Nearly 20 years after it acquired an overgrown lot located at 51 Vail Avenue in Riverside, the Southampton Town Board signed off on a transfer of the property to the Town of Southampton Housing Authority during Tuesday’s evening Town Board meeting.
That property would be developed with housing for low-moderate or middle-income households, as part of the town’s ongoing effort to stem a growing affordable housing crisis.
The board took similar action Tuesday night with a property at 57 Old Quogue Road in Riverside, which it acquired in 2006, as it passed a resolution that will “seek to create new affordable and workforce housing” at that site. The board voted to transfer title to that lot to the Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity of Long Island.
Also on the affordable housing front, the board voted to accept a Final Environmental Impact Statement prepared in connection with an ambitious proposal to build dozens of units of affordable rental units at 670 Montauk Highway and 107 South Country Road.
In encouraging the board to accept the FEIS prepared by the NRP Group’s proposal for “The Preserve at South Country Road” development on Quiogue, Town Planning and Development Administrator Janice Scherer noted that the applicant had agreed to scale back its original plan for 104 affordable housing units down to 78, leaving “at least” 25 percent as open space, and had also said it would set aside another 4 acres of woodland that the town might acquire through the Community Preservation Fund or another mechanism, such as an environmental easement.
Enforcement Action Encouraged
The Town Board held a public hearing Tuesday on three Flanders and Riverside properties that have fallen into disrepair, including a building at 56 Cypress Avenue whose owner has already racked up $122,000 in fines levied by Southampton Town Justice Court, and a property at 229 Flanders Road that has fallen into disrepair.
Angela Huneault, president of the Flanders, Riverside & Northampton Community Association, encouraged the board to take enforcement action on those two properties. The board also considered enforcement action at the abandoned gas station at 11 Flanders Road, along the roundabout, that is in the midst of a town review that would see a new 7-Eleven built there.
The owner of that plot has applied for a demolition permit from the town, and the board moved to keep the public hearing open as it awaits anticipated action at that site.
North Sea Solar Plan Discussed
The Town Board also heard from the developer of a proposed solar array at the site of the old North Sea Landfill in Noyac on Tuesday, as that project moves forward with a possible groundbreaking in late October or early November, pending a couple of permitting sign-offs from the State Department of Environmental Conservation and final approval from the town’s Planning Department, Building Department, and fire marshal.
The landfill contains both a Superfund site and a traditional landfill that has been capped.
Dan Voss from Kearsarge Energy told the board that when fully developed, the site will house 12,000 or more solar panels and would generate 4.94 megawatts of power at peak capacity. The solar panels, he said, are cutting-edge products generating 550 watts and utilizing “bifacial panels” that take in the sun’s rays on each side of the panel.
Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman wondered if there were issues with putting a big solar array on a capped landfill but Voss said there was “no issue with the integrity of the cap.”
The North Sea Solar hearing was the fourth public hearing on the proposal and the board moved to close the oral part of the hearing but keep the written record open for another two weeks to solicit any further comments or concerns from town agencies.
CCA Fans Urge Board To Stay the Course
Supporters of so-called “community choice aggregation” for utility consumers urged the Town Board to follow through on its pledge to create a CCA locally and choose a renewable energy provider when it decides next month on who is going to be the “default power supply” provider.
CCAs allows consumers to chose where their energy source is coming from and would be automatically opted-in to the local CCA. They could “opt out” if, say, the promise of cleaner and cheaper energy is not realized.
Longtime community activist Mary Ann Eddy of Sag Harbor praised the town for “being the first to cross the line on CCA” on Long Island and said it was something the town should be proud of.
“People are impressed — you are an example,” she said, echoing comments from town resident Sheila Pfeiffer, who highlighted the climate change urgency and the town’s push to end its reliance on fossil fuels. “You have already recognized this and are something of a leader in supporting sustainable solutions to climate change.”
There was a moment of CCA pushback at the meeting when Ray D’Angelo, vice president of the Hampton Bays Civic Association, noted that a pilot CCA in Westchester that is often highlighted by proponents had been seeing lots of people opting out after consumers faced a 25 percent hike in their electricity rates.
Teslas Coming For Town Officials
Following a request for proposals earlier this year, the board voted to purchase three all electric Tesla cars on Tuesday as it signed a one-year contract with Tesla Electric Vehicles that it could renew on a year-to-year basis.
The RFP drew two bids that were released to the public in mid-September: North Shore Chevrolet/Chevrolet of Smithtown said it could provide the three vehicles to the town for $179,982, whereas Tesla Inc. bid $125,670 and nabbed the contract. The enacting resolution made no mention of who would actually get to drive the cars.
The purchase of the Tesla electric cars directly from the company comes as the town is in the midst of considering a proposal that would see a Tesla dealership open on 54 Montauk Highway, currently the home of the Collette Home Pop Up furnishings store.
