The going was rough for state historic preservation officials in town for a public information meeting last night at the Jamesport Meeting House.
A small but vocal — and angry — contingent of property owners in the Southold Town portion of the proposed Main Road historic district sounded off on the plan to have the proposed district listed in the state and national registers of historic places. See prior story,
Gian Mangieri, Laurel homeowner and principal in Laurel Creek Landscape Nursery, wasted no time getting to his feet to denounce the effort, calling on fellow citizens to join him in objecting to the designation.
“They’re painting a rosy picture,” Mangieri said as soon as the presentation by Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission chairman Richard Wines and two state historic preservation office staff members was concluded.
The historic district listing “opens the door” for future land-use restrictions and regulations like the ones put in place in the hamlets of Southold and Orient, after local historic districts were adopted there, Mangieri warned.
“This is a Trojan horse that allows them to bring other laws in,” he declared angrily. “Yes this may be a carrot,” Mangieri said, referring to the characterization often used by by officials to describe the tax and other incentives offered to property owners within a historic district listed on the state and national registers. “But the stick is coming if we don’t stop it now.”
With or without the state and national register listings, towns can adopt local historic districts that do impose restrictions on properties within the district. Southold Town did that in the hamlets of Southold and Orient. Riverhead Town did it in the hamlets of South Jamesport, Jamesport, Wading River and downtown Riverhead.
Mangieri and other residents east of the Riverhead/Southold town line complained of being excluded from the process, which the Laurel businessman said was undertaken “behind everybody’s back.”
Residents of both towns told officials that letters notifying property owners of the historic district proposal either did not arrive or were disregarded “as junk mail” because they weren’t sent via certified mail.
The language of the letters was difficult to understand and confusing, they complained, especially as concerns the ability — or inability — of individual property owners to “opt out” of the district. (Individual property owners cannot opt out of the district if it is accepted for listing by state and federal officials.)
Southold residents, as well as their elected representatives in attendance, Supervisor Scott Russell and council members Bill Ruland and Jim Dinizio, expressed dismay that because only 42 of the 354 properties in the proposed district are in the Town of Southold, they could not stop the district designation even if every Southold property owner sent the state notarized letters of objection.
The effort to designate a historic district along Main Road was initiated by the Save Main Road group in 2012, after development plans for certain Main Road properties alarmed residents worried that Route 58-type development would creep east of County Road 105. See Sept. 7, 2012 story, “Main Road’s colorful past brought to life, as group conducts survey with eye on historic district.”
The Riverhad Landmarks Preservation Commission, with the assistance of members of Save Main Road and the blessing of the Riverhead Town Board, conducted a survey of historic homes and resources and submitted it in February 2013 to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
When state historic preservation officials visited Riverhead for a tour of the proposed district in April 2013, they concluded that the entire hamlet of Laurel — which is split between Riverhead and Southold towns — should be included in the district.
“We look at the historic resources and the character of the area for guidance on what a district’s boundaries should be. We don’t go by artificial boundaries like municipal borders,” N.Y. state’s National Register coordinator Kathleen LaFrank explained to a crowd of about 50 people who turned out for last night’s information meeting in Jamesport.
By the time state officials informed the Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission of its determination that the Main Road district should include a small slice of Southold Town, the plan had already been aired at three public meetings in Riverhead Town.
Landmarks Commission chairman Richard Wines then met with the Southold Town supervisor to discuss the state’s request and said he was generally supportive of the idea. After letters from the state historic preservation office went out to property owners last month, Southold officials voiced concern that the interests of Southold property owners would not be adequately represented. They asked if the district could be split or if Southold property owners could have their objections, if any, counted separately. The answer from the state was no.
The state agency then postponed its plan to present the nomination to the state review board at its Sept. 11 meeting, to allow for more time to discuss the proposal with Southold officials and property owners.
The proposed nomination is now on the state review board’s agenda for its December meeting.
LaFrank and her colleague, historic preservation specialist Jennifer Betsworth, stressed last night that the district cannot be listed by the state if a majority of property owners in the proposed district file notarized objection letters. Every property owner in the proposed district gets one vote, including multiple owners of a single property. In other words, if a parcel is owned by four people, each of those four people has a vote. On the other hand, if one person owns four properties, he or she only gets one vote. The names of property owners in the district are provided by the town’s tax assessors, LaFrank said.
Further, the sponsor of the application — in this case the Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission — can withdraw it at any time before the state review board meeting.
Wines said neither town has any desire to impose a district that property owners don’t want.
Officials stressed that listing a district on the state and national registers of historic places does not impose any new restrictions on land use within the district, nor does it trigger new regulations or additional layers of government review. The only time new restrictions may apply is if a property owner takes advantage of tax credits or accepts grant monies from the state or federal agencies, according to officials.
But property owners in attendance last night were skeptical, at best.
So were some town officials. Councilman George Gabrielsen, a Jamesport farmer and Main Road property owner, said he’s not sure he supports the proposed district.
Russell said he plans to convene a meeting of Southold property owners in the proposed district sometime in mid-September.
“We need to have an informal discussion, not something like this,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “Let’s bring people in and let them know all the benefits, so they can make an informed decision,” he said.
LaFrank said another round of letters would be sent to property owners and she hoped to be able to clarify the language used in the letters, so as not to confuse people again. The changes have to be approved by the state parks service; it’s not in the control of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, she said.
Another information meeting will be held, probably in November, LaFrank said.
Wines said after the meeting he was not surprised by what transpired.
“There is a small group of people who basically don’t trust anything any government does,” he said. “Even though we don’t think this imposes any restrictions on anybody, there are people who simply don’t trust that. We heard from some of them tonight,” he said.
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