Location: Southold, NY | Status: Active
Summary: In December 2020, Save the Sound submitted comments on the scope of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to the Town of Southold Planning Board urging the Planning Board to require additional discussion and analysis of various topics including impacts to ecological communities, the broader watershed, water quality, soils, cultural resources, and the potential for catastrophic slope failure. In April 2021 the Planning Board issued the final scope for the DEIS incorporating many of Save the Sound’s suggestions.
Mattituck Creek is a tree-lined waterway feeding into Long Island Sound. It is home to a diversity of birds, including terns, osprey, warblers, hawks, and owls, as well as other wildlife. Fishermen enjoy the creek’s jumbo fluke, scup, and striped bass. And other residents enjoy its sandy beaches, boating opportunities, and all around beauty. But a developer’s plan to build a pair of gigantic yacht storage buildings on the banks of the creek threatens all of that.
The plan would expand Strong’s Yacht Center’s existing facility with two massive structures with footprints of more than an acre each, requiring the clear-cutting of 630 mature trees and removing 134,000 cubic yards of sand from a steep slope above the creek. The proposed construction also abuts a 27-acre public nature preserve that includes old-field shrubland/grassland and a mature forest, the integrity of which would be threatened by the yacht center expansion.
The local community has come out strong against this development. A group of concerned citizens came together in 2020 to form the organization Save Mattituck Inlet. Save the Sound has been working with and supporting this group and other community members in their efforts to protect Mattituck Creek and the surrounding area.
In December 2021 Strong’s Yacht Center submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to the Planning Board. In May 2022 the Planning Board determined the DEIS was inadequate for public review, due in part for its failure to adequately address topics specifically noted in the April 2021 scope, including impacts from traffic and noise, impacts on groundwater and surface water, impacts on the community from scheduling of construction activities, and an explanation of the public benefit of the project. The developer revised the DEIS, and in March 2022 the Planning Board accepted the revised document as adequate for public review.
Latest Step: In May and June 2023 the Planning Board held public hearings at which Save the Sound staff provided comments.
Next Step: We are waiting for the release of the Final EIS (FEIS) and will evaluate next steps at that time.
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Last Updated: November 7, 2023