Express Sessions: Extolling the Success of Westhampton Beach Revitalization

In many ways, the successful revitalization of Main Street in downtown Westhampton Beach was a case of snowballing projects.

Village Mayor Maria Moore reflected on the ambitious, and ultimately successful, endeavor during The Express News Group’s January 26 Express Sessions panel discussion, “Three Years in Westhampton Beach — How To Remake a Main Street.” Panelists included Moore, Deputy Mayor Ralph Urban, Village Building and Zoning Administrator Brad Hammond, Michael Brunetti of Brunetti Pizza, and Lillian Schon of Lillian’s Hair Salon.

The mayor recalled merchants coming to the Village Board with frustration about the condition of Main Street even before she was elected. Once she joined the board, “We spoke with some engineers, and the plan just kept getting bigger and bigger, because at first it was, ‘Well, what do we do? Just pave it, maybe put in some new curbs?’”

Then, officials learned there were problems with drainage that would require a full-scale excavation to fix.

“We had potential collapses,” Urban recalled. Sending “a little robot” into the drains, officials learned that the pipes were over 100 years old, cracked and roots growing through them. There was no choice but to add drainage rehabilitation to the project.

The next thought, Moore recalled, was: “Well, while we’re at it, why don’t we bury the utility lines? And why don’t we fix this issue with the intersections and put roundabouts in?”

She added, “So it just grew and it became this amazing project.”

As a village businessman and outsider looking in, Brunetti lauded the “amazing, amazing accomplishment” — completing the elaborate undertaking on time and on budget. He recalled that officials had been discussing such a project for at least 20 years, without action.

Concurrently, officials were already working on the sewer district, an initial focus once Moore was elected. As that more multi-faceted project involving multiple agencies and extensive planning wore on, people wondered, ‘How are you going to do sewers at the same time?’ It seemed Main Street would have to be torn up twice.

But, no. Luckily, the septic systems were located behind Main Street properties. That was a simple solution; the next aspect — getting all the utility lines buried — was not as easy.

Getting three utilities to coordinate at the same time with the deadline was very daunting at first, Urban recalled. The village’s contractor, Sandpebble Builders, laid out a plan. “It was so detailed that really things went very smoothly. That project started in the middle of September and before the end of December, we had the street open again to traffic … I remember when some of the other politicians came for the groundbreaking, and they were just shaking their heads, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’ But it worked out,” Moore said.

The Village Board agreed to offer a completion bonus to the contractors to ensure that the project was finished by Memorial Day — they didn’t want to go into the summer season with Main Street closed. “That was an impossibility in our minds,” Urban said.

Officials broke ground in 2019. Schon said she was thankful her salon has a parking lot in the back. Her loyal, year-round customers weren’t deterred.

Brunetti noted that village officials kept merchants informed all along the way, which helped tremendously.

“I said, ‘Well, this is a great opportunity to move, because nothing’s going to be happening for at least a year, so I might as well take advantage of this challenge and go for it.’ So that’s what I did. I renovated my hair salon during that time, and then I also moved my pizzeria. And then, of course, COVID hit and we had to close both,” Brunetti related.

The project continued despite the pandemic-related shutdown, viewed as “essential” by state officials.

Moore was on Main Street every day, Brunetti pointed out: “She was all over these guys to get this done.”

The resulting streetscape — with wide sidewalks, plantings, traffic calming roundabouts — has been a boon for business. New people have come to the village, and, said Brunetti, “People that are moving into the community or just buying homes or renting into the community are telling me, ‘Wow, this is amazing!’ And it is, and it’s helped our business in terms of financially, because the more people that come to town, the bigger the market.”

Echoing the observation that the pandemic prompted more second homeowners to move out east full-time, Schon said the ability to work from home has meant her business has grown. “I mean, really, it picked up. It used to be dead in the winter.”

Beyond the ease of working from home, the pandemic brought another silver lining: a surge in outdoor dining. Hammond issued temporary open-air permits that allowed restaurateurs to use space in front of their establishments for tables. The strategy was so successful that the Village Board recently made seasonal outdoor dining permits a permanent fixture.

Other villages, like Greenport, closed off parking along their Main Streets to allow for extra tables. In Westhampton Beach, merchants preferred sidewalk seating.

And even before the pandemic forced it, the mayor said enhanced outdoor dining was part of the Main Street plan. “That’s what we envisioned. That’s what we wanted and it just looks so much more lively and vibrant when people are outside eating. That’s what people like to do,” she said.

Brunetti agreed, describing outdoor dining as “an incredibly wonderful experience.”

You’re the most popular person in the summer when you live out here, audience member Liz Lederer quipped. “And now I feel like downtown is a destination — to see the village so vibrant, the lights outside, people with shopping bags in their hands, sitting outside eating. It’s just been life-changing, I think.”

During the planning stages, officials brainstormed a variety of ideas for the project, including closing off Main Street to all but pedestrian traffic. While that idea was discarded, a pedestrian-friendly downtown was a priority.

It was also a goal to slow down traffic on Main Street. That’s where the roundabout at Library Avenue came in, providing a bookend effect with the circle at the west end of Main Street.

Ensuring the undertaking was environmentally conscientious was another must. Instead of regular pavers, permeable pavers that filter the water were installed, as were LED streetlights. Special soil developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension targets tree roots, enabling them to grow downward instead of out, Moore explained. Hydrodynamic separators filter rain runoff before it gets to the canal. “We tried to be conscientious about every aspect of the project,” Moore said.

Early on during discussions of the Main Street revitalization, officials looked at other, more walkable villages like Greenport and Sag Harbor, and said the mayor, “It always came down to the sewer. You need a sewer if you want more restaurants.”

Fortunate and wise, the village hired a professional grant writer, who pursued funding from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Facilities Corporation as well as the Community Preservation Fund’s water quality program, which commenced just as the project was getting underway. They were awarded $14 million in grants for the $16 million sewer project. Officials used surplus funds to create a reserve fund for it, as well. “Because we had that and the plans that we developed, we were eligible for the grants,” Moore said.

Another stroke of luck: The sewage treatment plant at Suffolk County’s Gabreski Airport was underutilized. The village agreed to upgrade the plant if they could hook in.

In terms of recruiting new businesses and allowing existing businesses to expand, Hammond explained, “Nothing could happen without the sewer.” Health Department sanitary rules were a limiting factor. For Hammond, once existing businesses join the system, there may be room for some expansion. He qualified, “It’s not really true to say it’s wide open and anyone can do anything, because we have to abide by the amount of flow that we can send.”

There’s another facet to the sewer project: the need to ensure the quality of local water bodies, like Quantuck Canal, which have been on the DEC “impaired” list, and Moniebogue Bay.

“You could already see a difference down at the canal. I see fish popping up now, so it’s already working,” Moore said.

The improvement to impaired waterways is an upside for local residents. And for businesses? “It’s not cheap to pump cesspools every five minutes,” Brunetti said. “I’m really looking forward to not having that bill.” He said he can spend as much as $7,000 per year getting his cesspool pumped.

Looking ahead, Moore notes how the revitalization has sparked development. “People are showing confidence in the village,” she said — opening new businesses in locations that have been vacant.

Next up, officials plan to take a comprehensive look at properties along the water to identify future projects, like bike paths and floating piers, and addressing flooding at Palm Point.

Parking is a conundrum.

Audience member Joe Musnicki of Ocean Bay Hot Tubs and Saunas asked whether a new strategy for adding parking might be in the works. Other villages have gone to paid parking, but Moore felt, “It doesn’t seem very friendly.”

This summer, the village plans to embark on a pilot program using handheld meters to gauge how much time a car spends in a spot in order to enforce Main Street’s two-hour parking limits.

As the discussion wound to a close, audience member Aimee Fitzpatrick Martin from Saunders and Associates offered input and praise from a real estate professional’s point of view.

“I think people have finally discovered Westhampton,” she said. “Everything you’ve done has really helped that.”