Greenport officials seek community input on plans for village’s future

The months ahead could be pivotal for Greenport.

With the village’s commercial development moratorium set to be lifted at the end of the summer, the first new administration in nearly a decade is gearing up for a campaign to engage the public in an open dialogue about the community’s future.

Aspects of the campaign include a new communications committee, a new monthly e-newsletter and two key public meetings this summer.  

The two meetings — Tuesday, June 13 and Thursday, July 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the movie theater at 211 Front Street — are aimed at building community consensus around a variety of projects and initiatives in the village, said Mayor Kevin Stuessi.

The meetings will be “a much deeper level of community engagement, as opposed to where many times, opinions were only asked for in the formality of village board meetings,” Mr. Stuessi said. “This would be an open community forum where ideas and conflicts will be presented.”

The village’s new communications and community engagement committee is also key to the campaign, and is headed by Village Trustee Lily Dougherty-Johnson.  

She said a representative from each of the village’s current working committees — which are comprised of Village Trustees and other Greenport officials, as well as residents — would be on hand to offer recommendations and hear feedback. Those committees include ones that focus on the waterfront, transportation and parking and code enforcement.

“They’ve been doing a lot of work and are ready to share some recommendations with the community,” Ms. Dougherty-Johnson said, “while also getting recommendations and input from the community.”

She added that the upcoming meetings this summer will be an open dialogue between residents and village officials.

“These are not formal recommendations” that officials are promoting or endorsing, Ms. Dougherty-Johnson said. “We’re going to see what we get in terms of feedback.

“We’re trying to get the community to come together so we have a vision that everyone shares and we can make a plan” for the village’s future.

She said that after months of preparation, it’s time to complete the work, build consensus and create a plan for the future. Of particular importance is the completion of the long-awaited update to the village’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.

“We really want to focus on ending the moratorium,” Ms. Dougherty-Johnson said. “Once we end the moratorium and have some of those changes, then we’re really going to focus on the LWRP.”

Ms. Dougherty-Johnson is also working with Southold Town to promote a series of forums this summer focused on affordable housing.

Those meetings will take place on June 7, from 6 p.m to 7:30 p.m. at the Southold Recreational Center at 970 Peconic Lane in Peconic; a June 15 forum will held in Spanish from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the CAST office at 53930 Main Road, Southold; a June 20 meeting at Floyd Memorial Library at 539 First Street in Greenport will run from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and a June 27 forum will take place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Mattituck-Laurel Library at 13900 Main Road in Mattituck.