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(Copyrighted and printed with permission of The Suffolk Times) Traffic checkup for ferry It may be time to look at traffic impacts after all. The Southold Town Board decided Tuesday to explore a proposal -- pitched to them six months ago by a Northport consulting firm -- to study the traffic impacts of the operation of Cross Sound Ferry Services at Orient Point. The board's decision to look into a traffic study followed an April 11 request by Southold Citizens for Safe Roads president Freddie Wachsberger. The Safe Roads group advocates a traffic study as research to back up legislation it says is needed to regulate the ferry company's Orient Point operations and future expansion. At the request of assistant town attorney Kieran Corcoran, Cleary Consulting, a planning and environmental services firm based in Northport, submitted a proposal to the town in October offering to conduct a comprehensive traffic study for the town. Cleary's fee for consulting services would be $10,000, according to the proposal. The consultants would study traffic volume and flow, parking, roadway infrastructure, pollution and public safety. Town attorney Patricia Finnegan told board members there is money budgeted for the study. There was some discussion on whether such a comprehensive study as outlined by Cleary Consulting is necessary, or whether some less-complex analysis would suffice. "The more comprehensive the better," Supervisor Scott Russell said. "We have to know if [Cross Sound Ferry Services] can handle the customer base." The board agreed and decided to invite Cleary Consulting to the next work session (May 9) to discuss the matter. Ms. Wachsberger told the board that increased traffic has impacts beyond Southold's roads. She mentioned a 1996 North Fork Environmental Council letter to the town Planning Board, quoting a Suffolk County Water Authority finding that "the development in the Orient areas be severely restricted to prevent impairment of its fragile aquifer which is already threatened by high nitrates ... Any intensification of land uses, such as the expansion of the ferry terminal's parking facilities to accommodate more than 300 cars, is expected to be detrimental to groundwater conditions." Cross Sound Ferry filed a special permit application with the town in February, seeking approval to build a parking lot to accommodate 451 additional parking spaces on now-vacant residentially zoned land adjacent to the terminal site. The special permit application is before the town Zoning Board of Appeals, which has yet to take any action on it, including the initiation of review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Meanwhile, the town's lawsuit against Cross Sound Ferry Services for allegedly operating without required site plan approval, is scheduled to come before a judge on Tuesday (May 2). The court will hear oral argument on the town's motion for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would bar all ferry services at Orient that did not exist as of 1995. Cross Sound Ferry began operating a high-speed passenger-only ferry in 1995, which the town maintains constitutes an intensification of use that triggered the site plan requirement. After the meeting Ms. Wachsberger said she was encouraged by the board's action. "The town is taking this seriously," she said. "What this is about is town government exercising its responsibility to protect the environment and the quality of life of its citizens. I feel this is what the town is now doing."
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