Southold to update Community Preservation Fund for first time since 2016

Southold Town lawmakers must decide how to prioritize open space, water quality and historic preservation as the town works on the first major update to its Community Preservation Fund program in a decade.

The town board is embarking on the update to comply with a 2024 state law requiring that 10% of CPF revenue be spent to “benefit” disadvantaged communities. The revision comes amid a push by Greenport Village to fund water quality and historic preservation projects.

Tensions flared between the municipalities last year as village officials expressed frustration with Southold’s slow pace to comply with the law.

Greenport is the only such community in Southold, according to New York’s Department of State. The designation is based on an area’s median income and environmental factors, including flood risk and pollution exposure, among other metrics. 

Under state law, CPF money can only be spent on initiatives included in towns’ project plans.

“The project plan is the blueprint for the program,” Southold's land preservation coordinator, Lillian McCullough, said during a board meeting Tuesday at which she unveiled a process to update the plan. “Any project the town board wants to do has to be on that plan.”

McCullough recommended the town begin updating the farmland and open space programs since they are well-established. After that, the board will tackle “major policy changes,” including setting criteria for spending CPF revenue on water quality, historic and working waterfront preservation.

The Community Preservation Fund was established on the East End in 1998 to fund farmland and open space acquisitions. Since then, the law has been expanded to allow for other initiatives, including water quality.

McCullough said the board must decide which initiatives and projects to prioritize in order of urgency and cost efficiency to create a legal process for reviewing applications.

“There are a lot of things we can do, and it’s not all apples to apples,” she said Tuesday. “We have to think about how we want to spread those resources.”

Southold’s current plan includes a list of 957 parcels totaling 9,563 acres that could be eligible for preservation. McCullough said the list will be reviewed to account for any changes since 2016, including whether properties have since been developed and therefore no longer candidates for preservation.

Greenport, which lacks wide swaths of farmland, is seeking CPF money for water quality and historic preservation initiatives. Those include extending sewer lines, restoring wetland habitats and improving stormwater management, officials have said.

Southold has historically funded water quality projects outside of its CPF program. The town also contributes $68,000 per year to the Peconic Estuary Partnership for such projects, officials said.

Councilwoman Anne Smith, who has been leading discussions with Greenport officials, said village input will help shape the new plan.

“It will probably cost more than that 10% to solve some of them, so our goal is to partner with the village to help find other funding sources to make sure that we really get the most important areas, the most important projects,” she said in an interview.

Town Supervisor Al Krupski Jr. said the town is committed to following the new law.

“Does that mean we have to open the program up to water quality improvements? That's something we’ll have a larger discussion on,” he said in an interview.

Krupski said the town must also consider how preservation and water quality projects are evaluated, since they can benefit the entire region.

“All that works townwide,” he said. “Something that gets done in Orient benefits someone who lives in Flanders just as much.”

Updates would be subject to public hearings and town board approvals, officials have said.

Lily Dougherty-Johnson, a Greenport trustee who led calls for Southold to update its plan, said in an interview that the village feels "heard."

“There’s differences of opinion, but I do think they’re moving in the right direction,” she said.