Letters

The Village of Sag Harbor is operated by dedicated staff and volunteers to various boards and committees, without which our beautiful, historic village would descend into chaos. Everyone who lives, works or has business interests in the village should recognize and appreciate these people’s hard work.

The site of the proposed mixed-use development on Bridge Street, in the heart of the village, is low-lying, floodprone land fill with a long history of industrial use nearby. The proposal has gone through many iterations. Many of us hoped that the draft environmental impact statement would fully address all the issues identified in the final scope issued by the Planning Board in June 2024.

Yet the developer continues to change the scale — now 8 percent more commercial space and 5 percent more total gross floor area than anticipated in the final scope. It is not clear whether the handful of renderings attached to the revised DEIS have been updated to reflect the enlarged development. Notably, existing parking at 5 Bridge Street is now formally part of the proposed development, which means that the village will lose access to 93 currently available, existing parking spaces if development proceeds.

These repeated changes create more work for the village staff and volunteers, and make it challenging for the many concerned villagers to keep track.

The 240-page (excluding appendices and attachments) revised DEIS is long, yet it misses key concerns about the impact of such large-scale development, including:

• Exposure of previously identified contamination of the underlying sands from the manufactured gas plant that operated for more than 70 years.

• Noise and vibration caused by pile-driving needed to build on land fill above hundreds of feet of unconsolidated sands.

• Flooding.

• The impact on the already acute parking and traffic problems.

• The visual impact of the proposed three-story building.

My greatest fear has always been that the developer could start work, discover the challenges are greater than anticipated, and walk away, leaving the village with a large, contaminated hole that would cost taxpayers a fortune to remediate.

The only good argument for the proposed development has been affordable housing to help the local community. However, the revised DEIS states the developer may use state funding, in which case the affordable units will be allocated by statewide lottery, with no preference for the local community. The increased number of affordable housing units likely is tied to state funding requirements.

In my view, the developer should recognize that large-scale construction at the Bridge Street site is a mistake and move on to more doable projects elsewhere.

Douglas Newby

Sag Harbor