If adopted at the Sag Harbor Board of Trustee’s meeting on Tuesday, October 14 a new local law will hand over the granting authority for wetlands permits to the village harbor committee.

The board of trustees has traditionally had the final say in granting permits for the creation of docks and for dredging in the village, but according to mayor Greg Ferraris will now seek to have that authority vested with the board that has led local review of these actions in accordance with Sag Harbor’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan.

“It has always been the intent of the legislation to have the harbor committee be the authoritative body in administrating the wetlands applications,” said Ferraris on Wednesday. “However, the legislation currently in place included an added step of having the board of trustees approve with a recommendation from the

harbor committee. The harbor committee along with the village’s planning consultants will continue to review these applications as they have in the past but will now also hold the required public hearings as part of the approval process.”

Ferraris said the proposed legislation should streamline the process for applicants in addition to ensuring a complete review process for wetlands applications.

According to Ferraris, barring any public opposition to the new law, he expects the board of trustees will adopt the measure following a public hearing on the law at Tuesday’s board meeting.

If adopted, the law moves the harbor committee — an advisory board —  towards greater authority in the Village of Sag Harbor. Village officials have also proposed a natural resources section of its draft zoning code, designed, in part, to give the committee bigger teeth when it comes to the protection of natural resources like wetlands, tidal waters, beaches, vegetation, dunes and bluffs. According to Ferraris, it is his hope the natural resources section of the proposed code will be adopted with the rest of the zoning code.

As village environmental planning consultant Rich Warren explained in August, the regulations are designed to give the committee a true stewardship role over the natural resources in Sag Harbor. The committee is expected to discuss the proposed regulations at their next meeting on Monday, November 10.

The section outlines acceptable development and activities around wetlands, tidal waters, beaches, vegetation, dunes and bluffs.

Under the code, harbor committee approval will be required to fill near or in any wetlands, water or beach. Committee approval is needed to clear or dredge, to construct homes, docks, accessory structures or bulkheads, or to have any septic systems, waste or storage system installed within 200-feet of wetlands and other resources. No buildings or structures are allowed within 100-feet of a crest of a bluff.

Until the existing code, the committee has been able to ask that a wetlands buffer of a minimum 25-feet be maintained, although generally they have allowed 25-feet to be the standard. In the proposed code, wetlands setbacks have been beefed up significantly. Any wastewater disposal system needs to have a 100-foot setback and the construction of all other structures would need a 75-foot setback.

Lawns, turf and landscaping, as well as clearing or fertilization of vegetation must take place 50-feet from wetland areas and the committee is urged to have applicants limit their use of herbicides and pesticides, as well as minimize areas of fertilizer dependent vegetation, which can in turn have a negative effect on ecosystems in the village.

Parcels in the waterfront district, or marinas do not have to comply with the setbacks as long as they have obtained site plan approval.

In other zoning code news, according to mayor Ferraris, trustee Tiffany Scarlato is expected to give the board an update on the proposed code at Tuesday night’s meeting. Ferraris said it is his hope that public hearings will be scheduled on the draft code in the near future.