North Sea Sidewalk Opponents Urge Town Board To Intervene, While Legislator Bridget Fleming Urges Patience

While opposition to a Suffolk County plan to craft sidewalks along North Sea Road has continued in recent weeks, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming said this week that it is not universally true that the community opposes sidewalks.

“There are a lot of voices,” she said, noting that not all oppose the safety measure.

Overall, the lawmaker emphasized that it’s unfair to voice adamant opposition to the project while it’s still in the planning stages.

The Suffolk County Department of Public Works, she said, has reached out to stakeholders, and she was encouraged by a meeting held on May 18 with area business owners and emergency responders.

Fire department officials asked her for sidewalks a year ago, she said.

Participants in the meeting were able to look at an aerial map of the road and point out areas of concern.

The project has many components, the lawmaker pointed out. “And they’re all important and they’re all complex,” she said.

Beyond the sidewalks and curb cuts along a 2.2-mile stretch of the road, much-needed resurfacing is planned, as well as critical drainage improvements.

Fleming pointed to the recent project along Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs as an example of similar work. It was “really successful,” she said, and, “took a lot of back-and-forth with the community.”

“Public Works did a really good job, interacting with the community and with the town,” she related. “We’ve gotten lots of good feedback about it.”

The legislator expects the same to occur with North Sea Road, but cautioned repeatedly that the project is in its earliest planning stages. It’s too soon to say whether sidewalks are a good or bad idea, Fleming continued. They are appropriate in some areas. Opponents jumped in before there’s a solid plan, she said.

Fleming said she is confident DPW officials are committed to finding solutions, listening to business owners, emergency services providers and the community and coming up with a great project.

She expects to see community outreach, as well as outreach to Southampton Town officials. The project has “tons of components,” Fleming said, “And we’re trying to address some of the specific components piece by piece.”

A contingent of opponents voiced their concerns piece by piece, appearing before the Southampton Town Board during its last regular meeting on May 23.

Community members Myron Holtz, Sheila Comparetto, Perry Guillot and Stephanie McNamara all signed up to address the board that night.

McNamara, chairwoman of the North Sea Citizens Advisory Committee, supports the repaving of the road — it’s something the CAC has been requesting for years. The committee had been told the Suffolk County Department of Public Works would advise them when the work was planned. But, she said, “All of a sudden, we see this sign and they come in and tell us, ‘This is what we’re doing to your community.’ Our community does not want or need sidewalks. We never asked for that.”

Supervisor Jay Schneiderman was sympathetic and promised to reach out to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.

“Obviously, it’s not the town’s initiative,” Schneiderman emphasized. “I haven’t heard anyone say they want sidewalks there. Nobody needs sidewalks, nobody walks there. Everybody wants that road repaved.”

Schneiderman was on the County Legislature when it passed its “Complete Streets” program. Although DPW officials told community members during an informational meeting earlier this spring that the program requires the construction of sidewalks, CAC members researched the law and learned it contains a provision that says they are not mandated.

What would be mandated — and unfunded — according to Holtz, is town maintenance of any sidewalks. The county would build them and then town staff would have to take care of them. Over time, they may even add street lights, Holtz speculated. How does that comport with the town’s Dark Sky laws, he wondered.

Leaving the podium, he held up a sign that read “Please say no to sidewalks,” and told the board, “You have the power to do that, because they won’t listen to us.”

The hamlet’s small business district, and the impact sidewalks and curb cuts would have on it, has been a repeated argument. One new business was required to install sidewalks, McNamara informed, and workers park on “what little shoulder there is.” When they open their car doors, she continued, “ they’re opening it into traffic. That’s what all of North Sea Road is going to be like if you allow this to happen.”

Another speaker, Gurcan Akis, has an auto mechanic shop on North Sea Road. If the project moves ahead, he said he would have to close down. There’s no way a tow truck could negotiate the undersized access curb cuts would mean, his wife, Vanu, predicted. Installing the sidewalks will eliminate available parking and badly hurt the business district, Sheila Comparetto said.

North Sea Road is “a throwback road and it’s lovely” Perry Guillot said. In fact, he said it dates back to the time of the settlement of the town. New arrivals in the 1640s would traverse what was then an Indian trail, he said, noting North Sea Road is the oldest road on Long Island.

“It’s the essence of what Southampton and our community feels like,” Guillot asserted. For nearly 300 years the road existed in its “lovely serendipity,” the community resident said. It doesn’t physically lend itself to expansion and seems like an overreach by the county.

Echoing the argument that sidewalks would have a negative impact on the community’s rural character, McNamara said, “We live in the country, and that’s how we’d like it to remain. We are asking the Town Board to support the North Sea community and our way of life.”

Suffolk is a big county and not all of it is the same, Schneiderman pointed out, there are a lot of very suburban areas.

“We’re not suburban, we’re rural,” he said, noting the Complete Streets legislation allows, “If there’s community opposition, you don’t do it.”

“Don’t give up,” he urged. “I don’t think they’re going to cram anything down the community’s throat.”

He and Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, the CAC liaison, will be reaching out to county officials.

Community members learned details of proposed improvements to North Sea Road during a March 28 informational Zoom hosted by the county. The county plans to embark on a $16.5 million effort to resurface North Sea Road. In its initial form, the project includes crafting continuous shoulders, sidewalks and curbing running from County Road 39 to Millstone Brook Road, where county jurisdiction ends, plus drainage improvements, traffic signal improvements, and rumble strips.

The idea of repaving North Sea Road and improving drainage at Alewife Creek met with support. Construction of the 2-plus miles of sidewalks and curb cuts has been a sticking point. The project is slated to run from fall 2024 to fall 2025.

Fleming said town officials are in regular contact with county officials. The planning stages include interaction with the town and with the community, she stressed.

“And if people want to come out and say, from the very start, that they’re opposed to any of it,” she said, “then it’s difficult to have the conversations.”