Housing Shortage Top Priority For East Hampton

Tackling the lack of affordable year-round housing will be the top priority for the newly constituted East Hampton Town Board in 2022, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday in announcing a new initiative to find new ways to create affordable housing opportunities in the town.

The supervisor, who was sworn in for a third term on Friday, said that his initiative, “All Hands On Housing,” will task all five Town Board members with leading the charge on one of the various hurdles that must be cleared to create housing: identifying and acquiring land for public projects; zoning code changes to clear the way for development; development of projects and crafting a town master plan for how to spend funds from the anticipated Community Housing Fund; and a real estate transfer tax that voters will be asked to approve in a ballot referendum this fall.

“The dramatic rise in housing costs and declining inventory of year-round rental properties is threatening to unravel the fabric of our community,” the supervisor said on Tuesday. “Businesses, school districts, and municipal governments are all struggling to hire and retain staff. Restaurants and other businesses are operating fewer days of the week and commute times from more affordable areas are becoming unbearable. Our volunteer fire and ambulance emergency services are having trouble recruiting volunteers …

“I see the housing problem as one of the most serious and immediate threats to the well-being and sustainability of our community.”

The town currently has two affordable housing projects on the horizon, though both are still in the early planning stages and likely years from completion. The town has said it plans to build 12 single-family homes on a Pantigo Road property it bought in 2020 that will be sold to qualified buyers at below-market rates.

The town also is in the earliest planning stages of a rental apartment housing development on land it purchased recently off Route 114 near Sag Harbor Village. A third project, for 50 rental apartments, being led by the East Hampton Housing Authority — an independent, nonprofit organization — in partnership with a private developer, is already before the Town Planning Board and could be ready for occupancy in 2023.

East Hampton has long led the East End in creating affordable housing for its residents, with more than 600 units created, though many of those have been lost to the market, and studies were conducted long before the advent of AirBnB-style rental arrangements that have removed thousands of year-round rental homes from the pool and hyper-inflated market values in the wake of the pandemic.

In the more immediate future, the supervisor also said that the Town Board, which added newly elected Councilwoman Cate Rogers to the virtual dais on Tuesday, will press forward with an effort to transition East Hampton Airport to a private airport and to implement a “prior permission required” system of operations at the facility.

To affect the change from a public airport, which is prohibited from restricting flights into the airport under federal rules, to a private one, the town expects to have to close the airport temporarily at some point this winter — though what that closure will entail has yet to be announced.

Van Scoyoc said that town officials and its attorneys have been meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration on a regular basis to work out the details of how the change can be put into effect with the least disruption to aircraft based at the airport.

The Town Board on Tuesday scheduled a special closed-door “executive session” meeting for Wednesday to meet with the town’s legal counsel on the airport — who were paid nearly $1 million last year to lay the legal groundwork for the action the town is expected to take very soon.

The supervisor said the transition will take place this winter so that new rules, whatever they may be, will be in place for the summer 2022 season.

“Our goal is to gain meaningful relief for the ever-growing multitude of people whose quality of life is negatively affected by aircraft noise,” he said. “We feel the best approach is to transition to a private use airport, which will allow us to put in place restrictions that are specifically targeted to improve residents’ quality of life and improve the environment by reducing emissions.”

Van Scoyoc also harked to the difficulties faced from the pandemic, the town’s efforts to advance long-term planning to meet the impacts of climate change and the town’s continued strong financial condition.

“The COVID-19 pandemic … has brought about some of the greatest challenges in many generations,” he said. “As we continue to confront challenges in the year ahead, it is the resiliency, and the depth of caring in our community that truly makes East Hampton such a special place. I feel honored and blessed to be the supervisor of a town that comes together to support those in need, gathers to rebuke hatred, seeks to protect its environment, honors its history, and celebrates its diversity. We can rise to any challenge as long as we respect each other and work together for the common good.”

The board will remain a politically homogeneous one for at least the next two years after Rogers, a former Democratic Party chairwoman, won election to the seat vacated by former Councilman Jeff Bragman, who elected to challenge Van Scoyoc for the town’s top seat rather than seek reelection to the council.

Rogers, who has long served on the town’s energy sustainability committee and has been a staunch advocate of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind farms, will serve as the town’s liaison to a number of its environmental committees and initiatives.

“After a year of prepping and campaigning, I’m really excited to get going and roll up my sleeves and get to work,” Rogers said this week.