Here are our priorities.
We invite your comments and input.
MICHAEL UTEVSKY AND LISA DAVIDSON –
OUR PLATFORM FOR 2024
Our Village has had the same Mayor and the same Trustees for over ten years. The Trustees have acquiesced to almost every plan proposed by the mayor, no matter how expensive or how unpopular with local residents. The Mayor and Board have become fixed in their ways and unwilling to consider new ideas and suggestions from our residents. They have promoted new development without regard to our Village’s history and heritage. Here are some of our ideas that we will try to implement if you elect Michael Utevsky as Mayor and Lisa Davidson as Trustee of Head of the Harbor in 2024.
BALANCE OUR BUDGET
Our budgets must be balanced without dipping into the rainy-day surplus fund or future years’ anticipated revenues. The surplus is now below 30% of the annual budget, which is the amount considered prudent by the State. Big, expensive vanity projects, such as the $150,000 repaving of the Village Hall parking lot, or the proposed multi-million-dollar culvert replacement, must be reined in.
OUR HOMES, LANDSCAPES AND ROADS
Restore Public Access to Our Harbor. Our Village once had three public roads and rights of way allowing access to Stony Brook Harbor for walking, boating, fishing, and other recreational activities. We now have none. At least one of these roads should be re-opened to the public.
Encourage Development, but with Respect for Our Heritage. Our mayor has been too happy to promote every building project, even those that are opposed by appointed Village Boards and Committees and large numbers of residents. He has been a booster of the plan by the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension to construct a huge church in the historic landscape of Timothy House, and he has dragged out hearings for over a year in the hopes that local opposition will fade away. It’s good to build new homes and accessory structures, but new construction must be compatible with our historic homes and landscapes, our viewsheds, and our harbor. Adjoining property owners should be notified early in the approval process.
Fight Dense Developments on Route 25A. Traffic on Route 25A is already heavily congested, and any large-scale development would alter the character of Head of the Harbor forever. Recent proposals for the dense commercial development of the Gyrodyne property, and for an assisted living facility at Bull Run Farm, would increase traffic on 25A to nightmarish proportions. The mayor only reluctantly joined the opposition.
Permit Appropriate Deer Fencing. Deer are a major health hazard. They are disease vectors that transmit ticks to our properties, resulting in the spread of Lyme Disease, Babesiosis and other neurological disorders. The mayor’s pet program of injecting deer with a contraceptive was ineffective, and an expensive failure. Fencing can help property owners protect their health and property from deer intrusion, and it can be concealed behind natural buffers and hedges.
OUR HARBOR
Join Harbor Day Celebration. Harbor Day was once a joint celebration by our Village and Nissequogue Village, to honor our common heritage and Harbor. After a lapse of several years, it was rescheduled for the summer of 2023 but, inexplicably, our mayor refused to officially participate with Nissequogue Village. The event was held successfully anyway, with many Head of the Harbor residents in attendance, but our Village’s official non-participation was an embarrassment to all.
Respect our LWRP. The Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) is our version of a Comprehensive Zoning Plan, and it should inform all land use decisions by other Village Boards and by the Mayor and Trustees. It is the LWRP that dictates building decisions, not the DEC. Unfortunately, the LWRP, as well as the recommendations of the Joint Coastal Management Commission, are frequently overridden in approvals for mega-docks and other projects that impact our trees and our Harbor. The LWRP should be taken off the shelf, updated where necessary, and consulted on all land use decisions.
Limit Private Docks. Our village code stipulates that private docks be no more than 75 feet in length and that they not interfere with marshlands. We need to honor that code. We must also adhere to the guidelines of the LWRP. Longer docks that can extend to a depth of 2-1/2 feet of standing water at low tide will imperil the increasingly fragile ecosystem of the harbor. Long docks also interrupt the water views of all the residents. Marina slips are available within a short drive.
