Southampton Town to ban docks on Peconic bays

A Southampton Town proposal to ban private docks on the Great Peconic Bay and Little Peconic Bay has touched off a heated debate.

Town officials said docks disrupt the bays' shoreline habitats and harm their ecosystems. Docks also block the public's access to the bays' beaches, they said, which are public property up to the high tide line. They are also concerned that private docks may be damaged by freezing water or  a strong storm, leaving nearby residents to clean up debris strewn across their properties. 

Critics, including representatives for bay-facing property owners, note that docks are designed carefully so as to not harm the environment. They also say the state controls the Peconi c bays and the town cannot legally ban docks on those bodies of water.

Officials proposed the ban after they discovered that private docks on the bays' shorelines were installed without town permits.

“It's not a question of trying to deny homeowners their rights. It's looking to preserve rights for the public at large,” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara said during a recent hearing on the proposal. “Maybe you can't afford a waterfront property, but you like to walk the beach with your dog and your kids, and you don't want to be impaired.”

Aram Terchunian, a coastal geologist from Westhampton Beach, said the state has allowed docks on the Peconic Bay and nearby Noyac Bay. He is representing seven bayfront property owners who have built or want to build docks on the Peconic Bay.

“Docks, whether in the Peconic Bay, the Moriches Bay or Shinnecock Bay are not an environmental, aesthetic or safety issue,” Terchunian said. “If the town wants to regulate the docks, they should do it the right way,” he said. That, he said, requires state legislation and an extensive environmental review of a potential ban.

Court case pending

Emma Ungaro said she no longer has the beach she grew up with at home in Noyac because of erosion. "We’re just hoping to be able to continue to enjoy the bay through a dock, and it would absolutely change our quality of life out there,” she said at the hearing.

The issue surfaced after officials discovered the docks built on the Little Peconic Bay, Kelly Doyle, a Southampton assistant town attorney, said. 

Docks required town wetland permits, which are granted by the town's conservation board. The town has brought legal action in its justice court against CAP Real Estate LLC, which owns one of the homes on Mullen Hill Lane, Doyle said. 

Town code enforcement has issued violation notices to three other property owners in Noyac over docks built without approvals, Doyle said.

Town officials are investigating the dock at the other property on Bay Bluff Way, Doyle said. The town has yet to bring legal action against that property's owner, Adios Holdings LLC, she said.

Jim Hulme, an attorney representing CAP Real Estate LLC and another property owner, said in an interview that both docks received the appropriate federal and state permits. The docks are in the Peconic Bay, which he argued is under the state's control, not Southampton's.

"I don't think that they have the authority to compel us to remove it," Hulme said. "I think that would constitute a taking under the U.S. and the state constitution."

State memo

Pete Topping, executive director of Peconic Baykeeper, said during the hearing that the environmental nonprofit supports the ban. 

“With these dock structures you're impeding critical habitat for spawning horseshoe crabs, nesting shore birds, rare coastal plants, diamondback terrapins; and again most universally important to the community is our right to pass and repass along our beaches,” Topping said.

In a memo to Southampton officials, the state Department of State said towns in Nassau and Suffolk have "the implied power to enact ordinances regulating construction of docks, piers and wharves within their boundaries.” Doyle said the town has not heard back from state officials about whether its bill is legal.

Ann Welker and Greg Doroski, Democrats who represent Southampton Town in the Suffolk Legislature, also support the dock bill. Doroski, a former Southold town councilman, said that town also has a ban on private docks on the Peconic bays and recently expanded that ban to nine other waterways.