HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-01/13/2026 PH 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD
4 REGULAR MEETING
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7 Southold, New York
8 January 13 , 2026
6 : 00 P . M .
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14 B E F 0 R E :
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16 ALBERT KRUPSKI JR, SUPERVISOR
17 KATE STEVENS , JUSTICE
18 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
19 BRIAN MEALY, COUNCILMAN
20 ANNE SMITH, COUNCILWOMAN
21 ALEXA SUESS , COUNCILWOMAN
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JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Public Comments 3-11
4 35- 68
5 Public Hearing : Chapter 280 Amendment 11-35
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JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 3
1 PUBLIC COMMENTS
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . :
3 Welcome to our regular January meeting .
4 We will start out with anyone who would
5 like to say anything about any agenda
6 item? Any item that ' s on the agenda
7 before we vote on it tonight? Besides
8 the public hearing . We ' ll have the
9 public hearing on the 280 Amendment as
10 soon as we get done with the Regular
11 Agenda . Seeing none, and seeing no one
12 on Zoom -- Oh, go ahead, sir .
13 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Nobody else , I ' ll
14 start . My name is Benja Schwartz . How
15 are you doing tonight?
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We ' re
17 well .
18 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Happy New Year .
19 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Happy New
20 Year .
21 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I guess the reason
22 I came here tonight is to tell you to
23 vote no on setting the public hearing
24 for the amendment to the law about the
25 Agricultural Advisory Committee . I ' ve
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 4
1 never read such a nonsensical proposal
2 in the law . It starts out, be it
3 enacted, that the purpose of the
4 amendment is to amend the Chapter 71 of
5 Agricultural . You ' re not enacting that .
6 That ' s not the purpose of the law . Then
7 it says amendment, Southold Town Code is
8 hereby amended by removing structured
9 words and adding the underlying words as
10 follows . And then as follows , there ' s a
11 lot of sections missing . So I guess
12 those are the sections that you are not
13 proposing to change .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : That ' s
15 right .
16 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I would suggest
17 producing a draft that includes the
18 entire law that shows the changes in
19 relationship to the context of -- at the
20 very least , this one section of law .
21 Every section of law in the Town Code is
22 supposed to relate to the other
23 sections . That ' s why it ' s called a
24 code, because it ' s supposed to fit
25 together . This doesn ' t . And it ' s also
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 5
1 a shame . I love this town . I love the
2 North Fork . And I ' d like to see it
3 improved . This would not be an
4 improvement . What we have now is
5 already a mess . The last application
6 that I was involved with, the
7 Agricultural Advisory Committee never
8 even weighed in to anything . I don ' t
9 know what the Agricultural Advisory
10 Committee is doing, but this thing is
11 not even in proper English, because when
12 the words were changed, they were
13 talking just about agriculture . And
14 then they added aquaculture and
15 mariculture . But then they still use
16 the singular, "its industry . " I mean,
17 you could relate that back to
18 agriculture . It ' s just -- there ' s got
19 to be a better way to see it . The Town
20 of Southold was both its rural and
21 rustic character and maritime culture .
22 Well , it ' s not both its rural , rustic,
23 and maritime . It ' s rural , both with --
24 those are three things , not two . "Both"
25 refers to two . Talks about the town
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 6
1 waterways . I ' m not quite sure what that
2 is . I know the town does have some
3 rights to the bottoms under the creeks .
4 I ' d like to see the town do something
5 about the marsh islands , which have
6 deteriorated in the last 50 years .
7 Something like 75 to 90 percent of the
8 marsh islands in East Creek are just are
9 falling apart . The marshes are gone .
10 When a big storm comes and goes over
11 that water, it ' s going to hit the land
12 and it ' s going to destroy things ,
13 including my house , which is right in
14 the way there . But, you know, talking
15 about the use of town waterways , lands
16 building, there ' s no mention in this of
17 estuary, iconic estuary of the bays , the
18 harbors , the creeks , the races . This
19 whole thing, the Agricultural Advisory
20 Committee , it ' s very unclear how that
21 fits together with, say, the Land
22 Preservation Committee and the various
23 related committees that work that are
24 all in the Town Code . Should be sorted
25 out and fixed . This is just confusing
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING
1 it more . They ' re adding new terms in
2 here . There ' s no definitions . There
3 were not sufficient definitions in the
4 initial law when it was enacted, which
5 is being proposed to be amended tonight .
6 But anyway, that ' s why I came here . I
7 looked at this , and it makes no sense to
8 me . And I ' m an attorney who has worked
9 in municipalities with codes of law .
10 And I don ' t understand really why the
11 Agricultural Advisory Committee , why
12 you ' re taking these three -- this
13 industry, agriculture , and elevating it
14 to a purpose . I believe that I support
15 farming, and Town of Southold should
16 support farming, but this whole
17 Agricultural Advisory Committee kind of
18 smells like the town is involved in the
19 business or the industry of farming .
20 Farming is more than an industry .
21 Farming serves residents , as well as , is
22 a source of income , but this does not
23 contribute to an understanding . This
24 law, you know, the section I read before
25 about the purposes to amend, the purpose
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 8
1 of the amendment is to amend this . You
2 know, that should be saying what
3 you ' re -- that you ' re adding the
4 aquaculture in -- why you ' re adding it .
5 And the whole purpose of this committee
6 should be redefined to make it clear
7 what this committee does . Basically,
8 sounds like they want to weigh in on
9 everything that the town does . All the
10 laws and all the proceedings that
11 they ' re kind of overlapping with other
12 entities in the town that have clearly
13 defined purposes . And this is an
14 overlay that just doesn ' t seem to help
15 me understand . So I don ' t know if it
16 helps you .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So the
18 whole code in its entirety should be --
19 I think it was just for -- just a kind
20 of a method of economy, not to print the
21 whole code out . And the whole code ' s
22 available online . As far as your
23 objections to the grammar and the use of
24 town waterways , I think that ' s something
25 -- we ' re taking action tonight to set a
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 9
1 Public Hearing for next month on this ,
2 to add new members and to add
3 aquaculture to this officially . I think
4 the grammar, though, Paul , if I ' m not
5 right, if this is reviewed and some of
6 the grammars made more appropriate, and
7 I was a plant science major, not a
8 English major . So I ' m not going to
9 weigh in . But if we make changes to the
10 grammar and it is still the same intent
11 to add members of aquaculture to this , I
12 don ' t think it would mean we ' d have to
13 repost this .
14 TOWN ATTORNEY PAUL DECHANCE : That
15 is correct . I would welcome you to the
16 public hearing, sir .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And
18 then the other part, they are Ag
19 Advisory . So they were very active, and
20 we ' re in year four of the zoning update .
21 And they have been very active in
22 looking at different terms relating to
23 agriculture and land use relating to
24 agriculture, and providing input into
25 that zoning update process . So that ' s
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 10
1 what their function is , to provide the
2 Town Board with advice on agricultural
3 related actions .
4 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Being that the
5 Legislature stand for a few months , I
6 was unable to review who exactly is on
7 that committee . The last time I was
8 reviewing the committee who was on it,
9 what it was doing, it wasn ' t doing very
10 much . There were very few minutes of
11 how that committee has been operating .
12 So I think you might want to look at
13 what the committee has done before you
14 redefine it . But yes , you can correct
15 the grammar in the final thing . But
16 this is way beyond grammar . The way
17 this is presented here starts out with
18 gobbledy-gook and blab, blab, blab . And
19 that ' s not the way that I would like to
20 see this -- our laws treated .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
22 right . Thank you . Would anyone else
23 like to address the Board on any agenda
24 item?
25 (No Response ) .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 11
1 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
2 right . Seeing none . We ' re ready .
3 (Whereupon, the meeting continued
4 on to the Resolutions at this time . )
5 ** * * * * * * * * * ** * ** * ** * * * * * * * ** * ** * *
6 CHAPTER 280 AMENDMENT
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
8 right, Mr . Clerk, could you read the
9 notice .
10 TOWN CLERK DENIS NONCARROW : Yes .
11 This Public Hearing considers an
12 introductory Local Law Number 1 of 2026
13 to amend Chapter 280 Zoning, Section
14 280-207 entitled Maximum Gross Floor
15 Area for Residential Dwellings by
16 eliminating the following condition when
17 considering variance for maximum
18 permitted gross floor area by the Zoning
19 Board of Appeals not to exceed the
20 average GFA for dwellings in the
21 immediate area . The legal notice for
22 this Public Hearing has been published
23 no less than 10 days prior to the public
24 hearing in an eligible legal town paper .
25 The Town Clerk ' s Office has received the
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 12
1 Affidavit of Service from that newspaper
2 indicating that the notice was properly
3 published . The proposed action requires
4 notice to Suffolk County Planning
5 Commission . The Town Clerk files
6 include the response of the Planning
7 Commission dated December 31st of 2025
8 determining the action to be a matter of
9 local determination . The proposed
10 action was referred to the Planning
11 Department for a SEQRA determination,
12 and the action was considered a Type 2
13 action under SEQRA, not requiring
14 further review and is exempt from LWRP
15 review pursuant to Chapter 268 . The
16 Town Clerk file also includes an
17 Affidavit of Posting of the public
18 notice on the Town Clerk ' s bulletin
19 board at Town Hall .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
21 you . Mr . DeChance , are all the notices
22 and public postings done properly?
23 TOWN ATTORNEY PAUL DECHANCE : The
24 noticed documents are in order .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 13
1 you . All right . So we ' ll open the
2 Public Hearing . Is there anyone who ' d
3 like to make a comment on the proposed
4 change to Chapter 280 Zoning?
5 LESLIE WEISMAN : Hi . Leslie
6 Weisman, Southold Resident and Chair of
7 the Southold Town Zoning Board of
8 Appeals . Good evening, everybody . Good
9 evening . Welcome, new Board members .
10 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Thank
11 you .
12 LESLIE WEISMAN : I ' m here tonight
13 actually to speak from a letter that I
14 just submitted to the Town Clerk for the
15 public record on behalf of the Zoning
16 Board of Appeals to support the proposed
17 code change . Since the adoption in 2022
18 of the code limiting residential house
19 size, my Board has heard numerous
20 applications seeking variance relief
21 from proposed projects that exceed the
22 code permitted maximum house size .
23 While the Board fully supports the
24 important goal of maintaining community
25 character by keeping house size in scale
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 14
1 with lot size, we have found the
2 administration of the existing code
3 problematic in ways that we really think
4 were both unintended and unanticipated .
5 I attended a Town Board Work Session on
6 September 25th last year to bring these
7 issues to the Town Board ' s attention and
8 to propose the very minor code change
9 that is before you tonight . This change
10 by the Code Committee on November 20 ,
11 2025 . The ZBA believes this small
12 modification will improve our ability to
13 render decisions about house size that
14 balance the reasonable rights of
15 property owners with the welfare and
16 character of the community . Let me
17 explain why . Well , Section 280-2072C
18 reads as follows . It ' s very short . The
19 new construction, reconstruction, or
20 improvement of any dwelling shall be
21 limited by the standards established by
22 this Code or by variance relief not to
23 exceed the average GFA of dwellings in
24 the immediate area as defined by the
25 Zoning Board of Appeals . Now, there ' s
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 15
1 two problems associated with that .
2 First of all , let me say that GFA is an
3 abbreviation for gross floor area . Now,
4 this definition is very long and quite
5 complicated . But the part of the
6 definition that includes -- there is a
7 part that includes counting interior
8 ceiling heights that exceed 15 feet in
9 height twice , which means if you happen
10 to have a cathedral ceiling in your
11 living room, the size of that living
12 room is going to be counted double,
13 twice as much, and calculating that GFA .
14 The ZBA has actually had to deny an
15 application for a very small addition to
16 a home with a high interior ceiling that
17 would otherwise have been issued a
18 building permit without the need for any
19 variance , if that had just been a normal
20 ceiling height . Now, did the code
21 really intend to regulate how a person
22 designs the inside of their house?
23 Wasn ' t it rather intended to regulate
24 the size , the mass , the bulk of the
25 exterior of the house , of the structure ,
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 16
1 and how it sits on the lot and how it
2 looks within the neighborhood . The
3 second issue the ZBA discovered was that
4 there ' s not a lack of clear definition
5 of what is the immediate neighborhood .
6 Now, as a result, property owners who
7 were brought before the Zoning Board and
8 their agents were actually using the
9 largest homes anywhere, not even in the
10 same zone district necessarily, and not
11 including all the houses on both sides
12 of the street that were smaller when
13 calculating the GFA . So the ZBA
14 developed some guidelines to help
15 applicants , which basically said it was
16 very similar to what the code allows for
17 front yard setback averaging, you know,
18 looking at homes on either side of the
19 existing subject dwelling and on both
20 sides -- well , on one side, but in this
21 case, both sides of the street . And in
22 any case , since here ' s the problem, it ' s
23 by far an imperfect answer . Because as
24 we all know, we live here, neighborhoods
25 vary dramatically . I mean, the size of
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 17
1 lots vary . The number of developed
2 parcels vary . The length of streets
3 vary . So at the very best, it ' s an
4 imperfect effort to improve a code that
5 needs to be examined more fully . The
6 other problem is it requires calculation
7 by either a licensed architect or a
8 licensed engineer . If you read the
9 definition of gross floor area, which if
10 you haven ' t, your eyes will glaze over .
11 I have in case you get bored . I can
12 read it to you . Now, there ' s two
13 problems with that . First of all , if
14 you hire an architect or an engineer,
15 finding those drawings of all the other
16 dwellings is virtually impossible . I
17 mean, and it ' s kind of an invasion of
18 privacy . I mean, you don ' t want to
19 necessarily have everybody in town
20 seeing what the inside of your house
21 looks like . You can ' t figure out
22 whether it ' s a high volume unless you
23 have a section of the house . So they ' re
24 not available . At the very best, what
25 agents are reduced to doing is going to
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 18
1 look at the square footages as noted on
2 the property record cards in our
3 assessor ' s office . And that is not what
4 the code says . The code says GFA . It
5 does not say square footage . So, and
6 the other problem is hiring a design
7 professional is expensive . It ' s quite
8 expensive . And property owners are not
9 assured, for one thing, that the
10 resultant GFA average is going to work
11 in their favor . They may have spent all
12 that money to be told no . Why? Because
13 the code bars prohibits the ZBA from
14 granting more than the gross floor area
15 in the immediate neighborhood when
16 looking at variance relief . Now, all we
17 are really proposing as a small
18 modification, as an interim step while
19 the whole zoning update is going on, is
20 actually striking, I think it ' s 12 words
21 from the middle of one sentence . The
22 code modification proposed tonight in
23 Section 280-2C would read this way . The
24 new construction, reconstruction, and
25 improvement of any dwelling shall be
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 19
1 limited by the standards established by
2 this code , that ' s what ' s there now, or
3 by variance relief as determined by the
4 Zoning Board of Appeals . Every variance
5 application that comes before the Zoning
6 Board involves a personal inspection of
7 both the property, the applicant ' s
8 property, and the neighborhood by every
9 member of the Board of Appeals before a
10 Public Hearing . The very first State
11 Town Law -- New York State Town Law, we
12 have to apply when we render a variance
13 decision is whether or not the requested
14 variance will or will not produce an
15 undesirable change in the character of
16 the neighborhood or be a detriment to
17 nearby properties . Zoning Boards of
18 Appeal have been evaluating community
19 character and impacts to neighborhoods
20 since the adoption of zoning in the Town
21 of Southold in 1957 . We all know the
22 town is in the midst of a very major
23 Zoning Code update . Currently, the
24 members of the Design Subcommittee of
25 the Zoning Update Advisory Committee , I
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 20
1 among them, are working on developing
2 some proposal for improvements to the
3 existing code with the same goal ,
4 keeping houses in scale with lot sizes
5 and neighborhoods . But that ' s a way
6 away . So that, of course, will be
7 proposed to the Town Board when it ' s
8 timely, will be fully vetted by the
9 public and so on . But as a small
10 interim step, this minor code
11 modification that we are proposing here
12 tonight will make things simpler to
13 administer . Homeowners seeking building
14 permits for construction that will
15 result in excessive gross floor area
16 will still have to come before the
17 Zoning Board . That ' s not going to
18 change . But the ZBA will be able to
19 evaluate the substantiality of the
20 required variance and its impact on
21 neighborhood character based on the six
22 State Town Laws that we use for any
23 variance application . So we think that
24 that is a very reasonable interim step
25 until we ' re able to improve what is an
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 21
1 important piece of legislation that
2 people spend a lot of time and work on .
3 We ' re not proposing to get rid of any of
4 it . We ' re trying to simply make it more
5 user-friendly . It ' s way too
6 complicated . And that ' s what we ' re
7 working on and hope to have before you
8 in a timely way . So thank you for your
9 time and your consideration tonight .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
11 you for your work on this amendment and
12 your work on the Zoning update , which
13 will help us accomplish this goal in a
14 more, I think, comprehensive way . Thank
15 you for your comments tonight . They
16 were kind of casual , but thank you
17 anyway .
18 LESLIE WEISMAN : Yeah, real casual .
19 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Off the
20 cuff . Off the cuff, Leslie .
21 PATRICIA MOORE : Good evening,
22 Patricia Moore, as a resident of
23 Southold and a practicing attorney in
24 this very difficult area of the law . I
25 want to commend Leslie, very eloquent
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 22
1 comments , right on target . And she
2 essentially gave you the same outline of
3 problems back in September of --
4 September 25th of 2025 . So my concern
5 is that it ' s been months . And while I
6 thank you for addressing this change , it
7 is a change that is necessary because
8 the language violates Town Law . And we
9 have two Article 78 ' s raising that issue
10 that the limitation placed by this law
11 on the Zoning Board to act in accordance
12 with the Town Law is a violation of Town
13 Law . But that ' s not the end . In
14 September, she pointed out what had been
15 already a working problem, problematic
16 code . And right from the beginning, it
17 would seem to me that very simple edits .
18 Again, we ' re removing the height, the
19 doubling the height on cathedral
20 ceilings and great rooms . And including
21 garages in the calculation, pretty much,
22 you know, people have attached garage,
23 detached garages don ' t count . The
24 Building Department won ' t count a garage
25 that ' s below grade for like some of the
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 23
1 houses where you have the garage that
2 goes under the house . Common sense
3 things . But at the same time , we ' re
4 counting a garage which is going to be
5 used for storage . That ' s being
6 calculated in the gross floor area .
7 That is not living space . That only
8 adds to the pain and suffering that
9 people are going through in designing
10 and trying to renovate and put additions
11 on their homes . We shouldn ' t have to
12 get a variance for any purpose because
13 you ' ve got a cathedral ceiling on an
14 existing house or because you have a
15 garage that now is being counted against
16 your living space . That was not the
17 purpose of this code, and I would ask
18 that that should be addressed
19 immediately because I have a personal
20 stake in that . My -- our family home, a
21 ranch house, a very modest ranch house
22 that is now in the fourth generation of
23 our family . My daughter has now -- and
24 she ' s having babies . I love it . I ' m a
25 grandmother . She wants more babies .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 24
1 And we built -- my generation, my
2 husband and I built a great room . Her
3 grandfather designed it . It has a
4 beautiful ceiling . What we ' re facing
5 now is , in order to avoid GFA issues , is
6 changing a ceiling, which is a waste of
7 money and a bastardization of a design .
8 And again, a garage . It ' s an attached
9 -- it ' s a modest ranch with an attached
10 garage . What purpose does it have on
11 reducing GFA for those two things ? So I
12 would please ask you to address those
13 things right away . Don ' t wait
14 another -- since September, I don ' t
15 know, another six months to correct
16 those problems . Another issue , which
17 you ' re well aware of, we had the hack on
18 our computer system . We still can ' t get
19 access to information, and I understand
20 the Town is working on it . We ' re all
21 being patient . It ' s very difficult .
22 We ' re talking about 50 years of record
23 keeping, and even records of current
24 applications are not available on
25 Laserfiche . So putting together this
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 25
1 information, and as Leslie pointed out,
2 hiring an architect or an engineer at
3 tremendous cost , tremendous amount of
4 time . The way we were doing it in the
5 past or many of my applications , because
6 I was familiar with the research of the
7 record keeping with the Laserfiche, I
8 would pull out all of the records , pull
9 out the drawings , forward them to the
10 architect for their review because they
11 would be the one qualified to determine
12 GFA and calculations of based on the
13 height, based on the interior . The
14 Assessor ' s Records are completely
15 inadequate to provide that information .
16 So we can ' t even put that information
17 together . So a law that is difficult to
18 implement, to work with, is not how the
19 Town of Southold, that ' s not the
20 purposes of code revisions in the Town
21 of Southold . And we keep having the
22 impediments are just one after another
23 now with the computer breakdown . We did
24 adopt the Pyramid Law, the sky plane .
25 So as far as impacting neighbors , we
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 26
1 have a sky plane . That affects how a
2 neighbor is impacted . The old Waltz
3 decision that is now 20 years in
4 practice , we don ' t maintain existing
5 setbacks , even though they might be
6 non-conforming . I ' m hoping that the new
7 code will address some form of relief so
8 that we don ' t have so many applications
9 going to the Zoning Board because we
10 have so many properties in this town
11 that predate our zoning . We adopted two
12 acre zoning, one acre zoning in the
13 80 ' s . We have communities that have been
14 developed since the 1600 ' s until that
15 time . So imagine how many houses and
16 now the generations that are coming
17 along that need to improve it . We ' re
18 not talking about, you know, people
19 coming in . And yes , we do have a lot of
20 wealthy people coming in to demolish and
21 rebuild . We also have a lot of local
22 people that are trying to do some
23 relatively minor, as Leslie pointed out ,
24 minor renovations or, you know, houses
25 that are from the 70 ' s need sprucing up .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 27
1 That is just normal maintenance that you
2 do for a house and normal alterations ,
3 modernizing that is necessary . So I
4 would, you know, again, I support this
5 change wholeheartedly, but we don ' t go
6 far enough and we ' re not addressing the
7 problem . And Leslie gave you an outline
8 back in September . Please, please
9 address that , correct that . And I ' ll be
10 back when you do that and supporting it .
11 And I hope you will consider our
12 comments and certainly approve this , but
13 we ' re not done with correcting this GFA
14 law . At the end of the meeting, I do
15 want to talk to you about another issue
16 that ' s coming up and dealing with
17 zoning . So Leslie , you ' re still around
18 that I want you to be aware of that,
19 again, unintended consequences because
20 of the economy . So I ' ll wait till the
21 end . Thank you .
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
23 you, Pat . And thank you for your
24 advocacy to try to make the code better .
25 Trying to correct the 2022 code in 2026 .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 28
1 So we ' ll try to -- I think the Town
2 Board is also willing to consider
3 changes outside of the Zoning update ,
4 which is in year four . Thank you .
5 Because we don ' t want to -- you know, we
6 have to at this point . Thank you .
7 GEORGE MAUL : My name is George
8 Maul . I ' m a resident of New Suffolk,
9 and I ' m also on the North Fork Civics .
10 And I support everything that Leslie has
11 outlined as a wonderful small change to
12 the house size issue . My only concern
13 is that if we ' re not looking at the
14 neighborhood, which I think is a
15 ridiculous idea, we have to consider a
16 possibility where someone might come in
17 with a very large house on a very large
18 lot where there ' s a neighborhood around
19 that lot . So I think we need to add a
20 line that says something like , no house
21 in the Town of Southold should be larger
22 than 10 , 000 square feet . Just as a
23 start to find a way to avoid that
24 situation, which I think would destroy
25 neighborhoods and be a detriment to the
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 29
1 North Fork . East Hampton already has
2 10 , 000 square foot . I believe that
3 right now or recently they ' ve are
4 considering amending or have already
5 amended the law to be more stringent , if
6 not in house size, certainly in GFA . So
7 if we ' re going to protect our
8 neighborhoods , I think we should also
9 consider a maximum house size , whatever
10 the board thinks is appropriate, to
11 start that ball rolling in the Town of
12 Southold . I think it ' s really
13 important . Any day now, someone could
14 come and just plop down an application
15 for a big monstrosity that would not be
16 appreciated by the residents who live
17 here . Thank you .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
19 you . I just want to address -- Pat, I
20 didn ' t address your comment about the
21 Laserfiche being down . That was a
22 casualty of the computer attack . And we
23 started to embark on a major system
24 overhaul just prior to, or the money
25 was -- we talked it to death last year .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 30
1 We bonded for the project . It never got
2 started because of the incident . So
3 we ' re starting that project now . So we
4 will have that information up to the
5 public as soon as we can . We know that
6 it ' s critical . You didn ' t change your
7 mind, Leslie?
8 LESLIE WEISMAN : No, no . No . Just
9 to clarify something, because there ' s a
10 lot of moving parts here . Pat ' s right .
11 But this is an initial small step . And
12 what it will do, it will allow the
13 Zoning Board, it ' s not hard to calculate
14 from the Building Department ' s point of
15 view, even based on the complicated
16 definition of gross floor area, because
17 they come in with a full set of drawings
18 to get a Building Permit . So they see
19 all the information, all the notation,
20 all the sizes , the entire survey
21 submitted, and so they can calculate
22 just even based on the correct code that
23 exists now . Not that that doesn ' t need
24 improvement, but it is what it is for
25 the time being . The problem is if an
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 31
1 applicant does not submit the average in
2 the neighborhood, we can ' t tell whether
3 we ' re exceeding -- we ' re prohibited from
4 exceeding the average . So we can ' t tell
5 what we ' re doing . They have to submit
6 it . Otherwise, we have to deny it .
7 This will stop that . This will
8 basically say they need a variance for
9 excessive gross floor area . Come to the
10 Zoning Board, apply for a variance . We
11 will apply the variance standards that
12 we have always used, which do look at
13 environmental impacts , the
14 substantiality of it, you know, and
15 impacts to neighborhoods and adjoining
16 properties and so on . And it just seems
17 so much fairer to people . I mean, how
18 do you ask our neighbors to uphold a law
19 that no one can understand when they
20 read it? It doesn ' t make any sense . We
21 are working on -- as fast as we can,
22 improvements that will address some of
23 the things Pat mentioned, you know, a
24 much bigger sweep . But that ' s
25 complicated and it takes time . And we
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 32
1 have incredible expertise looking at
2 that . We have two architects that are
3 both very, very familiar with Zoning,
4 with municipal land use . We have a
5 contractor who was Chair of the Zoning
6 Board in Greenwich, Connecticut, who was
7 born and raised out here , lives here ,
8 myself . And we realize the only way
9 we ' re going to be able to explain this
10 to others , to the public, to all of you,
11 is to do some three-dimensional models .
12 So you can see here ' s the size of the
13 lot . Here ' s what it would look like if
14 it was designed this way . This square
15 footage or FAR, floor area ratio .
16 There ' s a number of ways you can develop
17 the calculus . But the bottom line is
18 this little thing is going to go a long
19 way in the interim while we are really
20 working on a thoughtful alternative to
21 accomplish that same goal of keeping
22 things in scale . And I can ' t tell you
23 when it will be ready . It ' s a lot of
24 work . And we keep testing . We keep
25 looking at how many non-conforming lots
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 33
1 are in the town . We ' ve gathered data up
2 to here because we want to know, is this
3 a big deal or a little deal? You know,
4 is it going to affect five lots or 5 , 000
5 lots ? Because as you know, when that
6 legislation was passed, so many houses
7 became non-conforming . I mean, when
8 they come before the Board, they already
9 have excessive GFA for the lot size that
10 they have . So we ' re trying to work our
11 way through it to accomplish a
12 worthwhile goal to maintain our
13 community character . But we can ' t
14 penalize people along the way to do it
15 in an unfair manner . That ' s not what we
16 want to do either . And you don ' t know
17 what a code ' s going to do until you
18 implement it . And we work with it all
19 the time . I mean, the Town Board -- I
20 came to you because you don ' t use the
21 code . Unless somebody calls and
22 complains to you, you don ' t know about
23 it or brings it to your attention . So I
24 would urge you to try and approve this
25 tonight to vote in favor of this small
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 34
1 amendment, which should go a long way in
2 the interim while we ' re working on the
3 bigger picture .
4 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Thank you .
5 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Thank you .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
7 you . And that ' s another advantage of
8 working on some of these problems
9 outside of the Zoning update because the
10 Zoning update is like a puzzle with a
11 thousand pieces . And something like
12 this deserves a lot of attention to the
13 detail to get it right . And it could
14 get lost in that big puzzle , the big
15 picture . And there ' s going to be a lot
16 of other pieces that are going to
17 deserve a lot of attention also .
18 There ' s going to be a lot of simple
19 corrections that are being made, but a
20 lot of detailed ones . So this is why
21 the Board should be considering those
22 changes sooner rather than later . So
23 thank you for the advocacy .
24 Anyone else like to speak on this
25 simple amendment?
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 35
1 (No Response ) .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : There ' s
3 no one on the computer . Seeing none , do
4 I have a motion to close the hearing?
5 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : I ' ll make a
6 motion to close the hearing .
7 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Second .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
9 favor?
10 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Aye .
11 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
12 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Aye .
13 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
14 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Aye .
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
16
17 PUBLIC COMMENTS
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So
19 we ' re done with the meeting or the
20 resolutions , and the public hearing .
21 Would anyone like to address the Board
22 on any matter now?
23 PATRICIA MOORE : Yay, any matter .
24 That ' s me .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : You
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 36
1 were waiting for this . I thought you
2 forgot .
3 PATRICIA MOORE : Oh, no , I did not
4 forget . So here ' s something that ' s
5 happening that, again, has unintended
6 consequences . And the Town adopted the
7 definition of "demolition" on a house
8 where you ' re demolishing reconstruction .
9 And it was based -- I forget what the
10 year was done, but I want to say early
11 2000 ' s . So we were basing it on what the
12 cost of construction was at that period
13 in time . So you did an addition,
14 alteration, renovation to your house .
15 It didn ' t trigger a demolition
16 definition right away . What I ' m seeing
17 now more and more, and Leslie sees it at
18 the Zoning Board, it ' s something that we
19 talk about with the architects on a
20 constant , just constantly . The Building
21 Department has said that the cost of
22 construction now is close to $500 a
23 square foot . If you were to go out
24 there, and I mean, not everybody pays
25 $500 a square foot , but for the Building
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 37
1 Department , that seems to be the number
2 that they ' re equating the cost of
3 construction . Thank you, Tariff .
4 Anyway . I got a little zinger . The
5 reality is that additions -- when you ' re
6 dealing with renovations , additions ,
7 alterations , as you work with older
8 homes , the older the house, the harder
9 it is . I have people that are lifting
10 the houses , holding -- having to do work
11 on houses because of FEMA requirements ,
12 normal stuff . Others are renovations of
13 old houses that they want to preserve .
14 Tons of money is being spent on
15 preserving . What ' s funny is we ' re
16 arguing about preserving the character
17 of neighborhoods . Well , these are
18 homeowners that are trying to preserve
19 what they have . And what happens is
20 they might get a drawing that shows
21 renovation, alteration . The Building
22 Department goes out . At some point in
23 time, they look at it and go, oh, you
24 replaced an extra beam . Oh, oh, you did
25 this . Well , the architect, when they
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 38
1 were designing, did not anticipate that .
2 They find cement blocks that , you know,
3 1980 ' s , it got built . Who would have
4 thought that some bozo would have used
5 hollow blocks ? Yeah, you know, it ' s
6 possible . So what we ' re finding is that
7 projects are being stopped midway
8 because what had been thought of as a
9 renovation or alteration suddenly
10 becomes a demolition . And it ' s because
11 of the cost of construction . And what
12 I -- I mean, I ' ve asked the Building
13 Department , Amanda ' s very sweet, and I ' m
14 like, Amanda, what ' s going on? Why are
15 we getting so many of these demolitions ?
16 And it ' s a new term . It ' s demolition by
17 definition . Okay . And it ' s because
18 years ago to try to prevent people from
19 demolishing, taking down everything but
20 one wall and claiming that they were
21 preserving the structure . That ' s not
22 what ' s going on here . What you ' re
23 having is people that are truly trying
24 to preserve the structure or having to
25 make improvements to homes based on new
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 39
1 building codes , FEMA . We have put so
2 many layers of regulations and now new
3 ones coming in from the State for code
4 and used to be hurricane standards . Now
5 I don ' t even know . They ' re just more
6 and more being put onto construction
7 projects . They are just being
8 completely stalled out because of the
9 demolition .
10 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : And we
11 haven ' t updated the cost in our code .
12 PATRICIA MOORE : We have not
13 revised the definition to meet what are
14 current economic conditions . And I
15 don ' t think any of us would have
16 anticipated that -- because they were
17 coming in so often that I finally asked
18 the Building Department, what is going
19 on?
20 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : And it was
21 -- costs have never been driven up so
22 high so fast in the past . So it ' s never
23 been an issue . Right now it is .
24 PATRICIA MOORE : I mean it ' s been
25 creeping for the last, I would say, year
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 40
1 or two, but now it ' s outrageous .
2 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Well it ' s
3 been creeping for the last four or five
4 years since COVID .
5 PATRICIA MOORE : Yeah . Yeah . But
6 now -- But now it ' s at a point where we
7 do it . You know, when you ' re comparing
8 something from the 1970 ' s with a cost of
9 construction of at best $120 , that was a
10 lot of money at the time . And now it ' s
11 just not -- it means everything is
12 becoming a demolition . And again, that
13 is not the purpose of the code . That ' s
14 not, you know -- I listened and I
15 participated and I , you know, I pay
16 attention to why codes are being written
17 so that 30 , 40 years down the line, when
18 I ' m still alive , I can come and say,
19 that ' s not what we planned . So please,
20 another corrective measure that . You
21 know, I don ' t know, other than a code
22 revision . I don ' t know if it ' s
23 something you can talk to the Building
24 Department and say, that ' s not the
25 intent of the code . They might say,
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 41
1 well , that ' s the way it ' s written . You
2 fix it .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
4 right . We ' ll take a look at that .
5 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Thank you
6 for bringing it to us .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Sure .
8 Thank you .
9 RON KOONS : Good evening . My name
10 is Ron Koons . I ' m a full-time resident .
11 My wife and I live in Laurel . First of
12 all , I ' d like to thank all of you for
13 the jobs that you do . And you probably
14 don ' t get enough accolades , but Southold
15 is a wonderful place to live . We lived
16 in Nassau County for many, many years ,
17 and we ' re just so happy to be out here .
18 But I want to thank you . Matter of
19 fact, during Halloween, we went to the
20 Krupski Farm, and we brought all the
21 grandchildren, and we went on the
22 tractor ride , and we went into the scary
23 barn .
24
25 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Scary .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 42
1 RON KOONS : And the only problem
2 was when we left, you know, the kids
3 wanted pumpkins . It was like $80 bucks
4 for like --
5 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : And then
6 they drop it on the way to the car .
7 RON KOONS : So I ' m not here to talk
8 about codes . I ' m here to really talk
9 about deer . And it ' s probably going to
10 be a different perspective from what you
11 hear most of the time . I happen to love
12 deer, wildlife . I think it ' s what makes
13 Southold so special , that you can see a
14 fox walk by, groundhogs , deer . But I
15 think there ' s an enormous push on in the
16 Town of Southold to eradicate deer . I
17 live right off south of Peconic Bay
18 Boulevard, and every morning at 6 : 30 , I
19 go out for a walk with my dog, probably
20 for a good hour . And then at night, as
21 Kathy knows , I ' m out there walking on
22 the bay on with my in-laws , probably
23 four miles , night after night , from 3 : 30
24 to 5 : 15 . If you see two old guys waving
25 to you, if you ever travel down Peconic
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 43
1 Bay Boulevard, there ' s two guys waving .
2 It ' s us . If you ' re going over 55 miles
3 an hour, you don ' t get a wave . But
4 anyway, just as a little history, in
5 1820 , there were between 300 , I ' m sorry,
6 30 and 60 million buffalo in the United
7 States . By 1889 , there was less than
8 1 , 000 . Extinction can happen very
9 quickly if you don ' t keep your eye on
10 things . And when I walk on the
11 Boulevard, the thing that I ' ve noticed,
12 and I ' m only talking about Laurel right
13 now, I ' m not talking about New Suffolk
14 and Orient Point . I ' m not an expert
15 there, but I walk on the Boulevard, and
16 the thing that I ' ve noticed over the
17 last few years is I don ' t see any deer .
18 Now, some of you will say, you ' re crazy .
19 They ' re all over the place . There ' s
20 herds . I mean, I ' m pretty observant .
21 And I ' ve got pretty good eyesight . The
22 only deer that I ' ve seen in the last six
23 months was there was a doe and two fawns
24 that were hanging out on Laurel Links .
25 They would come across a lot over to our
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 44
1 property . And it was great . Watching
2 these fawns grow up . Once the hunting
3 season started, I got very concerned
4 because I had some , you know, I felt
5 that there could be some problems here .
6 And sure enough, deer that came every
7 day stopped coming . They ' re no longer
8 around . I ' m sure they were killed,
9 hunted . I called up DPW . They said,
10 no, deer moved from area to area . But
11 that ' s not the case . When I look at the
12 literature , I think a lot of it ' s old .
13 It talks about things like on your
14 website, the dramatic increase in
15 white-tailed deer population, the
16 widespread landscape damage to crops and
17 losses , Lyme Disease, deer and car
18 collisions . Now, there may be parts of
19 Southold that this is true, but I don ' t
20 see it in Laurel at all . Okay, I don ' t
21 see any . When I say I don ' t see any
22 deer, we walk every night and we say to
23 each other, where are the deer? I
24 actually saw two moths fly across
25 Peconic Bay Boulevard the other night .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 45
1 I said, you know what , we ' ve seen more
2 moss than we ' ve seen deer . And I know
3 that probably sounds ridiculous , but I
4 think that when Scott Russell was here,
5 I had a conversation with him, and he
6 said, I treat deer like pest control .
7 Whether it ' s a cockroach or a rat or
8 deer, it ' s all under my umbrella of pest
9 control . It ' s not good for Southold . I
10 disagree . And what I would say to each
11 of you on the Board is that, as you all
12 know, on December 24th of every year,
13 all our grandchildren and children are
14 expecting somebody to arrive to the Town
15 at Southold, somebody in a red outfit .
16 He can ' t get here without the deer . And
17 those young kids , if they grow up in
18 Southold with no deer because they ' ve
19 all been shot or killed, it ' s not going
20 to work . I don ' t see the cars crashing
21 into deer where I live . Maybe someplace
22 else they do . But I would ask you all
23 to be a little more sensitive towards
24 the deer . They ' re wonderful animals .
25 They ' re incredible . When you see them,
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 46
1 they just make you feel good . A lot of
2 the farms have the eight foot fences all
3 around, so they ' re protected . But I
4 think they have a bad rap, and if we
5 don ' t do something about the hunting, I
6 mean, to be honest with you, to hear
7 gunshots on Saturday morning and Sunday
8 going off in Southold, is it really
9 necessary? It ' s not really hunting,
10 it ' s slaughtering these animals . Let
11 them go upstate in the woods , go through
12 the snow, get wet, feel lousy, hunt up
13 there . But in Southold, I don ' t really
14 think we need it anymore . I don ' t think
15 we need to kill these animals . So
16 that ' s my piece . I thank you all for
17 listening . I know somebody ' s got to go
18 to Albany tonight, so I ' ll move along .
19 Thank you for everything .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
21 you . Just a brief comment, though . If
22 you want to come into my office and
23 we ' ll talk about it further, because I
24 was original member of the Deer
25 Management Committee that the town
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 47
1 formed a long time ago . And there ' s
2 still quite a few car strikes . We take
3 in the carcasses for free at the dump .
4 We take in, still average two a day .
5 That doesn ' t account for the ones that
6 get hit by cars . And we find them in
7 our fields . And sometimes they die, and
8 sometimes they ' re just maimed . And it ' s
9 pretty awful . So, I mean, there are
10 still quite a big population out here .
11 But please come and see me .
12 RON KOONS : Thank you .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay .
14 GEORGE MAUL : I want to talk about
15 the Zoning Update Committee for a minute
16 or two . And I want to say that the
17 Zoning Update Committee meeting was
18 canceled on Monday because the Zoning
19 Department was very busy with the
20 amazing work that they did at the night
21 meeting, which went on . I was here . It
22 went on past 7 : 30 . Everybody in the
23 Zoning Department works really hard .
24 They ' re really efficient . They do a
25 great job . And they ' re very overworked .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 48
1 And I ' m sure that everybody knows that .
2 Anyway, I ' d like to say something about
3 the ZAC Committee . I ' ve been following
4 the ZAC Committee for more than two
5 years . When it first started meeting in
6 the Zoning Resource Center, I was on the
7 edge of my seat watching the members of
8 the committee go back and forth as the
9 issues involved with the zoning update
10 started to become clear . As time went
11 on, members like Bruce, Nelligan,
12 Leslie , somebody named Erin, Alvin,
13 Kevin Steussi , Mark Terry were engaged
14 in amazing conversations as they went
15 from town to town, up and down the North
16 Fork . And it was amazing to watch the
17 synergy that was going on, the issues
18 that were coming up, the different
19 points of view, what the issues were as
20 they were becoming clear . As a member
21 of the public, it was amazing to watch .
22 Then for some reason, those meetings
23 stopped . I asked about it, and I
24 believe I was told that Heather had
25 issues to deal with ZoneCo . So they had
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 49
1 to table the meetings for a while and
2 that they would start up again . When
3 the meetings started up again, it seemed
4 like the committee ' s effectiveness
5 decreased . And I think it ' s crucial
6 that the committee get back to the
7 inspiring level of performance that it
8 had shown in the previous session . The
9 reason why this is crucial is because
10 I ' m concerned that the second draft of
11 the Zoning Code is going to seem
12 important to take -- it ' s going to seem
13 important to take the information at
14 hand and proceed quickly to a final
15 version . And I think that ' s a huge
16 mistake . As we come into the -- you
17 know, I want to talk about this now .
18 It ' s like ahead of the curve . But
19 seeing it come down the pike , I can see
20 from where I stand that the Zoning
21 update second draft is going to come
22 down the line and is going to be a huge
23 pressure to say, okay, this is the
24 second one . Let ' s get this damn thing
25 over with and get it moving . And if we
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 50
1 take the easy way out on that , it ' s
2 going to be a huge mistake . We only get
3 to do Zoning update every 50 or 100
4 years or whatever it might be . And I
5 agree with Leslie Weisman, who said just
6 a couple of months ago, this process is
7 going to take as long as it takes . I
8 think a Zoning update is something that
9 only takes place every 50 years , as I
10 said, and the future of Southold is at
11 stake . The problems that we face are
12 big and varied . It ' s much more than
13 house size . The committee work on house
14 size is doing a great job, but a few
15 weeks ago I was at a committee meeting,
16 the ZAC Committee meeting, where members
17 of the committee had asked that housing
18 be put on the agenda . It wasn ' t put on
19 the agenda, and the entire meeting was
20 spent talking about the size of the
21 signs in the Town of Southold . And the
22 two people who wanted to talk about
23 housing dropped off, they were on Zoom
24 and they dropped off the committee
25 meeting and left . And I don ' t think
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 51
1 that ' s the right way for that committee
2 to go . I would like to just take a
3 minute more, and read from the work plan
4 submitted to the New York Department of
5 State that was provided by Heather on
6 10-13-2024 . The applicant was the Town
7 of Southold, CFA Number 118391 . The
8 award amount was $338 . 00 , and the
9 project name was Southold Prosperity 2
10 Land Use and Zoning Updates . The
11 project description . The Town of
12 Southold will analyze and update land
13 use and zoning regulations to implement
14 the community vision set forth in their
15 LWRP and Comprehensive Plan . Now, a
16 couple of work sessions ago, Greg was
17 talking to Heather, and you were saying,
18 well , I don ' t know . The Comprehensive
19 Plan, it ' s old now . It ' s more than 10
20 years old . Now we ' ve been doing this
21 for four years . We have to go back and
22 maybe look at the Comprehensive Plan .
23 I ' m surprised we didn ' t get -- I ' m
24 disappointed we didn ' t get more done
25 this year . The Comprehensive Plan, if
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 52
1 you look at the goals , they ' re still the
2 same goals . It hasn ' t changed . The
3 issues are the same . We just need
4 implementation . Now, I ' ve heard from
5 some people that sometimes in
6 comprehensive plans , they put part of
7 the implementation into the plan . We
8 don ' t have that . Maybe that ' s a godsend
9 in the fact that that might be why our
10 plan hasn ' t gone out of style or out of
11 date . So in this New York State
12 application, it says Task Number Two is
13 to establish a Zoning Advisory Committee
14 to oversee all aspects of the project in
15 cooperation with municipal officials and
16 the project consultant . The committee
17 shall have at least one member from the
18 Planning Board and Zoning Board of
19 Appeals and shall include
20 representatives from a large range of
21 ethnic, social , and cultural backgrounds
22 and a diverse range of stakeholders such
23 as residents , civic leaders , business
24 owners , elected officials , environmental
25 experts , neighborhood association
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 53
1 representatives , and municipal board
2 members . Now, the ten people on the
3 board there that are now, their names
4 are on that board . I don ' t know if
5 they ' re all still there . I know Mark
6 Terry isn ' t there . I just know how many
7 people show up when they hold a ZAC
8 meeting . It ' s not ten . It ' s a couple
9 of people on Zoom, and there ' s maybe
10 three or four people in the room . So
11 whatever it takes to get participation
12 back in this committee -- this committee
13 is the -- I don ' t see how else we ' re
14 going to get the Zoning update done if
15 we don ' t have this committee . This
16 committee is crucial to getting the
17 Zoning update done . And as a matter of
18 fact, in this New York State
19 application, it actually says the
20 members of the ZAC Committee shall
21 conduct and oversee the development of
22 the Zoning Code . The members of the ZAC
23 Committee shall conduct and oversee the
24 development of the Zoning Code . That ' s
25 not the way it ' s going now . That ' s
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 54
1 really not the way it ' s going now . If
2 you look on the Town Zoning Update
3 website, the verbiage that Heather has
4 put there says that the Zoning, the ZAC
5 Committee will facilitate, will help .
6 And we need to have the power where it
7 matters . We need to let these people
8 who are experts and of varied points of
9 view tackle this work, and we need to
10 get them interested and back on track
11 with this very important thing so that
12 we can get it done at some point in the
13 future . So I don ' t know -- I also know
14 that in this -- I got this handbook
15 yesterday . Oh, it ' s here . I got this
16 handbook yesterday, the Guidelines and
17 Procedures for Resident Volunteer
18 Committees . Now, I don ' t know if the
19 ZAC Committee falls into that as a
20 committee , but I do know that it says
21 that the chairman is chosen by consensus
22 in the committee . I ' ve been watching
23 that committee for two years . I ' ve
24 never seen anybody choose the chairman .
25 I don ' t know, and no other committee has
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 55
1 a town employee as the chairman of the
2 committee . So I don ' t really know
3 what ' s going on with that . But maybe
4 it ' s time for a different chairman . If
5 Heather is so busy that she can ' t even
6 come to a meeting, is there some other
7 person who could handle the job and give
8 Heather some relief because she ' s
9 completely overwhelmed with everything
10 else that she ' s doing? So I just wanted
11 to get that far with it . I ' ve got many
12 other things that I ' m going to say over
13 the course of the year with regard to
14 the zoning update, but I just wanted to
15 start that one item off for your
16 consideration . Thank you very much .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
18 you for your comments , and thank you for
19 being engaged in that . I know you ' ve
20 been very engaged in that whole process ,
21 and it ' s you ' re right . We need to keep
22 it together .
23 ROBERT DUNN : Robert Dunn , Peconic .
24 Just a little feedback from this
25 morning, you were talking about
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 56
1 extending or redoing the three month or
2 the three year refund of IA systems .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No ,
4 that ' s a County initiative .
5 ROBERT DUNN : The County initiative
6 is $20 grand .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No , no,
8 but it ' s for the maintenance, the
9 ongoing maintenance . When you get the
10 money from the County, and sometimes
11 it ' s County money, sometimes it ' s State
12 money, to put in the system to subsidize
13 the installation of the system . It
14 comes with three years worth of
15 maintenance . So this is a different
16 County program to subsidize the next
17 three years of maintenance .
18 ROBERT DUNN : Well , I ' m just going
19 to say, and I have one, so I ' d be a
20 benefit of that . I ' ll gladly waive it .
21 Give the money to people who want to put
22 in a system . My system costs $31 , 000 .
23 It ' s a lot of money . And it could have
24 easily been $41 , 000 because I didn ' t
25 have to put in a raise thing . I could
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 57
1 put it right in the ground as it was .
2 So rather than getting a couple hundred
3 dollars back for three years , I would
4 just add it on to the subsidies for the
5 initial installation, and I think you ' ll
6 get a lot more bang for your buck,
7 whether it ' s Town money, State money, or
8 County money . I mean, the object is not
9 to make things cheaper . The object is
10 to get IA systems in the ground . And I
11 think subsidizing the IA system rather
12 than the maintenance of it is going to
13 put more of them in the ground .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
15 you . I will bring that up . We have an
16 Article VI workgroup meeting with the
17 Health Department coming up not this
18 Friday, but next Friday . And it ' s a
19 very engaged group with the stakeholders
20 across the whole Long Island, from
21 builders to environmental advocates ,
22 municipalities . We ' re all engaged in
23 that, and I ' ll bring that up . It ' s a
24 very productive .
25 ROBERT DUNN : The other thing I
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 58
1 would say is do whatever you can to get
2 more guys doing it . That ' s going to
3 bring the price down . It ' s right now,
4 it ' s a monopoly . It ' s a small monopoly .
5 It ' s a large monopoly, but it ' s a
6 monopoly . And I ' m not saying any of
7 them are bad . We just know that when
8 you have competition in any business ,
9 tends to lower the prices .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And the
11 installers had to go through a
12 permitting process with the County, so
13 they ' re registered . Thank you .
14 KATHY AGOGLIA : Hi . Good evening .
15 Thank you . My name is Dr . Kathy
16 Agoglia, and I am a full-time resident
17 of Laurel right now . Came out here
18 almost 50 years ago as one of those
19 beloved year-round summer people, and
20 now I have evolved into a full-time
21 individual . I want to kind of like tie
22 into what Ron said about, it ' s almost
23 like an environmental statement . My
24 home borders Laurel Links Golf Course,
25 where we were in receipt of these lovely
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 59
1 little notes where they want to chop
2 more trees down, either trees on our
3 property or trees that are on their
4 property . And not that I ' m necessarily
5 a tree hugger, but I didn ' t come out
6 here from Brooklyn to be subjected to
7 the complete destruction of this
8 wonderful environment out here . And I
9 see that what is happening now is
10 there ' s an encroachment . Just as Ron
11 said about the deer, you don ' t see them .
12 I don ' t see the turkeys . The trees are
13 coming down . I have seen an onset of
14 bald eagles coming into the area . The
15 turkeys jump into the trees . I have
16 owls . Owls nest . And I see this as a
17 complete disregard for the environment
18 as it stands just because your tea
19 greens are not, as they say -- they ' re
20 not getting enough airflow . So they
21 need increased airflow and drop down 50 ,
22 60 year old trees so that we can have
23 better airflow for someone to hit golf
24 balls . So I must be the only
25 self-respecting dentist that doesn ' t
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 60
1 know how to play golf, although all my
2 friends always have to do it . But I
3 would like to . But I see this as
4 another situation where maybe this is
5 more of a topic for the -- there ' s a
6 Tree Committee that I ' ve heard about
7 that ' s a meeting and I think in a week
8 or two, bring this to their attention .
9 But they sent out these letters
10 indiscriminately . I didn ' t get a
11 letter . My deceased mother next door,
12 her house , received a letter . So I
13 don ' t know how it is they ' re informing
14 the individuals who border this golf
15 course of their actions or their
16 impending actions . But they were out
17 there the other day putting tapes around
18 all these trees without consulting with
19 anybody in the area . And so I just
20 thought that we really need to start
21 addressing -- trying to keep this
22 environment and this lovely North Fork
23 the way it is and just not chopping
24 environmental trees and habitats for our
25 wildlife because your golf course
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 61
1 doesn ' t have enough air to breathe .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : They ' re
3 suggesting that they want to take the
4 trees down on private adjacent
5 properties ?
6 KATHY AGOGLIA : Yes . They have
7 offered on private adjacent properties
8 to take your tree down and give you the
9 wood back at no cost to you . So that ' s
10 their benevolent offer . But these trees
11 are sometimes almost 150 feet tall and
12 in excess of 50 years old . And I don ' t
13 think it ' s warranted . But it ' s just a
14 concern . But I don ' t feel that they
15 have appropriately addressed the
16 individuals as indiscriminately sending
17 out notices . The survey maps they have
18 are incorrect . They don ' t even have .
19 I ' ve lived in my home for 10 years , and
20 it still has the previous owner as the
21 person who is the owner of that
22 property . So I think they ' re operating
23 off of inaccurate information,
24 inaccurate surveys . So I just think
25 that I ' d like to be able to bring this
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 62
1 to everyone ' s attention .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
3 you . And I ' d like that Jill addressed
4 it as liaison to the Tree Committee, but
5 they can ' t do any operation on private
6 property without, you know, consent .
7 KATHY AGOGLIA : Without consent .
8 But if they ' re sending it
9 indiscriminately to every other house or
10 it ' s a haphazard distribution to an
11 address or a mailbox in front of your
12 house . Now, I don ' t have a mailbox . I
13 have a PO box . So I didn ' t get one of
14 these letters , but I found it in my late
15 mother ' s mailbox .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Then
17 they wouldn ' t have gotten your consent,
18 though .
19 KATHY AGOGLIA : No , they wouldn ' t
20 get consent either . I ' m here to give
21 consent . But anyway .
22 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : So we have
23 been working on a Tree Code for many
24 years , and we haven ' t gotten it off the
25 ground . And the Tree Committee worked
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 63
1 on it, and now we were thinking about
2 make it was too complicated . So we were
3 thinking about trying to do it with the
4 update of the code . But I think, you
5 know, maybe I can revisit it and I ' ll
6 talk with Heather on how to figure it in
7 the updating zoning . Because we do have
8 a Tree Code with subdivisions and site
9 plans . And I think we could, you know,
10 kind of just copy that, add a little bit
11 to it, and make it for residential
12 properties . So right now, there ' s
13 nothing that the town can do if somebody
14 wants to cut down a tree in their yard .
15 KATHY AGOGLIA : I know . That ' s the
16 story we get .
17 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : So I ' ll talk
18 to the Planning --
19 KATHY AGOGLIA : -- show up at the
20 committee meeting .
21 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Well , the
22 committee -- so the committee -- the
23 committee , Tree Committee is done with
24 it, and it ' s in the Town Board ' s hands
25 right now . So I ' ll bring it back up .
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 64
1 Boil it back up .
2 KATHY AGOGLIA : Appreciate that .
3 Thank you very much . Thank you all , and
4 hope you get to Albany safely . I ' ve
5 done that many a time myself . And I get
6 speeding tickets .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
8 right . I don ' t see anyone on the Zoom .
9 Anyone else like to address the Board on
10 any matter?
11 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Brian, you
12 want to?
13 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Can I ask
14 just one question back to the agenda?
15 There were two resolutions , 87 and 88 ,
16 the phase , I think, four and five of the
17 trail work . I ' m just curious now who
18 was going to communicate that request to
19 the village . Just want to make sure
20 that either the supervisor ' s office does
21 that, or the attorney -- I don ' t know .
22 Just want to make sure that they ' re
23 officially, Denis and somebody to really
24 make sure they know they ' re invited .
25 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Since it ' s a
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 65
1 committee thing, maybe the Town Clerk
2 can tell the Village Clerk to do that
3 for us .
4 TOWN CLERK DENIS NONCARROW : I can .
5 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : I think
6 it ' s number 87 .
7 TOWN ATTORNEY PAUL DECHANCE : I
8 think that both amended resolutions can
9 be sent from the Town Clerk to the
10 Village Clerk .
11 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : That ' d be
12 great . So the resolution will be
13 amended to reflect that . I just wanted
14 to be sure we didn ' t forget . Sorry,
15 Brian .
16 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : That ' s
17 okay . Just first congratulations to
18 Kate Stevens and Alexa Suess on your
19 first official Work Session and Town
20 Board meeting . And you didn ' t run out
21 of the door when we had a marathon
22 session, and you got a good dinner at
23 Michelangelo ' s . So welcome to the club
24 and looking forward to supporting you .
25 And just good luck, both of you, for
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1 serving the Town Board, serving our
2 beloved community .
3 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Thank
4 you, Brian .
5 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Anne and
6 I , a couple of years ago, had talked
7 about how can we talk about nice
8 community events . So we ' re continuing
9 the tradition of announcing nice
10 community events in the new year . So
11 I ' m happy to announce the Southold Town
12 Anti-Bias Task Force is having its
13 Martin Luther King event on Sunday,
14 January 18th, 4 : 00 p . m . at the Rec
15 Center . And it really is an event that
16 draws our beloved community together .
17 There ' s a guest speaker, Reverend Tychem
18 Stallings . There ' s student submissions
19 and writing, and artwork talking about
20 the teachings of Dr . Martin Luther King .
21 And there ' s a beautiful gospel choir
22 just because . So it really is a
23 beautiful event that draws a community
24 together Sunday, January 18th at 4 : 00
25 p . m . at the Rec Center . And then I ' m
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 67
1 happy to announce our Youth Bureau
2 Director, Heather Huerta, is hosting
3 Teen Game Night on Friday, January 23rd,
4 7 : 00 p . m to 9 : 00 p . m . also at the Rec
5 Center . So she started in September .
6 And then this is one of the nice events
7 that really makes some good times for
8 our kids in the middle of winter . And
9 if you need additional detail , you can
10 call the Youth Bureau office at the Rec
11 Center . So just nice to announce . And
12 always I feel like Martin Luther King is
13 a good start to the new year to bring
14 our community together with all the
15 things that we ' re dealing with . So
16 thank you for allowing me to announce
17 that .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
19 you, Brian . All right .
20 NICOLE WAGNER : I just have two
21 points of clarification from the agenda
22 today for --
23 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Nicole ,
24 come up to the --
25 NICOLE WAGNER : For 280 , the
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 68
1 changes you were making to the Zoning
2 Code, did you just vote on the SEQRA
3 determination?
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No .
5 NICOLE WAGNER : You voted on both?
6 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Yes .
7 NICOLE WAGNER : And then approving
8 it?
9 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Yes . And
10 then the attorney reminded us that we
11 had to --
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Include
13 that .
14 NICOLE WAGNER : Got it . Thank you .
15 That ' s okay . And then, Kate, when you
16 were reading the change to the Ag
17 Advisory Committee , you said nine , but
18 the new code reads 11 . You meant 11 ?
19 Or was it changed back to 9?
20 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : It is up to
21 11 because she has the wrong agenda, so
22 she read from the old .
23 NICOLE WAGNER : Just wanted to
24 clarify that . That ' s all .
25 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Thank
JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 69
1 you .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Good
3 questions .
4 You were making a motion?
5 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Yes . I ' ll
6 make a motion to adjourn .
7 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Second .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
9 favor?
10 COUNCILWOMAN DOHERTY : Aye .
11 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
12 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
13 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Aye .
14 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Aye .
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
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17 (Whereupon, the meeting was
18 adjourned at this time . )
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JANUARY 13, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 70
1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
2
3 I , Jessica DiLallo , a Notary Public
4 for and within the State of New York, do
5 hereby certify :
6 THAT, the within transcript is a
7 true record of said Board Meeting .
8 I further certify that I am not
9 related either by blood or marriage to
10 any of the parties to this action; and
11 that I am in no way interested in the
12 outcome of this matter .
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
14 set my hand this day, January 13 , 2026 .
15
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17 (Jes /C'a iLallo)
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