Levy Partners With Town of Shelter Island to Preserve Over 12 Acres

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy Partners With Town of ShelterIsland to Preserve Over 12 Acres

Crab Creek to be Acquired for Town for Passive Recreation

Hauppauge, NY – Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy today announced approval of legislation he initiated to acquire 12.7 acres of environmentally sensitive land within the Town of Shelter Island.

Under the legislation approved by the Suffolk County Legislature at its May 13 general meeting, Suffolk would be responsible for splitting the $5 million price tag of the property with the Town of Shelter Island, with each municipality contributing $2.5 million. SuffolkCounty’s funding for this land acquisition will come from the County’s Environmental Legacy Fund for open space preservation.

The Crab Creek property is located on the western shores of ShelterIsland and flows directly into PeconicBay. This property is located within the Peconic Bay Estuary system and provides an extensive tidal wetland fringe habitat along 1,600 linear feet of shoreline on Crab Creek. The site predominately consists of mature oak woods with an open field area along Brander Parkway.

“Protecting natural areas such as these along the shorelines of the Peconic Estuary provides a key strategy to reducing future developmental stresses on this important embayment and its water quality and shellfisheries,” Levy said.

The Town of Shelter Island has already passed its own resolution appropriating monies for the acquisition of this project, and is now awaiting the proper steps to be taken in order to receive the property. Once the land is transferred to the municipality, it will be conveyed to the Town’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation for passive recreational use.

“Crab Creak is a beautiful area sitting on one of ShelterIsland’s peninsulas,” Shelter Island Town Supervisor James Dougherty said. “I am delighted to partner with SuffolkCounty to preserve this vital piece of land.”

Since Levy’s inauguration in 2004, when he revitalized a nearly dormant and scandal-ridden open space program, Suffolk has preserved over 5,500 acres – which is six and one-half times the size of New York’s Central Park – including 32 farms. The program continues to aggressively pursue the purchase of environmentally significant parcels and farmlands.

Upon taking office in 2004, Levy implemented a number of measures to revitalize and reinvigorate the county’s open space and water protection programs, including use of a Master List of properties to speed up the planning and appraisal processes and to take the politics out of land acquisition; streamlining the contract process; increasing the number of attorneys in the Division of Real Estate for closings; implementing a $75 million Save Open Spaces (SOS) Bond Act; and expanding the number of acquisitions done with other municipalities, environmental agencies or private land trusts.

In 2006, Levy created a $50 million Environmental Legacy Fund in the county’s capital budget, which is earmarked for acquisitions in which other municipalities or private interests apply matching funds.