As Westhampton Beach Adopts Changes to Master Plan, Most Proposals Already Complete

After 14 years, the Village of Westhampton Beach updated its Comprehensive Master Plan for business districts. The move positions the Village Board to craft zoning regulations and development projects in response to changing dynamics.

The adoption of the updated plan is a significant moment for the board, which worked on the update for over six years — the board first toiled with a master plan update in late 2014; in August 2015, the board formally commissioned an outside consulting firm to update the plan.

The village last updated the comprehensive plan in 2007.

“It’s an extensive process,” said Mayor Maria Moore in a phone interview. “Because the process was very lengthy, we ended up implementing a lot of the recommendations already.”

The firm, Nelson, Pope, and Voorhis, a Melville-based land-use consultant, provided the village with 39 recommended changes and updates to the master plan.

In New York, a municipality’s master plan primarily guides local land use regulations and development goals. Westhampton Beach’s update concerned business district improvements and rezoning.

A May 2015 proposal from the firm was met with strong opposition from the Village Board, as well as from members of the village’s three appointed boards for not soliciting the proper community input.

The firm submitted a new draft study in 2017 with more community input.

“Some of the changes … that were put up to be adopted in early 2017 — there were some things that the board wanted to hammer out that they just didn’t get around to,” said Brad Hammond, the village’s building and zoning administrator.

A 151-page draft of the final recommendations from the firm was released by the board in August, and at an October 7 meeting, the board approved the updates to the comprehensive plan.

In drafting updates to the plan, the village assembled a task force of residents for input. The task force included village planner Kyle Collins, Jim Badzik, Jacqueline Bennett, Jean Marie Braat, Michael Brunetti, Robert Busking, David Fox, Lynne Jones, Joseph Musnicki, Dee Kerrigan Perfido and Susan Rosenberg.

Trustee Ralph Urban said the most pertinent update on his mind is completing the sewer project.

“The sewer project that’s underway now is phase one,” Urban said. “Phase two we’ve already started looking into — I think there’s a momentum from all these projects that’s carrying through.”

The village is in the process of developing a sewer collection and conveyance system for commercial properties downtown and for condominiums south of Main Street.

In the report, the firm recommended that the village tap into the sewer system at Francis S. Gabreski Airport. The village will be allocated a set capacity of wastewater and will contract with Suffolk County, which owns the airport.

A 2017 study from the village cited that the project could reduce nitrogen pollution into local waters by 24 percent. The village broke ground on the sewer project in April.

Moore said there are a host of uncompleted things in the plan that she now aims to prioritize.

“We want to have better wayfinding and signage, directing people to municipal parking lots. We want to upgrade the parking lots themselves with better lighting and security cameras,” she said. The mayor also noted that she wants to strengthen cultural institutions.

The plan noted that Hampton Arts Cinema shuttered, and recommended that property be used for a “new cultural use.”

Other unimplemented recommendations in the plan span a host of topics: Improving transportation between the Long Island Rail Road station and Gabreski Airport, the downtown and beaches; improved signage for visitors who, as the report states, “may not even be aware that the downtown … exists;” and repurposing a vacant gas station at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Old Riverhead Road.

But perhaps the most visible changes have already been completed by the village.

A major overhaul of Main Street, completed in 2020, gutted the street at a cost of $11 million. New sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, parking and buried utility lines all increased the draw for new businesses. This year, the village saw the arrival of LT Burger, Caffeine, North Fork Roasting Company and TOLA.

During the reconstruction, however, businesses reported suffering due to heavy construction and a road closed to driving — the store and ice cream shop Shock, for example, closed during the construction.

“There’s no one on the street. There’s nobody here. I didn’t think it was going to be that extreme,” Shock owner Elise Richman told The Press in 2019 when construction commenced.

Moore said she is now aiming to help businesses in the north of the village along Montauk Highway and north of Montauk Highway in the B2 and B3 zoning districts.

“We’ve done a lot to revitalize the downtown … So [the board] was unanimous in their feeling that now we need to do something similar to revitalize the B2 and B3 business districts,” Moore said. “The owners of the properties are struggling because they have difficulty finding tenants under the prior uses, so now in this updated plan, the uses have been expanded.”

Moore said that both districts will now allow for businesses including florists, sporting goods stores, indoor recreation, grocery stores smaller than 5,000 square feet, optical goods stores, day spas and ear piercing services.

She said the task now is to inform landlords that additional uses are permitted.

While the plan doesn’t significantly affect residential zoning — one proposal to rezone a residential section of Potunk Lane was tabled — Moore said she’s noticing the impact of the village’s improvements.

“The property owners seem to be willing to make an investment in the village now,” she said. “It’s evolving into more of a destination location. People just seem excited and happy to come and shop and dine.”

Westhampton Beach experienced a real estate boom during the pandemic. Median home sale prices jumped 49.12 percent in 2020 compared to the year before, according to data from Sotheby’s International Realty.

Moore said that, in spite of the long timeframe for the projects, she considered the work a “labor of love.”

“It’s not something that happens quickly … you just have to stay focused and we have. And we’re happy to be able to, to do this for the village,” she said.