Peconic neighbors fired up about the idea of a proposed shrimp farm just feet from their backyards faced off with the Southold Town board on Tuesday and demanded answers.
“Just what I need to accompany the helicopters all summer is the stench and flies of a shrimp factory,” said John Skabry, Sr., whose home is located adjacent to where a fish farm could possibly be sited on Henry’s Lane and Route 48 in Peconic.
Skabry said the odor could destroy his quality of life and ability to enjoy his backyard.
Last month, Tess and Todd Gordon of Laurel came before the town board at a work session and said they hope to launch a new, indoor, business, Celestial Shrimp Farm, in Peconic — and if approved, it would be the first indoor shrimp farm in New York State.
The couple came before the board to outline the specifics of their plan, which would need the board to consider expanding the allowable uses within the existing residential zone to add fish farms.
Currently, fish farming is only allowed on the town’s marine-zoned parcels; the hope is that the business could be sited on nine acres of property currently zoned residential on Route 48, just west of Mill Road in Peconic.
But the proposal didn’t whet everyone’s appetite: Skabry said the proposed facility would be located “160 feet from my bedroom window.” He added that farmland should not be sacrificed “for fish factories” and said in some countries, it’s illegal to build on farmland.
Skabry also questioned why the town’s Planning Director Heather Lanza was representing the fish farmers and bringing their plan to the town board. Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell explained that Lanza was just following normal town procedure; if the planning board has a proposed project that might require a code amendment, they bring the project before the town board for review.
“She’s there more objectively than you would think,” Russell said.
If approved, Skabry countered, the shrimp farm would be the first to be build on agriculturally zoned land; reading about fish farms in other states, Skabry said they are typically sited on industrial parcels. Russell said an industrially-zoned area might be the answer.
At the original work session, Justice Louisa Evans reminded that the discussion should be about zoning and not one particular parcel
Discussing only one project and location, Skabry said, is “spot zoning — and it’s illegal.” Skabry also said it seems as if the code change was “tailor made for this piece of property. I don’t understand why they don’t purchase the land and apply for a building permit like everyone else does?”
If an applicant is turned down, Skabry said, they can apply to the zoning board of appeals. He added that aquaculture belongs in the marine district.
Russell clarified Skabry’s point and said spot zoning would only apply if the land were being rezoned. “We are simply modifying the code to include aquaculture,” he said, adding that the right to farm law would protect the applicants. “It’s a protected operation and we need to site it somewhere,” Russell said.
The supervisor added that on the work session to discuss the proposed project, someone asked if the applicants had a specific parcel in mind, an “inappropriate question to ask.”
The reason for a suggested 100-foot setback, Russell said, was to try and protect adjoining properties.
However, he said, if the town were to decide that the project could only be sited on a marine-zoned parcel, the state might zone that too specific. The state, he said, was aiming to “help” such projects to foster, “not chase them away.”
The supervisor assured that nothing had been decided. The board, he said, “is on a fact finding mission now.”
Councilman Jim Dinizio said that, at the work session, he asked the business owners whether or not there’d be a tasting room because “I didn’t want a Bubba Gump tasting room on residential property; that concerns me.”
While he said no one on the town board had made a decision yet, and “there’s a long way to go,” Dinizio said he had reservations. “I don’t want to see this being treated as a winery. Things seem to happen. Your concerns are my concerns.”
Dinizio said that he, too, had concerns about the planning department coming before the board with any project. “Although she doesn’t represent them, I think the process should be different. I’ve made that known to the board, but I’m in the minority,” he said. Dinizio said the business, while protected under state law as an agricultural venture, still raised concerns. “This can’t be like Vineyard 48,” he said. “It has to be strictly farming.” If the project were to move forward, Dinizio said there would be “trucks on a major road.” He asked where else in town the business might be sited.
He urged the Skabrys to continue raising their voices. “Follow the process. Come to the meeting and state your case.”
Skabry said he’d done research on fish farming and said he had worries over health concerns. “I won’t eat another farmed fish.” He added that some farmed fish eat their own excrement and bacteria. He added that he was worried that “bacteria laced water” could contaminate his own family’s water suppy.
In addition, Skabry agreed the access, currently limited to Route 48, could pose a public safety concern for trucks entering and exiting the property. “Route 48 is not a good place to have trucks come and go,” he said.
Russell assured that no decisions were being made in haste. “It took 14 months to pass a dog leash law. Nothing moves quickly.”
Skabry’s wife Margaret also addressed the board in an emotional appeal for help. She said she agreed with Dinizio about planning board issues. “I wish the rest of you would wake up and smell the coffee,” she told the board.
Looking back to the 1980s, Skabry brought up a proposed airport that was pitched in the master plan, to great community opposition. Looking at Russell, she said, “You don’t know what tired is. This is 44 years of lessons learned the hard way.”
“We’re listening,” Russell said.
During the airport dispute, she said, “This Town Hall was packed with people from this town who’d had enough of this nonsense and not being represented by our town boards. We are being pushed aside by a handful of people with influence. “This is why the room tonight is empty,” she said. “People are disgusted. Fed up. And they don’t believe anyone will change.”
Wineries have proliferated in Southold with “people coming in and wanting to make a fortune,” she added.
At a meeting long ago, Skabry said she said one man stood up and asked about serving “a little cheese with the wine?” As it turned out, the man was a well-know winemaker and Skabry said allowing that cheese to be served opened the floodgates.
“Now every vineyard has big buildings for events, and this town has no one to enforce the code. It’s turned from food to the table to alcohol for the brain. Once you let the first change start, it’s done. You have no control. Once you start placing the potential wealth of other people of other people above the well-being of citizens of this town, it’s time for you to go,” she said.”This could go near your house,” she said, pointing to members of the board. “Yours and yours and yours.”
Peconic, she said, is already overburdened with a beach that has no lifeguard due to the jetty, the town animal shelter, playgrounds, the highway department facility and the town police station.
Russell said John Skabry had raised good questions. To Margaret Skabry, he said, “You’ve basically come up and indicted us.” He added that the airport was never built. “The process might be clumsy but it works.” In previous years, the supervisor added, affordable housing was proposed for the site. “It went over like a lead balloon.” As for preservation, he said, “We can’t just take someone’s development rights.”
Skabry told Town Attorney Martin Finnegan that his job was to represent the people.
To the supervisor, she said, “If you don’t like me, Scott, that’s tough.”
Russell said that in this instance, she was being unfair.
“You wake up with a fish farm in your mother’s backyard and you’ll see who’s unfair,” she said.
Russell said again that the board had not taken a position and was looking at all options; he added again that an industrial zone could be a good idea.
“We’re trying to be sympathetic. You have a preconceived notion that we’re trying to push something down someone’s throat. When was the last time I’ve pushed legislation down everyone’s throat. I listen to all sides,” Russell said.
John Skabry said once the board allows such a project, “it becomes a slippery slope, with the camel’s nose under the tent. First it’s just a little cheese and a benefit for the hospital, then you can’t make a lefthand turn. I hope it takes 20 years to get through this legislation; I won’t be around then. But I love this town beyond belief. When I used to come home from work and cross the line into Mattituck from Laurel, “It was like a breath of fresh air. This town has changed.”
Russell said perhaps it was good a specific site, Henry’s Lane, was mentioned, because it “rang the alarm bells and made us stop and think.”
“As angry as I get, it’s only because I’m living this life. This is the only life I get. That’s why we study history, to learn from the past, so we don’t make the same mistakes,” Margaret Skabry said, her voice filled with emotion.
Dinizio said he believed in process. “Process makes people comfortable.” Certain projects, where applicants “have an idea and say, “Let’s bounce if off the town board first,” are not supposed to work that way, he said. “They’re supposed to come in with a plan and where it will go, go to the building department, who will show them what they have to do to get it done. In this case, I can understand why you would get so angry and look at the board the way you do. I don’t like the way this was presented any more than you do.” The applicants should have drawn a plan and gone to the building inspector, who would have noticed adjacent homeowners, he said. “When it’s done properly, that process will happen,” Dinizio said.
Still, Dinizio said the board was just at the stage of asking questions.
As for the planning board coming to the town board with a proposed project, Dinizio said, “I wish they would have just allowed the process, instead of the appearance that a town official might represent people. You got that impression for some reason,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything nefarious or illegal going on but I certainly understand why you would be uncomfortable.” He urged the Skabrys to stay involved.
Another resident of Henry’s Lane stood before the board and said he’d just bought his home. AT $400,000, with $6,000 in taxes per year, he said it wasn’t easy for him, a woodworker, to swing the purchase. “But I did it because I like fresh air. Please put the farm somewhere else,” he said.
Meanwhile, at last month’s presentation, the couple hoping to open the fish farm said the operation would involve water that is recycled back into a proposed 40 tanks inside the building, which would be designed for aquaculture, and not allow sunlight, as a traditional greenhouse might. “We don’t want algae, that causes problems with oxygen,” Gordon said.
