§ 81-1. Legislative intent.

A. 

Surface waters, lands underwater and tidal and freshwater wetlands are important natural resources in the Town of Brookhaven. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Town of Brookhaven (1) to protect and preserve these natural resources with the valuable attributes and functions they provide; (2) to prevent the despoliation and destruction of these natural resources whenever practicable; and (3) to regulate the use and development of these natural resources, thereby securing their natural benefits for the existing and future residents of the Town of Brookhaven; these benefits include flood and stormwater control, commercial and recreational fishing and shellfishing opportunities, pollution treatment, wildlife habitat protection, open space and aesthetic appreciation, erosion control, sources of nutrients for marine and freshwater life, means for scientific and educational research, as well as means to protect subsurface water resources. These natural resources and their benefits shall be protected by the Town of Brookhaven pursuant to the authority conferred upon the Town through the Dongan Patent of 1686 and the authority conferred to the Town by various New York State laws and regulations, including but not limited to Articles 8 and 24 of the Environmental Conservation Law (Environmental Review and Freshwater Wetlands) and regulations thereto, Town Law and the Municipal Home Rule Law. This chapter shall apply to all lands defined as wetlands or waterways, to any activity in a jurisdictional area (as defined herein) of a wetland or waterway, or to any activity that has the potential to adversely impact wetlands or waterways. It shall be the policy of the Town of Brookhaven to:

(1) 

Safeguard, protect, and preserve the vegetation and fauna of all wetlands and waterways and to maintain the quality and ecological integrity of all wetlands and waterways by preserving, to the greatest extent possible, surface waters, wetland habitats, and their adjacent upland buffer areas, in order to maintain the ecological processes necessary for their perpetuation;

(2) 

Safeguard, protect, and enhance, when and where possible, water quality conditions in wetlands and surface waters by ensuring that applications for development, redevelopment, or the expansion of existing structures incorporate into their design: a sanitary system that meets or exceeds the standards for nitrogen and bacterial removal of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services; a system of containment for stormwater runoff; and expanding or preserving natural buffer areas, minimizing the extent of fertilizer-dependent vegetation, or the creation of vegetated recharge areas to prevent surface contamination from entering adjacent waterways.

(3) 

Minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the impacts to wetlands and waterways from erosion and sediment transport caused by existing development, the potential effect of new development, and those existing and proposed structures associated with development such as docks, bulkheads, gabions, and revetments on the ecological integrity of the Town's wetlands and waterways by providing adequate setbacks and buffer zones, using nonstructural shore protection devices, minimizing the impacts of existing structures and developing a site in conformance with the natural topography of the site;

(4) 

Minimize adverse ecological impacts to wetlands and surface waters and the flora and fauna which inhabit these areas from dredging and dredge spoil disposal activities;

(5) 

Safeguard, protect, and preserve the public's access to the shoreline and their continued use along it.

B. 

The Town's approximately 155 mile long coastline, on the north and south shores and on the south shore barrier island, is an irreplaceable natural resource and asset to Town residents, significantly adding to the quality of their life. Natural shoreline habitats are vital for a variety of wildlife species, including: baitfish, a variety of important fish species desirable to recreational and commercial fishers which find refugia in the inter-tidal shallows adjacent to and within natural shorelines; horseshoe crabs which spawn in the upper reaches of the inter-tidal zone; diamond-backed terrapins and other turtles which gain access to egg laying sites in adjacent upland areas; and wading birds such as egrets and herons which preferentially inhabit these areas for feeding. Natural shorelines provide numerous benefits, including: providing for unimpeded public access along the coastline; protection of foraging, nesting, and breeding habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species; and unimpeded movement, transport, and deposition of sediments between the shoreline and adjacent tidal areas. The Town recognizes that shoreline hardening devices can have numerous adverse impacts, including: impeding or eliminating public access to and along the coastline, deterioration in scenic and aesthetic quality, water quality deterioration associated with development occurring adjacent to the shoreline; interference with or elimination of littoral and/or depositional processes; destruction of adjacent inter-tidal and upland habitats, and severing the vital ecological linkage between these habitats. Therefore, the Town finds that bulkheads, revetments, and other shoreline hardening devices are generally incompatible with the protection and perpetuation of coastal resources, species, communities, and habitats. Thus, it shall be the policy of the Town of Brookhaven to:

(1) 

Protect and maintain the Town's extensive shoreline in its natural condition to the greatest extent possible;

(2) 

Restore, where feasible and appropriate, shorelines that are currently damaged or hardened by shoreline hardening structures;

(3) 

Utilize nonstructural erosion control devices in all areas where these devices are practicable and effective; and

(4) 

Ensure that all structural shore protection devices shall be designed, located and constructed or installed so as to minimize their potential adverse impacts upon the natural protective features found along the shoreline such as beaches, dunes, bluffs, wetlands, flats and other natural habitats and resources and that, whenever possible, nonstructural methods of erosion protection be employed instead of the construction of permanent structural devices.