News

Town Hall Notes: Rezoning hearing set and Love Lane U-turn ban

DECEMBER HEARINGS SET

The Town Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. on rezoning a .52-acre site on Mary’s Road, across from the Mattituck High School track, from R-40 to Residential Office. The property, owned by the DiVello family, had historically been zoned Light Industrial, but that designation was changed after the 1999 Route 48 land use study recommended up-zoning the property.

That public hearing will be followed by another on a proposal to fast-track solar permits.

The town has drafted a local law to create a solar energy fast-track permit, which is a universal permit to be issued throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties and administered by individual towns. Currently, Southold Town charges $250 for solar installation permits, but the county and the Long Island Power Authority require that it charge no more than $50 once it signs on to the streamlined permit process.

The Southold Town Trustees are also proposing code changes to exempt solar panels from their review.

NO LOVE FOR U-TURNERS

Mattituck’s Love Lane has become a tough road to navigate in recent years. Councilman Bill Ruland says it’s become a huge hazard, particularly at the intersection with Pike Street, where people often make U-turns in order to park when the only open spaces are on the opposite side of the street.

“It’s like the wild west there some days,” he said at last Wednesday’s work session.

The Town Board agreed to ask the town’s transportation commission to look into the problem.

HAPPY DAY FOR P.D.

Two Southold Town Police Department employees took oaths at Town Hall last Wednesday. William Helinski was promoted to sergeant and Dawn Jacobs was sworn in as a new town police dispatcher.

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