Southampton City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XIV
Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District 1
§ 330-71 Intent and purpose.
It is the intent of this article to establish a Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District, within which construction and development activities requiring either a building permit, site plan approval, subdivision approval or authorization by a Town department head for Town-sponsored activities on Town land or in Town street rights-of-way, which activities exceed specific site disturbance thresholds depending on proximity to known burial and other sensitive sites, will be required to conduct appropriate cultural resource investigations for the purpose of identifying the existence of burial sites, human remains, associated funerary artifacts, and other culturally sensitive archeological sites; and to ensure that such sites, remains and artifacts are undisturbed to the maximum extent practicable.
§ 330-72 Applicability.
The provisions of this article shall apply to lands in the Town, outside the Shinnecock Indian Nation and Incorporated Villages and encompassing properties in the following areas:
A.
Cultural Resources Protection Area A: areas of greater sensitivity encompassing the Shinnecock Fort site, Sugar Loaf Hill burial site and other areas of sensitivity identified in the "Phase IA Cultural Resources Survey for Shinnecock Hills, Sebonac and Environs," superimposed upon the Zoning Map of the Town of Southampton and delineated as "Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District Area A," as same may be updated from time to time as a result of new information from ongoing investigations.
B.
Cultural Resources Protection Area B: areas of general sensitivity beyond the more sensitive area of the Shinnecock Fort site and Sugar Loaf Hill burial site, superimposed upon the Zoning Map of the Town of Southampton and delineated as "Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District Area B," as same may be updated from time to time as a result of new information from ongoing investigations.
C.
Cultural Resources Protection Area C: inactive and/or abandoned family burial sites, identified on the "Town of Southampton Historic Cemetery List," superimposed upon the Zoning Map of the Town of Southampton and delineated as "Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District Area C," as same may be updated from time to time as a result of new information from ongoing investigations.
§ 330-73 Definitions.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have meanings as indicated:
Standards established by the New York Archaeological Council (NYAC) and adopted by the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP), as may be amended from time to time. These standards can be located at <https://nysarchaeology.org/nyac/professional-standards/>.
Reconnaissance and documentary research intended to gather information concerning the environmental/physical setting of a specific project as well as its cultural setting as more fully outlined by the NY Archaeological Council standards referenced herein.
Field investigations designed to assess archaeologically sensitive areas that include, but are not limited to, systematic surface survey, subsurface shovel testing, and remote sensing studies as more fully outlined by the NY Archaeological Council standards referenced herein.
The primary goals of Phase II Cultural Resource Investigations are to obtain detailed information on the integrity, limits, structure, function, and cultural/historical context of an archaeological site sufficient to evaluate its potential National Register eligibility as more fully outlined by the NY Archaeological Council standards referenced herein.
Phase III Cultural Resource Investigations are required if an archaeological/historical resource listed on or eligible for inclusion on the State or National Register of Historic Places (SHPO) is identified and impacts to this resource by a proposed project are anticipated. When a data recovery plan is developed, it should be based on a balanced combination of resource-preservation, engineering, environmental and economic concerns. Mitigation may take the form of avoidance through project redesign, reduction of the direct impacts on the resource with data recovery on the portion to be destroyed, data recovery prior to construction, recordation of structural remains, and/or a combination of the above, as more fully outlined by the NY Archaeological Council standards referenced herein.
Disturbance, excavation or regrading of the ground surface associated with all forms of construction, development, landscaping, and vegetation removal in conjunction with any application to the Town Building Division or to the Town Planning Board for site plan or subdivision approval.
§ 330-74 Construal with other statutes.
Portions of the Overlay District are designated as Critical Areas of Particular Concern with Respect to Locations having Social, Cultural, Historic, Archaeological or Educational Importance, pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act and § 157-10 (Environmental Quality Review, Critical areas) of the Code of the Town of Southampton.
§ 330-75 Protection of cultural resources
A.
Site disturbance plan. To ensure the protection of archeological and cultural resources, particularly human burial sites and funerary artifacts, any application to the Town Building Division or to the Town Planning Board, within the Overlay District, shall include a site disturbance plan. In addition, any work performed on Town-owned land or Town street rights-of-way, either directly by the Town, a contractor or an outside agency, shall be required to submit a site disturbance plan to the Town Planning Division prior to the issuance of any permits or the commencement of any work or disturbance. The site disturbance plan shall be based on a recent survey of the subject property (less than six months) at a minimum scale of one inch to 40 feet, with topographic contour intervals not more than five feet. The site disturbance plan shall identify the location of existing and proposed structures, buildings, pools, recreation courts, driveways, landscaping, and naturally occurring vegetated areas. The site disturbance plan shall also delineate the location, limits and extent of areas to be disturbed, excavated, or regraded and shall indicate the square footage, depth and volume of all such disturbance, in conjunction with all forms of construction, development, landscaping and vegetation removal, whether for public or private purposes. At the time of said application or project on Town land or street right-of-way, the corner locations of all proposed buildings and/or structures shall be staked by a licensed surveyor in accordance with a building survey and plastic surveying ribbon or an equivalent shall be placed around the perimeter of all such areas proposed to be disturbed, excavated or graded, as depicted on the site disturbance plan. The site disturbance plan shall be submitted and reviewed in accordance with the following site disturbance activity procedures:
(1)
Activity requiring a building permit. A site disturbance plan shall be submitted to the Town Building Division with any application requiring a building permit. A permit shall not be issued until referral of the site disturbance plan has been made to the Planning Division and reviewed and approved in accordance with this section.
(2)
Activity requiring a site plan approval or subdivision approval. A site disturbance plan shall be submitted to the Town Planning Board with any application requiring site plan approval or subdivision approval. Approvals shall not be issued until the site disturbance plan has been reviewed and approved by the Planning Division in accordance with this section.
(3)
Activity occurring on Town-owned land or street right-of-way. A site disturbance plan shall be submitted to the Town Planning Division prior to the issuance of any permits or the commencement of any work or disturbance on Town-owned land or within any Town street right-of-way, either directly by the Town, a contractor or an outside agency. Approvals or commencement of work shall not occur until the site disturbance plan has been reviewed and approved by the Planning Division in accordance with this section.
(4)
The Planning Division shall review all site disturbance plans to determine if site disturbances exceed any of the following thresholds for the applicable Overlay District subarea.
(5)
Site disturbance thresholds. As per the table below:
Overlay District Subareas | Excavation Depth and Volume | Excavation Volume | New House Construction | Any Disturbance | Any Disturbance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Area A | X | ||||
Area B | Greater than 2-foot depth and greater than 20 cubic yards | Greater than 50 cubic yards | X | ||
Area C | Within 20 feet of burial area |
B.
Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation.
(1)
If the Planning Division determines that a site disturbance threshold for the respective Overlay District subarea has been exceeded, the building permit application, site plan application or subdivision application shall be considered incomplete and the Building Division or Planning Board shall respectively notify the applicant that a Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation will be required. Likewise, for disturbance of Town-owned land and Town street rights-of-way that exceed a disturbance threshold, the applicable Town department head shall be notified that a Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation is required.
(2)
A Phase IA Cultural Resource Investigation Survey for Shinnecock Hills, Sebonac and Environs, has been conducted by the Town and will be updated periodically to reflect newly identified burial sites and areas of sensitivity as a result of new finds and information from subsequent investigations in the Overlay District.
(3)
Said Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation shall be conducted by a registered professional archaeologist, in accordance with New York State Standards for Cultural Resource Investigations, covering the area within which a disturbance threshold is exceeded. Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigations prepared in connection with past subdivision or development projects will not satisfy this requirement as they will not be as site specific as required herein.
(4)
The applicant for development, or the applicable Town department head in the case of disturbances on Town-owned land or Town street rights-of-way, shall provide the Town Planning and Development Administrator at least a ten-day notice of the date and time for the commencement of any field investigation and shall also provide a written outline and description of the plan and methodology by which the investigation will be conducted.
(5)
For applications located in the Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District Areas A and B that require a Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation, the applicant for development, or the applicable Town department head in the case of disturbances on Town-owned land or Town street rights-of-way, shall be required to mail written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, to Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribal Office, Post Office Box 5006, advising of the pending nature of the proposed construction, development or disturbance, together with a copy of the project application form or project description and the site disturbance plan. Said notice to the Shinnecock Nation shall be mailed no less than 10 days prior to the submission of the Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation to the Town. Proof of said mailing must be submitted to the applicable Town department along with the Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation. The mailing of said notice shall be considered jurisdictional, and failure to mail notice along with the project application form and site disturbance plan or to provide the return receipt will result in the rejection of the application until such time as the mailing notification requirements have been satisfied.
(6)
For applications located in the Cultural Resources Protection Overlay District Area C that require a Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation, the applicant shall erect a temporary fence around the typical burial limits of any unfenced marked or unmarked burial site during the conduction of the Phase IB CRI, to avoid disruption of possible remains associated with the known burial site, either marked or unmarked. At the conclusion of all required CRIs, where there is no existing fencing, the applicant shall install a permanent fence around the typical burial limits of any unfenced marked or unmarked burial site.
(7)
For those applications and projects determined to exceed a site disturbance threshold, the Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation shall be submitted by the applicant to the Building Division in connection with a building permit and to the Planning Board in connection with a site plan or subdivision application, which shall then be referred to the Town Planning and Development Administrator, or designated alternate, for review. Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigations for projects on Town-owned land or Town street rights-of-way shall be submitted to the Town Planning and Development Administrator.
(8)
The Town Planning and Development Administrator shall ensure a copy of the Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation to the Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribal Office and to the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) at least two weeks prior to making a determination on the Phase IB.
(9)
If the Town Planning and Development Administrator, or designated alternate, determines that the conclusions and recommendations of the cultural resource investigation are accepted and no further investigation is warranted, the Administrator is empowered to authorize the review and issuance of permits and approvals to proceed accordingly.
C.
Phase II Cultural Resource Investigation.
(1)
If the conclusions and recommendations of the Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation suggest that further investigations are warranted, a Phase II Cultural Resource Investigation shall be required, in order to establish the significance of the archaeological site, covering the area within which a disturbance threshold is exceeded. The Phase II investigation shall be conducted by a registered professional archaeologist, in accordance with New York State Standards for Cultural Resource Investigations, and shall include, at a minimum, information on boundaries, integrity and significance of the archaeological resource(s), evaluation of the impact of the proposed project, and any additional data necessary to evaluate eligibility. The applicant shall provide the Town Planning and Development Administrator at least a ten-day notice of the date and time for the commencement of any field investigation and shall also provide a written outline and description of the plan and methodology by which the investigation will be conducted.
(2)
The Town Planning and Development Administrator will provide a copy of the Phase II Cultural Resource Investigation to the Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribal Office and to the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) at least one week prior to making a determination on the Phase II.
(3)
As an alternative to preparation of a required Phase II investigation, the applicant shall have the option of submitting a revised site disturbance plan, which would require a new Phase IB investigation.
D.
Phase III Cultural Resource Investigation. If a National Register listed or eligible resource cannot be avoided, some form of mitigation is required, which would be in the form of a Phase III Data Retrieval Plan, conducted by a registered professional archaeologist in accordance with New York State Standards for Cultural Resource Investigations. Mitigation may include the reduction of the direct impact on the resource as well as data retrieval for the portion of the site to be impacted. A data retrieval plan should be developed that balances resource-preservation, engineering, environmental and economic concerns, while addressing research questions. The Town Planning and Development Administrator will provide a copy of the Phase III Cultural Resource Investigation to the Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribal Office and to the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) at least one week prior to making a determination on the Phase III. The full implementation of the data retrieval plan shall ensure adequate mitigation of the resource.
E.
Stop-work order for revised site disturbance plan. The Town Planning and Development Administrator shall assign appropriate Land Management staff to conduct a site inspection to determine whether or not the areas proposed for construction and site disturbance, as staked and marked at the site, are consistent with the approved construction plans and survey and the site disturbance plan. The Administrator may request the Town Archaeologist or other qualified expert be present to assist in making a determination, assessment or recommendation related to the site disturbance plan. Should there be a violation of the site disturbance plan, a stop-work order, as provided in Chapter 123 of the Town Code, shall be issued. It shall be the burden of the applicant to prove that areas of site disturbance comply with the approved construction plans and the site disturbance plan by the submission of an as-built survey. Should the Town Planning and Development Administrator, or designated alternate, determine there is no further violation, the stop-work order shall be rescinded. Should the Town Planning and Development Administrator, or alternate, determine that said as-built survey depicts a violation of these provisions, the stop-work order shall remain in effect and a revised site disturbance plan shall be submitted to determine if a new or revised Phase IB Cultural Resource Investigation is required.
F.
Stop-work order for discovery of unmarked burial site and/or human remains. In the event of a discovery of an unmarked human burial site or possible human remains, either in the course of a cultural resource investigation or during site construction or excavation following the issuance of a building permit or authorization to commence work, a stop-work order, as provided in Chapter 123 of the Town Code, shall be issued and provisions of § 330-333 of the Town Code (Protection and treatment of unmarked graves) shall immediately take effect.