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Beach Erosion

Top Five Reasons to Support the Proposed 2009 Seaview Beach
Re-nourishment Project

1. Provide Significant Storm Protection; Healthy dunes and a wide beach provide storm protection for the entire community, not just the first row of ocean-front houses. Although Seaview has not experienced the severe storm-related erosion recently suffered by Davis Park, there are no guarantees that we will be spared in the future. The proposed project will create 15 foot high dunes, which will be 30 feet wide at the crest, sloping down to a width at the base of approximately 60 feet. The beach in front of the dunes will be restored to a width of 100 feet.

2. Take Advantage of Island-wide Mobilization: A major factor in the total cost of a beach renourishment project is the ‘mobilization’ expense ( i.e. getting the dredges and other heavy equipment on site and prepared to do the work). Some of the participating communities have received FEMA reimbursement for sand lost during last winter’s nor’easter. ( See “Become a Managed Beach” below). FEMA has approved the use of that money to pay for mobilization of the entire project, not just for the FEMA-reimbursed communities. By participating in this Island-wide coordinated project, therefore, we will be ‘piggy-backing’ on this mobilization and obtaining our sand at a lower cost than if we were doing a project alone.

3. Become a “Managed Beach”: Under current FEMA policy, Seaview will qualify as a ‘managed” beach if we participate in this project because there will be official documentation of how much sand has been placed on our beach, and at what cost. If we then lose sand in a storm event which also triggers a disaster declaration at the County level, we will then be eligible to apply for reimbursement from FEMA to replenish the amount of sand lost. As a matter of fact, several of the other communities in this project had ‘managed beach’ status ( Fair Harbor, Saltaire, Dunewood, and Davis Park), and they received 5 million dollars in FEMA money in reimbursement for the damage caused by last year’s severe nor’easter.

4. Establish our Right to Renourish our Beaches: As you may know, the Island communities have been experiencing long delays and bureaucratic and environmental ‘push-back’ in our effort to implement the federally funded FIMP beach restoration project. These same negative forces are arrayed against all renourishment projects, including the annual beach scraping activities that we have been able to do in the past. One of the most important reasons to participate in this 2008 “local project” is to establish our right to put sand on our beach at our own expense. If we are not vigilant and prepared to fight for this right, we may lose it altogether in the near future. As it is, the National Park Service permit for the 2008 project states that this will be the last project that Fire Island communities will be allowed to undertake until the FIMP project is in place ( and we all know that that could be still years away !!)

5. Enhance and Maintain Property Values: Rebuilding our dunes and widening our beach demonstrates that as a community, Seaview pursues shore protection and beach restoration when and if it becomes necessary. This collective willingness to preserve our cherished quality of life and protect our considerable economic investment makes Seaview a very desirable place to purchase a home.

sign June 24, 2008
Dear Seaview-Islip Residents:

As you may have heard, Seaview has joined with ten neighboring Fire Island communities to organize an Island-wide effort to renourish our ocean shore lines with sand dredged from approved off-shore borrow sites. (The other committed participants are: Saltaire, Fair Harbor, Dunewood, Lonelyville, Corneille Estates, Summer Club, Ocean Beach, Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island Pines and Davis Park.) By working together to coordinate our individual projects, we are mitigating some of the financial burden. There is also some FEMA money which will help underwrite mobilization costs, but the balance of the expense will be paid by taxes raised through each community’s Erosion Control District (ECD).

The project is proposed for this fall (2008), but permitting issues may postpone it until January or February of 2009. The engineering plans call for putting a total of 1.9 million cubic yards of sand along the participating beaches. An estimated 133,000 cu. yds. of sand will be placed in Islip portion of Seaview and 49,000cu yds. of sand in the Brookhaven portion.

The design template will establish a 15 ft high dune and a beach width of 100 to 150 feet. Of course a formal contract will go out for competitive bidding, but the current projected cost of the project for the Islip section of Seaview is estimated to be $ 1.8 million dollars. [This amount includes engineering and permitting fees, contingency factor. Interest on bond will be additional.]

The project in the Islip section of Seaview would be funded by a tax anticipation bonds issued by the Town of Islip that would be subsequently repaid from your ECD taxes over 5 years, beginning in 2009. While your actual tax will depend on your assessed value and the cost of the project, the Town estimates that the average yearly cost per house for each of the 290 houses in the District would thus be approximately $ 1500.

The Town of Islip, which administers the Erosion Control District and has the final say on our participation in this Island-wide beach renourishment effort, has requested that we obtain an expression of support for the project from Seaview taxpayers in the form of signed petitions. (The residents of Brookhaven-Seaview will be submitting similar petitions to the Brookhaven Town Board).

The Board of the Seaview Association strongly endorses this effort to join together with our neighboring communities to nourish our beach, protect community resources, and preserve our property values against the erosion damage we have already experienced to date, and may see again over the next several years. If you are in favor of the proposal, please follow the enclosed instructions and return the completed petition in the stamped envelope provided. It is critical that you send in your petition by July 10th at the latest. The Islip Town Board will be holding a public hearing on this project on July 15thP and needs to know the community's sentiment by the beginning of the month..

If you attended the Seaview Association General Meeting Sunday, June 29th , you had an opportunity to hear a detailed discussion about the project. We will also have a table outside the Market on Saturday and Sunday mornings of 4th of July week-end ( 7/5 and 6th) where you can ask specific questions and get more detailed information ( and also complete a petition, if you haven’t already !)

Thank you for your support of this important erosion control project.

Suzy Goldhirsch
President, Seaview Association

SEAVIEW BEACH EROSION CONTROL DISTRICT

PLEASE TURN OVER FOR HELP WITH PETITION COMPLETION