Park Fight Gets Personal in North Haven as Critic Charges Mayor With Overclearing His Own Property

North Haven Village Mayor Chris Fiore has come under intense criticism in recent months over his handling of the park that the village plans to develop on the former Lovelady Powell property on Sunset Beach Road, with some charging that he improperly bypassed a committee tasked with creating a master plan for the park in getting the Village Board to authorize the clearing of a trail and the edge of a pond.

One of his most persistent critics, James Vos, went a step further at a Thursday, August 24, hearing on the park, charging that the mayor had illegally mowed a portion of his own property that borders a wetland and therefore should not be trusted with overseeing work at the park.

Vos displayed a drone photo he took of Fiore’s property at 4 Sunset Beach Road, which he said showed the clearing and recent mowing in what was supposed to be a wetland buffer along Genet Creek.

Without mentioning the mayor by name, Vos said, “The person who owns this house is the person responsible for protecting this environment. If you guys don’t see a problem with it, fine. I do see a problem with it.”

Fiore responded to Vos’s charges with a widely distributed email later that evening, in which he accused Vos of making a “deliberate, false accusation.”

In that email, Fiore said he believed Vos had illegally invaded his privacy in taking the drone photo and that the land Vos said had been recently mowed had been cleared since 1955.

“There has been no additional clearing, because … it’s been cleared for 75 years,” Fiore wrote. “The village knows this; the Planning Board knew this when I applied for a building permit.”

Vos, in turn, defended his right to take the photo, and added that just because Fiore said the land in question had been cleared for decades didn’t mean it was legal for him to continue mowing it.

He shared a 2016 North Haven Village Planning Board site-plan approval for Fiore’s house that required him to file a declaration agreeing to prohibit “further clearing disturbance, mowing and fertilization within all land area identified in green and solid cross hatch” on a drawing that was included with the site-plan approval. The property that had been recently mowed appeared to be part of that restricted area.

Vos said he would ask the village building inspector, George Butts, to investigate.

On Monday, Fiore issued a statement.

“I ran for mayor on the principle of the ‘right of quiet enjoyment’ — and that includes freedom from egregious personal privacy violations,” he stated. “Mr. Vos, without permission, took drone photographs of my home and property and distributed them with accusations of ‘overclearing.’ We were home at the time — and quite disturbed by the intrusion.

“I would hope New York State privacy laws would find fault with this; if they don’t, they should.

“In 2016, I obtained planning approval for new construction. I received my certificate of occupancy. There was no requirement that there be any plantings to establish a buffer border; the area is not irrigated, fertilized or changed in any way.

“If, in fact, the drone photographs taken of my home and property reveal there is any encroachment on the agreed upon wetland buffer, I will remedy the situation.”

He added, “If we find no aberration, I would like to go back to living my life peacefully.”