East Hampton Agrees To One Land Buy For Affordable Housing, Ups The Ante For Another

Neighbors of a parcel of land East Hampton Town has agreed to purchase to expand the size of a planned affordable housing development expressed concerns about the impact of the town project on their homes last week.

At a public hearing on the purchase of a 2.5-acre lot off Route 114 in Wainscott, from the estate of Margaret Smith, one neighbor said the plans are already too large for an area intended to be kept rural and pleaded with the town to purchase the land it is eying for preserved open space, not multi-family housing. Another neighbor said she understood little of what the project — which has yet to be designed — would mean for her property and worried that a busy access road would run past her home.

Despite their concerns, the Town Board voted unanimously on Thursday night to proceed with the $890,000 land purchase.

“The massive building development that has been proposed for this [property] is in an area of low density where residential zoning is 2-acres per lot and … the proposed development calls for many more residential units than any private developer would be allowed,” said Roy Nicholson, whose property abuts the three properties the town and the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust plan to combine to build an affordable housing development of still undetermined size.

“It is a sensitive water recharge area where high-density development … will negatively impact surrounding water quality as well as wildlife habitat. The proposed development is in direct opposition to the town commitment to defend the environment, ameliorate global warming and preserve our valuable woodlands.”

Mr. Nicholson, who had also opposed the town’s purchase of the adjacent 4-acre lot last year from the Triune Baptist Church, suggested that the town buy the land with Community Preservation Fund money and preserve it as open space.

Another neighbor, Bobbye Sue Stauffer, said she was mostly worried that the flag-lot-shaped parcel would mean that an access driveway would run past her house, which sits between the Smith property and Route 114.

The town is proposing to pay the Smith estate $890,000 for the land. There is a house on the lot that town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc has said would likely be left in place to be incorporated into whatever development is done at the property.

The town is also expected to close soon on the purchase of the neighboring Triune property, which it agreed to pay $900,000 for last winter. The two lots, when combined with the approximately 2 acres owned by the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust, will total 10.5 acres.

Mr. Van Scoyoc has said the town hopes to develop approximately 30 residential units on the land, though it has not yet been decided what form the development would take. The East Hampton Housing Authority is currently constructing 37 rental apartments on 4 acres of land in Amagansett. Job Potter, a member of the town’s Housing Advisory Committee, said the purchase and the compiling of property in the area will be a boon.

“The fundamental building block of all our efforts is land,” he said. “It’s great to hear you are aggregating land in this location. I hope it goes smoothly.”

In a related matter, the Town Board last week approved borrowing an additional $1 million to increase the town’s bargaining position in its efforts to secure a 12-acre parcel of land off Pantigo Road that it hopes to use, in part, to create affordable housing.

The unanimously approved bonding measure would add $1 million to $2 million the board approved bonding for in 2017 and re-approved earlier this year to reflect the new makeup of the board since the original resolution.

While town officials have been tight-lipped, as they typically are regarding land purchases before the contracts are actually inked, the original resolution authorized town Land Management Director Scott Wilson to bid up to $2 million in an anticipated foreclosure sale on the property at 395 Pantigo Road.

The town had been prepared to bid at the foreclosure auction in September 2017, which was supposed to take place at East Hampton Town Hall, but it was canceled by the bank at the last minute.

The property is owned by six members of the family of James Phillips, who lives in the lone house on the property.

A member of the family, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak on its behalf, said earlier this year that the liens on the house had been paid off and foreclosure is not looming.

Town officials would not say what discussions they are still involved with regarding the purchase of the property.