The Stehli Beach cleanup originally scheduled for this Saturday, March 25th had to be cancelled again due to the weather.
ADVOCACY ALERT
We want to alert our supporters to a new state housing proposal for massive transit–oriented development that could fundamentally alter the character and environment of the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor Estuary and surrounding watershed.
Below is a statement released by the Friends of the Bay board on March 9, 2023.
Click here if you are interested in reading the FY 2024 New York State Executive Budget - Education, Labor and Family Assistance Article VII Legislation containg the proposal
Action Item:
We are asking residents to send a letter to their state and local representatives voicing their concerns for this proposal.
Please click here for a sample letter that can be copied, pasted and addressed to the appropriate representatives.
Below is a statement released by the Friends of the Bay board on March 9, 2023.
Click here if you are interested in reading the FY 2024 New York State Executive Budget - Education, Labor and Family Assistance Article VII Legislation containg the proposal
Action Item:
We are asking residents to send a letter to their state and local representatives voicing their concerns for this proposal.
Please click here for a sample letter that can be copied, pasted and addressed to the appropriate representatives.
Just as a proposed bridge or tunnel from Oyster Bay to Westchester would have drastically and forever changed the way of life in our communities, so too would Governor Hochul’s proposed “housing compact” that mandates what is effectively a “one-size-fits-all” unreasonable and heavy-handed high-density development in our area and across the entire state.
Eliminating environmental reviews and overriding the zoning authority of local governments is not the answer to providing more affordable housing.
The governor’s initial proposal called for municipalities within 15 miles of New York City, which includes Oyster Bay and most of Nassau County, to amend their “land use tools”to allow for at least 25 housing units per acre within a half mile of any railroad station. But the current budget proposal increases that to 50 units per acre. It also stipulates that each municipality that fails to meet target goals of a 3-percent housing increase within three years would face penalties that essentially would have a state board taking control of local zoning decisions and substituting their determination for the voice of the local representatives most directly associated with and most directly informed of a community, its infrastructure and desired quality of life.
Let’s look at how that would play out. Even using the 25 units per acre formula, the Village of Mill Neck, with less than 400 homes now, would have to add 588 new housing units. Oyster Bay hamlet would have to add 2,129 units. Locust Valley 2,234 and Syosset 7,409.
Not only would this density reduce open space, it would strain our aquifer system to the point of increasing the likelihood of saltwater intrusion (which is already happening in the Great Neck area) and could close existing water wells. The many residents in our area reliant on their own private wells would be left without a source of water altogether.
At the same time, all these units would create more septic waste. This could overwhelm the Oyster Bay Sewage Treatment plant, and for areas outside the sewage district, require thousands of septic systems that could add more nitrogen to our bays and harbors, which could lead to algal blooms, fish kills and damage to the wetlands that filter stormwater. The development would also increase the amount of impervious surfaces, such as pavement for parking all those additional cars, that will create more stormwater runoff and further deteriorate our waterways.
Even worse, the proposal calls for eliminating environmental reviews so that these projects can be fast-tracked. If anything requires a careful environmental review, it is exactly this kind of development.
Finally, it is wrong for the State Legislature to enact this kind of sweeping change as part of the budget process and not through separate legislation.
For these reasons, Friends of the Bay, the Oyster Bay-based environmental organization, strongly opposes the proposed housing compact. We urge all residents surrounding Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor and their watershed to contact their state legislators immediately to express opposition because this proposal may be voted on in the next few days.
- Friends of the Bay board
2020/2021 Annual Water Quality Report
Did you know...?
Did you know that Friends of the Bay has been monitoring water quality for more than 20 years?
.
Once every two weeks from May through October, we collect data from various locations in Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor and Mill Neck Creek including temperature, pH, salinity, water clarity and dissolved oxygen. We also take water samples that the Nassau County Department of Health (NCDOH) tests for enterococci bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria.
We initiated our water quality monitoring program to continue one established by the NCDOH that was terminated due to budget cuts. The program was developed in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, local governments and other volunteer monitoring groups around Long Island Sound.
Water quality monitoring is necessary to help preserve the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Estuary and to increase public awareness of local threats to water quality.
Data collected each year is available for use by federal, state and local government agencies, as well as the general public. You can view our current data as well as download a copy of our water quality monitoring report for the 2020 and 2021 seasons by visiting our website at https://www.friendsofthebay.org/water-quality-data.html
We have also been participating in Save the Sound’s Unified Water Study since 2017. For more information on that program, visit https://soundhealthexplorer.org/about/unified-water-study/
For more fun facts, follow our "Did you know" series every week on Facebook and Instagram, and every other week in the Oyster Bay Herald.
Click here to read past "Did you know" articles.
Once every two weeks from May through October, we collect data from various locations in Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor and Mill Neck Creek including temperature, pH, salinity, water clarity and dissolved oxygen. We also take water samples that the Nassau County Department of Health (NCDOH) tests for enterococci bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria.
We initiated our water quality monitoring program to continue one established by the NCDOH that was terminated due to budget cuts. The program was developed in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, local governments and other volunteer monitoring groups around Long Island Sound.
Water quality monitoring is necessary to help preserve the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Estuary and to increase public awareness of local threats to water quality.
Data collected each year is available for use by federal, state and local government agencies, as well as the general public. You can view our current data as well as download a copy of our water quality monitoring report for the 2020 and 2021 seasons by visiting our website at https://www.friendsofthebay.org/water-quality-data.html
We have also been participating in Save the Sound’s Unified Water Study since 2017. For more information on that program, visit https://soundhealthexplorer.org/about/unified-water-study/
For more fun facts, follow our "Did you know" series every week on Facebook and Instagram, and every other week in the Oyster Bay Herald.
Click here to read past "Did you know" articles.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND SOUND
by Jennifer Wilson-Pines
-Originally published in The Island Now
Photo credit: Jennifer Wilson-Pines
