The Southampton Town Trustees held a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed six-month partial moratorium on permits for non-like-kind bulkhead replacements, drawing extended testimony from Shinnecock Shores residents who said their properties are flooding and that replacing bulkheads at current heights would not fix the problem.
The notice read into the record said the moratorium would pause permits for bulkheads rebuilt at a different height than what exists now, while allowing like-kind replacements and projects already permitted to continue. One trustee said the pause would let the board bring in a coastal geologist to study its longstanding policy of limiting changes in bulkhead height.
"It may be the DEC is right. It may be the DEC is wrong. We're not the experts, but we have an expert who can opine on that for us," the trustee said, referring to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Several Shinnecock Shores homeowners said their bulkheads need to be raised, not just replaced, because water is coming over them during storms and even routine high tides. David Aslanian, who said he owns property there, told the board his backyard has flooded repeatedly and that the moratorium would stop a permit application he has had pending for two years.
Carol Olsen, who said she has lived on Marlin Road in Shinnecock Shores since 1958, said her family's original bulkhead was installed in 1967 and replaced decades later, and that water now comes over the current one. "Do we want to spend $100,000? You have to be out of your mind," she said.
John Carr, who identified himself as president of the Shinnecock Shores association, said two bulkheads already in the permitting process are being held up by the moratorium discussion. "We have to go up two feet," he said, arguing the existing height no longer matches current water levels.
Not all speakers favored raising bulkheads. A Hampton Bays resident who described herself as an environmentalist told the board bulkheads damage marshlands and said she had seen flooding happen even behind bulkheaded shoreline during Superstorm Sandy.
After the hearing closed, trustees adopted a notice amending the town's Blue Book, the document governing management of town waters, to record the proposed moratorium in the event the underlying resolution is approved.
The board also approved several other permit applications on its agenda, including waterfowl hunting location renewals, and a vendor payment warrant totaling $12,504.43.