Land Use - Open Space
The land area within the watershed boundaries could be classified as suburban. Population density in the Town of Smithtown is over 2,000 people per square mile, though lower at the coast due to development restrictions and publicly owned land. The town has a central business district (Smithtown) which has a main street with some mixed-use commercial and residential as well as a Long Island Railroad train station that is part of the Port Jefferson Branch. Areas around the downtown range from residential to commercial strip areas. Higher density residential areas are located in some of the neighborhoods including San Remo. One of the most discussed land uses in the watershed is the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park. Since this State-owned, 409-acre facility closed in 1996 portions of it have been designated parkland (Nissequogue River State Park) and various development schemes have been put forward with no success. The property - which requires significant demolition and cleanup - is currently in hands of New York State Parks who is determining the best course of action to take moving forward.
Goals for Land Use in the Action Plan:
Promote sustainable land use practices to protect resources
Promote conservation strategies and balanced growth
Expand access and recreation opportunities, in balance with ecological resources
Land Use Goal: Promote sustainable land use practices to protect resources
Objective: Use land use strategies to increase the capture of stormwater runoff on municipal road systems and minimize the impact on the watershed
Municipal road networks are well known national contributors to watershed and waterway pollution. They frequently do not adequately contain or capture runoff or pollutants and serve as highways for pollutant transport. There are opportunities within the Town of Smithtown, building off of existing programs to increase stormwater capture reducing the threat to the Nissequogue River watershed. The Town is currently mapping its drainage areas and once mapping is complete, as part of EPA Phase II regulations, the Town can identify priority areas for increases in stormwater capture, creating an enhanced stormwater control program for the Nissequogue River..
Action 1: Complete mapping of the Nissequogue River Watershed.
Action 2: Allocate funds and apply for grants (EPA, DEC, EPF) to increase Town collection structures.
Action 3: Identify priority areas (those most in need and closest to waterways) for increased capture.
Implementing Groups: Town of Smithtown
Timeline: Within one year of release of the Plan.
Outputs: Mapped road network with areas highlighted for increased stormwater capture and appropriate funding.
Action 4: Initiate capture efforts in phases, beginning at the immediate shoreline, then expand within NY State Scenic and Recreational River Corridor and then into the rest of the watershed. The focus should be on already protected areas with management plans in place to rate higher in scores in grant applications.
Action 5: Use Phase II regulations aggressively inside the NY State Scenic and Recreational River Corridor and the watershed to eliminate point sources and inadequately served areas.
Implementing Groups: Town of Smithtown
Timeline: Phased implementation beginning within two years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Enhancement of current capture practices.
Objective: Reduce septic impact on the Nissequogue River.
Problems at the nearby Forge River indicate that vertical groundwater discharge and percolation of septic waste does not always occur on Long Island and that lateral transport of effluent to nearby water bodies may occur, because of underground soil conditions (impermeable clay lenses, etc). New York State has stated that failing septic systems are a likely pollutant and nitrogen source in the Nissequogue River. It is also true that concentrated development along a river often overloads the cleansing ability of local soils and groundwater dispersal is often inadequate in these areas. New York State has officially recognized certain areas within the river's drainage basin as being of statewide significance which helps to insure decreased density along the river by lowering future subdivision and development potential, but its impact is somewhat limited since it does not deal effectively with existing development.
Action 1: Use County soil survey to identify problem areas and develop a map
Implementing Groups: Town of Smithtown, Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation
Timeline: Within one year of release of the Plan.
Outputs: Mapped soils.
Action 2: Require septic tanks for all new construction to be 150 feet or as far as physically possible from the Nissequogue River shoreline, wetlands, streams and where impermeable soils might block effluent dispersal.
Action 3: The Town and the County should consider increasing setbacks of septic systems for rebuilds of existing or redeveloped homes where possible.
Action 4: Encourage upgrades of existing septic systems through public education (pamphlets, website, workshops).
Action 5: Discourage shallow or mounded septic systems.
Action 6: Encourage regular maintenance of septic systems.
Action 7: Create tax incentives (i.e. waiving certain disposal fees) and tax breaks to encourage upgrades of systems.
Implementing Groups: Town of Smithtown, Suffolk County
Timeline: Within three years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Improved practices in current septic tank management.
Land Use Goal: Promote conservation strategies and balanced growth
Objective: Promote individual property owner conservation of open space and protection of habitat.
Privately-owned properties and lots make up the vast bulk of land in the Nissequogue River watershed, including environmentally-sensitive land along the waterfront and upland. The habitat areas and natural resources in these areas are under severe stress. Homeowners unknowingly destroy habitat via land clearance, logging, pesticide applications, construction of additional structures, and by infilling existing lots or small subdivisions. The State designation of portions of the Nissequogue River as "Scenic and Recreational" provide some protection in a limited area, but is limited in its scope and does not cover the entire watershed. Private management of these resources on an environmental basis may provide a partial closing of this gap. Conservation easements are one such management tool; they work well on the east end of Long Island and Upstate, particularly if tax incentives are available. Since landholdings along most of the Nissequogue River are often small (under 1-acre), mini-conservation easements on existing lots may be a useful planning tool.
Action 1: Establish a special district within the Town of Smithtown to encourage conservation easements, focusing along the shore and within the Scenic and Recreational River Corridor, then in areas within the greater watershed.
Action 2: Establish a tax incentive plan at the local level (i.e. lowering of assessed values) to encourage "Mini" easements.
Action 3: Establish an education program for the homeowners within the special district to promote better land use practices
Implementing Groups: Town of Smithtown
Timeline: Within two years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Special district and incentives for homeowners to preserve land, with public education campaign.
Action 4: Encourage New York State and the Federal IRS to:
a. Recognize mini easements as viable and deserving of larger tax breaks if linked to a
government-recognized environmental protection plan.
b. Lower the viable threshold of such tax breaks.
Implementing Groups: New York State, US IRS, Town of Smithtown, local citizens, civic groups, advocacy organizations.
Timeline: Within 2 years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Change to NY State and Federal Tax laws to encourage conservation of land.
Objective: Ensure that municipalities' land and water use regulations protect natural resources
New construction can have dramatic impacts on stormwater runoff. Practices to capture the runoff on-site helps to minimize the impact to the surrounding area.
Action 1: Reorganize the municipal building permitting process to require all new development to construct basins to capture stormwater on-site as is done in the Town of Smithtown. Exemptions shall exist for a designated area where stormwater runoff is captured by seasonal ponds.
Action 2: Encourage already developed sites to retrofit for capture basins via tax breaks.
Implementing Groups: Town and villages
Timeline: Within three years of release of Action Plan.
Outputs: Improvement of current construction practices.
Objective: Encourage the protection of lands with high ecological value while fostering new development in areas of less ecological significance.
Finding the balance between increased development and land conservation can be challenging. Programs - including Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) - can help to achieve that balance. TDR is the exchange of development rights from areas with low population needs, and high ecological value, to areas of high population needs, such as downtown areas. The Town of Smithtown already has a small TDR program, but opportunities exist to enhance it.
Action: Institute an enhanced Transfer of a Development Rights program that utilizes ordinances to accomplish the following:
- Identify compatible growth areas or receiving zones (as with the LI Pine Barrens) in the Town
- Establish a development credits bank on Town-wide basis
- Create buildable lots from otherwise unusable undersized lots, if more intensive development complies with local lot area requirements and setbacks
- Process to be controlled by Board of Zoning Appeals if transfer is to undersized lots/compatible growth areas; otherwise controlled by Planning department/commission.
- No development of undersized lots in the River Corridor via Transfer of Development Rights - receiving zone must be outside the NY State Scenic and Recreational River Corridor.
Implementing Group: Town and county
Timeline: Within two years of Action Plan release.
Outputs: Focused growth to areas that can better accommodate it while conserving open space.
Objective: Increase awareness of open space prioritized for acquisition.
Suffolk County is well-known for its Master List of proposed acquisitions which prioritizes unprotected open spaces to encourage their acquisition. The Town of Smithtown highlights town properties featured in the list but does not include properties found in the incorporated villages in the watershed (Nissequogue and Village of the Branch). Developing a village-specific list of the priority acquisition sites in the villages would help raise awareness of these important spaces and could increase possibilities for acquisition.
Action: Encourage Villages to list open space acquisition priority areas featured in Suffolk County's Master List of proposed acquisitions.
- Use the County's list to identify which properties are within the boundaries of the villages
- Compile properties in a village-specific list and publicize in village documents and website
Implementing Group: Villages of Nissequogue and the Branch
Timeline: Upon release of the Stewardship Action Plan
Outputs: Published list of sites.
Objective: Increase opportunities for land acquisition throughout the watershed.
According to the NYS DEC, New York's Open Space Conservation Plan serves as the blueprint for the State's land conservation efforts, which during the past several years, has conserved nearly a million acres of land with an investment of more than $658 million. By law, the plan is required to be revised every three years; the most recent revision was released in November 2006. When the plan is revised, opportunities exist for members of the public to attend Regional Advisory Committee meetings and bring suggestions of properties that they feel should be included in the plan. The Regional Advisory Committees make the ultimate recommendations for new properties added to the plan. Once a property is added to the plan, it becomes a priority acquisition site and is eligible to receive funding for acquisition.
Action: Work with Regional Advisory Committees to recommend priority open spaces in the Nissequogue Watershed to be added to the Open Space Conservation Plan.
- Use the County and Town open space priority lists to identify priority sites within the watershed.
- Determine which sites would be most important to add to the Conservation Plan
- Attend Regional Advisory Committee meetings when they occur and present recommended properties
Implementing Group: Nissequogue Implementation Committee with municipal partnerships.
Timeline: The next opportunity to work with Regional Advisory Committees will be when the plan next opens up for revision. This is a two-year process that will take place between Summer 2009-2011.
Outputs: List of sites on NYS's Open Space Conservation Plan.
Objective: Identify opportunities for potential new parkland and open space protection.
The New York State-owned Kings Park Psychiatric Center closed in 1996. The facility, comprised of 85 buildings totaling 2.85 million square feet, served as a major mental health facility for more than a century. In 1999, 153 acres of the property was transferred to the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, creating Nissequogue River State Park. The park includes a public marina, canoe launch, and trails and walking areas. The 153 acres also includes more than 20 vacant buildings. OPRHP secured an engineering study in 2006 that estimated the cost of remediating and demolishing the vacant buildings is $7 million. No funding is currently available to the agency to remediate and reuse or demolish these structures.
In 2000, New York State offered the remainder of the Kings Park property for sale for private development. After several private residential development proposals failed to come to fruition, in 2006 an additional 365 acres was transferred to OPRHP (the remaining 35 acres was retained by the Office of Mental Health). OPRHP has concluded that an accurate cost of remediating environmental concerns is required - including lead and asbestos contamination, building demolition, underground asbestos steam tunnels, and other issues - before any decisions can be made about the future of 365 acres (no comprehensive clean-up plan or cost estimate exists for the property). In December, 2007, OPRHP initiated an RFQ process to contract with a qualified engineering firm to conduct this study. The procurement process is ongoing.
Action: OPRHP should secure a detailed remediation plan and cost estimate for the 365 acres transferred to State Parks in 2006, in order to inform future decisions about the future of the property.
Implementing Group: NYSOPRHP
Timeline: The contractor procurement process is underway. Work on the remediation study will be initiated in 2008.
Outputs: Remediation study.
Objective: Find opportunities for balanced growth in local downtowns.
According to the 2008 Long Island Index, Long Island's downtowns hold great potential in providing space for growth in homes and jobs and preventing the loss of undeveloped land. Smithtown and Kings Park are two well-defined downtowns in the Nissequogue watershed where opportunities for growth exist.
Action 1: Explore the opportunities for smart growth in the watershed's downtowns, identifying obstacles and necessary changes.
Action 2: Consider areas in watershed downtowns that could be used as receiving zones for the recommended TDR Program.
Implementing Group: Town of Smithtown
Timeline: Within two years of release of the Action Plan
Outputs: Summary of opportunities for growth in downtowns.
Land Use Goal: Expand access and recreation opportunities, in balance with eclogical resources
Objective: Identify appropriate areas for public access to open space and waterways throughout the watershed.
It is well founded that increased access to natural resources facilitates a stronger sense of stewardship for those resources, and thus better conservation for future generations. All too often, the public has a strong demand for access to and use of the region's natural resources, but are not always aware of those places where they are able to appropriately access the watershed's resource areas.
Action 1: Compile an inventory of existing public access points that lists the type of access and who can use it (including boat ramps, hiking trails and public open space) throughout the watershed.
Action 2: Use the inventory to build a GIS layer, online map and published User's Guide Map for use by the public.
Implementing Groups: State, County and Town parks officials as well as recreation businesses and organizations (including the Greenbelt Trail Coalition and NYS Sea Grant).
Timeline: Within two years of release of the Plan.
Outputs: Inventory and GIS layer of access sites.
Action 3: Review existing access policies of public landholders in the watershed to determine the efficacy of the policies and their balance with sensitive environmental habitats.
Action 4: Use the results of the review in conjunction with County priority acquisition lists and inventories of publicly-owned properties, to help determine suitability of future public access sites.
Implementing Group: New York State, Suffolk County and Smithtown parks officials.
Timeline: Within three years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Report outlining access policies that determines the suitability of future sites.
Objective: Reduce impacts of homeowner deforestation.
Deforestation in the Nissequogue River Watershed, while not a wholly systemic crisis, is in fact progressing, particularly along the shoreline of the river where homeowners clear trees on their property for add-ons like swimming pools. The Village of Nissequogue currently has 100-foot buffers in place along shorelines where tree removal is prohibited. The Town of Smithtown currently has in place land clearing restrictions that limit tree removal on environmentally sensitive lands and land that can be subdivided. Ensuring that these restrictions are enforced and considering tightening the Town's restrictions by increasing the buffers could help to curb future deforestation in the watershed.
Action 1: Ensure that the Town's existing land clearing regulations are enforced and determine their efficacy.
Implementing Group: Town of Smithtown
Timeline: Within one year of release of the Action Plan
Outputs: Report on efficacy of clearing restrictions
Action 2: Expand the buffer in the Town of Smithtown along hte river and further remove limitations in the current restrictions.
Implementing Group: Town of Smithtown and local municipalities
Timeline: Within two years of release of the Action Plan.
Outputs: Potentially tighter restrictions.
