received by the town July 19 and uploaded to the town website July 23, the latest proposal reduces the project from two buildings to one 65,100-square-foot unit that would accommodate 56 yachts. The new plan also reduces the amount of sand and other debris required to be removed from the site by 48%.
The revised application included a Full Environmental Assessment Form prepared by Jeff Strong, applicant and owner of Strong’s Marine, which includes a comparative summary of the revised plan along with the original proposal.
Strong’s initial 2018 expansion plan called for the construction of two heated buildings for indoor boat storage — 52,000 square feet and 49,000 square feet — at its Mill Road facility in Mattituck. The 32.96-acre parcel is zoned Marine II and R-80, which allows marine uses and low-density residential development.
The original proposed buildings would have housed more than 80 yachts averaging 60 feet in length, with some stretching to 86 feet. Additionally, the project would have required the removal of 134,000 cubic yards of sand from the site.
The new proposal scales back the amount of excavation to 70,000 cubic yards, which would require an estimated total of 4,666 one-way truck trips, reduced from 9,000.
The number of trees removed is also reduced under the new proposal — from 634 to 444 — while the scope of coastal oak-beech tree deforestation was reduced from 4.32 acres to 2.74 acres.
The setback distance of the proposed building from the Mill Road Preserve was increased by 52 feet — from 135 feet to 178 feet.
The updated bid also includes a scaled-back onsite septic treatment system. The original project called for two 1,200-gallon septic tanks to be installed while the new proposal calls for one 500-gallon and one 700-gallon FujiClean innovative alternative septic systems. The new proposal also amends the number of propane tanks on site to heat the proposed building from four 2,000-gallon tanks to two.
The Southold Town Planning Board agreed to review Strong’s revised proposal at its July 8 meeting, when it had been expected to issue it’s final finding’s statement on the project.
Mr. Strong stated at that time that the company was following recommendations from the Suffolk County Planning Commission, which suggested they work with the town to revise the project.
The Suffolk County Planning Commission rejected the original proposal at a June 20 meeting due to “significant negative environmental impacts,” according to a report from that meeting.
As per the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, the lead agency coordinating environmental review of the project — in this case the Southold Town Planning Board — has the power to order a Supplemental Environmental Review of the updated project, which could further delay the approval process and potentially include an additional public comment period and public hearing.
The planning board had sent Mr. Strong’s attorney, Charles Cuddy, a letter dated July 5 reminding him of the three invoices issued for the completion of a Final Environmental Impact Statement on the project prepared by the town’s consultants, Hardesty & Hanover. The town had not at that time been paid although had made an agreement in the summer of 2023 that Mr. Cuddy would hold the funds in escrow on behalf of Mr. Strong.
In a letter to Southold Town, Mr. Cuddy confirmed that his client submitted a payment of $85,465 on July 11 for the FEIS. However Mr. Cuddy noted that the payment was being made “under protest,” due to “serious misgivings with the report and the FEIS prepared by Hardesty & Hanover.”
“I’m sure there’s still going to be people that aren’t happy with it,” Mr.Strong said in an interview Friday afternoon. “But we’ve had a lot of feed back from a lot of people who are … conservationists that are appreciative that we’ve taken a revised approach with these very, very significant reductions.”
Mr. Strong reiterated that the land is zoned marine uses.
“We want to keep it as a shipyard,” he said. “And if it doesn’t stay as a shipyard, it’s going to get lost to housing and condos, and that’s not what the Strong family is desiring to do.”
The planning board is tentatively scheduled to issue its final decision on August 5.