Meet The Candidate: Nicholas Planamento For Southold Town Board

NORTH FORK, NY: Suffolk County residents will be heading to the polls Tuesday to elect local representatives and make their voices heard.

Residents will weigh in on the race to represent one of the 18 legislative districts in Suffolk County, vote for Suffolk County District Attorney and Sheriff (both are running unopposed) — and choose their local town elected officials.

On the North Fork, four candidates are running for two open seats on the Southold Town board. Nicholas Planamento has thrown his hat into the ring with Chris Talbot, Alexa Seuss and incumbent Brian Mealy.

Name

Nicholas Planamento

How old will you be as of Election Day?

58

Does your campaign have a website?

Elect Nicholas Planamento or Southold Town Republican Committee

What city or town do you live in?

Southold

What office are you seeking?

Candidate for Town of Southold town board member

Party affiliation.

GOP/Republican; Conservative. I am endorsed by NYS Senator Anthony Palumbo, County Executive Edward Romaine, County Legislator Catherine Stark, Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association (PBA) and The Town of Southold/Suffolk County Civil Service Employee Association (CSEA)

Education

Undergraduate, BA (history) and BBA (marketing) Pace University; post-graduate work towards MBA Pace University/University of Heidelberg (Germany)

What is your occupation?

Associate Real Estate Broker, William Raveis Real Estate (North Fork)

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

I am married to Mr. Joan Hendrik Bischoff van Heemskerck, from Wassenaar, Kingdom of the Netherlands, an attorney; we have been together 30 years and have two golden retrievers (deWitt and Storm).

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

Yes, I have served the Town of Southold for nearly 25 years in a variety of volunteer and appointed roles: Various town committees including architectural review board, hamlet stakeholders, 375th Anniversary, etc. Plus, appointed by the town board as the Town of Southold representative to the Suffolk County Planning Commission, the vice-chairman of the Board of Assessment Review, the vice-chairman to the Zoning Board of Appeals (current, approaching 10 years).

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

Southold is at a crossroads, we have many changes in our local government, from a much-needed zoning update to the retirement and loss of qualified town employees and staffing, attainable/affordable community housing, water quality/quantity, and environmental concerns. I believe that my education, community knowledge, past contributions and present work with the town make me uniquely prepared to help usher in these changes and to provide the people of Southold with a voice that protects the environment, modernizes our code, helps young people secure housing and recognizes the cultural and community demographic shifts impacting our traffic and overall preservation of the North Fork.

What needs to be done to address water quality issues on LI?

Water is among our most precious natural resources, and we need to safeguard it while ensuring that our residents have quality clean water that meets the demand of today — while planning for the future. We need to ensure that our well-heads tapping into the aquifer are maintained and safe while we also work alongside of the Suffolk County Water Authority to expand service to communities within our town that are underserved. Concurrently, we need to plan and to ensure that zoning is in place to limit development. Water education and conservation is a parallel discussion involving outreach and NOT new, restrictive or unenforceable code.

What do you think can be done to help improve our infrastructure, highways, etc.?

Southold is among the most unique (and beautiful) towns in Suffolk County (and New York State, for that matter). Our two major thoroughfares are Main Road /State Route 25, managed by the New York State Department of Transportation or the North Road / County Route 48, managed by Suffolk County Department of Transportation. As such, we need to have enhanced dialogues with these important partners to review any/all improvement plans ensuring unity with the town roads and traffic patterns. At the state level it would be a goal of mine to see Main Road, especially in Laurel/Mattituck, enhanced with traffic calming measures and appropriate landscaping.

Additionally, a long-anticipated rotary should be implemented at the junctions of Main Road, Love Lane and Old Sound Avenues to allow traffic to flow while still allowing pedestrians to safely cross between the James Creek and the Mattituck Inlet. Moreover, the North Road needs traffic calming/safety enhancements and appropriate landscaping to soften the sense of the roadway being a highway. Both routes should further be enhanced with appropriate bicycle paths, allowing cyclists and pedestrians safe passage on these well-traversed routes which should also link parklands/openspace the hamlet centers and transportation hubs. A current topic of interest would be to include a Greenport Scott (trolley) servicing the underutilized Long Island Railroad or seeing enhanced Suffolk County bus service.

How would you plan to help local business owners, who are struggling because of high rents, inflation and labor shortages?

Zoning, rather the updated zoning code, is key to this conversation; by establishing AHD (affordable housing districts) and allowing greater design choices for affordable homes within the residential and commercial districts (micro houses, town houses, co-ops, garden flats, granny-flats, accessory dwelling units, and more) I believe businesses that struggle to attract quality employees will find success. There is no reason why a single-story building shouldn’t be ‘built out’ with a second floor containing apartments or some form of housing stock. While the town board has no control over rents (or a mortgage) that a business pays, I do believe that by updating our code to recognize 21st century uses (and businesses) success will be found. Why can’t a business built an apartment or work-force housing on their grounds? For centuries man lived at his workplace! Think about it — today we have more home based or ‘North Fork’ based businesses ranging from farm raised snail or poultry/eggs to quality meats, valuable row crops, micro greens, and all the ancillary services that cater to off site ‘agritourism’ weddings and private events: caterers, floral designers, party planners, etc (in addition to the actual people working the farms or developing /marketing the crops). We have lots of opportunity right here — we just need to tap into it and reward those who are willing to put the effort in.

How are federal issues impacting local government?

As an elected town board member, I will work with any/all federal agencies; however, its my understanding that they do not have to inform us (Southold) of their presence.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Experience. Recently, the Suffolk Times endorsed my opposition, first in recognizing my 20+ years of experience and knowledge of Town of Southold government and then indicating in their endorsement that while my opponent doesn’t have any experience, she brings to the table youth and voice to solve the affordable housing needs of her generation. Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me! Experience matters and the Town of Southold taxpayers deserve better.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

I like to focus on the importance of zoning, keeping taxes LOW, the poor cell service — we all rely on our mobile devices and deserve quality, clear connectivity, and most importantly, transparency of government — we need to have public engagement that resident’s participate in and understand the decisions the town makes and why . . .not just new laws/code rushed through, such as the recent sign law which is being challenged by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression). I want to ensure that Southold saves money and isn’t party to unnecessary lawsuits.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Over the past near decade I have processed and reviewed approximately 1,000 applications for Zoning Board of Appeals relief ranging from minor variances to the establishment of accessory dwelling units, to code interpretations and reversals of Notice of Disapproval. I uphold our code. I have helped people grieve their taxes or understand their assessment. I have reviewed commercial plans and helped guide the planning board in their decision-making. I interact on a regular basis with the public and I am an active listener, an independent thinker, and I am collaborative. I respect diversity of thought and welcome solutions.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

On a personal note, I am an active sailor on the Peconic Bay, I truly LOVE our shared history and heritage as a town, I am an advanced open water diver and I like to cycle. I am committed to the Town of Southold and its people as shown by my involvement in land preservation and look forward to the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.