Nissequogue board delays decision on resident Andrew Georgakopoulos' bid to build dock outside home

The Nissequogue planning board has delayed until November a decision on a local man's application to build a dock outside his Stony Brook Harbor waterfront home.

Swan Place resident Andrew Georgakopoulos earlier this year submitted plans for a roughly 136-foot aluminum and wood dock extending from his boathouse into the harbor, where he said he would tie up a 19-foot Carolina skiff. 

Opponents have dubbed the proposed structure a "mega dock" and warned that granting permission could invite other homeowners to build their own docks at one of North Shore's most pristine natural harbors, and change boat traffic from mostly canoes and kayaks to motorized vessels. Georgakopoulos' representatives have calculated that, under Nissequogue rules, only 21 property owners could apply to build docks. Six property owners already have docks, and one other application is under review. The calculation did not include docks and applications for neighboring Head of the Harbor. About 45 homes line the harbor. 

Georgakopoulos' application won approval from several state and federal agencies but the Joint Coastal Commission, a local board serving Nissequogue and neighboring Head of the Harbor, found this spring it was inconsistent with the land and water use plan for waterfront resources. That finding sent the application to the Nissequogue planning board for review. If the board finds the application is consistent, it will move on to a village board hearing; upholding the finding would quash the application. 

Jacob Turner, a lawyer for Georgakopoulos, and Kelly Risotto, an environmental consultant, said at Monday night's hearing that other docks on the harbor had not wrought ecological calamity and had a minimal impact on harbor views, and that approvals for a similarly sized dock next door amounted to legal precedent village officials should follow.   

"The last thing the Georgakopouloses want to do is harm the harbor," Turner later told Newsday. "They love the harbor." Project opponents were "stoking fears" with incorrect facts and inflammatory language, he said. 

But about a dozen neighbors spoke against the proposal, including one who submitted a petition, she said, contained 511 signatures in opposition.

It would "change the way this place looks," said Brendan Fogarty, a commercial clammer from Smithtown, at the hearing. He told Newsday "hardening the waterfront" with structures like piers and docks would harm the harbor bottom. He said he works the north end of the harbor, not the south end, where the Georgakopoulos dock would be built. That area is now closed to shellfishing and has fewer clams than the north, he said, "but if you leave it alone, it's going to come back."

Jeffrey Levinton, a Stony Brook University marine ecologist who has visited the harbor since the 1970s, said at the hearing new docks would slow the tidal exchange of harbor waters already low in oxygen, and construction could disrupt habitat for horseshoe crabs and nesting terrapins. Like Fogarty, he said the danger came not just from one added dock but the establishment of precedent that would permit more. 

Planning board members added concerns of their own over plans to anchor the dock on 20 pilings sunk into the harbor bed and beach accessibility for walkers. 

Risotto told Newsday those concerns were unfounded. The quantity of water blocked by the dock would be tiny in context of the harbor's 1,310 acres, she said, and the pilings would be sunk using hand tools, mostly in dry sand at low tide to minimize turbidity, she said.