The candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and seats on the town board squared off at the East Hampton Library on Oct. 16 in their final debate before the Nov. 5 election, this one sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons.
Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and his challenger, David Gruber, sparred over topics including climate change, affordable housing, water contamination, noise related to East Hampton Airport, and cellphone service and emergency communications.
Mr. Gruber repeatedly pointed to Mr. Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby’s eight years on the town board, and six in which they were in the majority, to portray a town government that is “stuck because of partisan politics.” He continued to attack the board using the comprehensive plan’s assessment, 15 years ago, that 1,300 units of affordable housing were needed to address a shortage.
“In the intervening 15 years, we will have built only 150,” he said. “In the last eight years, we’ve built 20.”
The board, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, has passed legislation allowing detached apartments on more properties, within residences, and above stores. “Ultimately, we have to continue to subsidize existing housing,” he said.
A bill that passed the State Senate and Assembly that would allow a 0.5-percent transfer tax to create a fund for housing was a step forward, he said. “It’s important to help people buy homes in existing neighborhoods,” he said, rather than build three-story apartment buildings, as Mr. Gruber has proposed. Such development “destroys the character of the town,” he said.
“If we stick to one house, one lot, we will never have a solution,” Mr. Gruber countered. “The supervisor says we’ll build or buy unaffordable housing and then subsidize it. That will cost $700 or $800 million to reach the 1,300-units goal. We don’t have that.” Even if the 0.5-percent transfer tax becomes law, “we will never come close. We need to recognize economic reality.” That, he said, means building housing in an affordable way, and that means building it more densely.
That strategy to address housing needs, Mr. Gruber said, dovetails with the water issue. “Denser housing is greener housing. If you build more density, you can afford septic treatment that is absurdly unaffordable on a one-house, one-lot basis.”
Density is necessary in building affordable housing, Mr. Van Scoyoc agreed, “but I don’t think we can build our way out of the problem. And it has to be subsidized.” The 37-unit development under construction in Amagansett will have its own wastewater treatment system, and the town has encouraged residents to upgrade septic systems through increased financial incentives. The town leads Suffolk County in per capita installation of innovative alternative septic systems, he said.
“The supervisor said we won’t build our way out,” Mr. Gruber said. “I disagree. The only way we’re going to solve housing is by building housing that’s affordable, if we take land prices out of the equation.” Densely positioned housing units could reduce the cost to $200 per square foot, he said, allowing studio apartments at just $600 per month. “We can do this, we just refuse to,” he said. “And it’s time we did.”
Both candidates agreed that airport-related noise represents a quality-of-life issue. “The town’s plan is to play chicken with the [Federal Aviation Administration],” Mr. Gruber said. “They think if we threaten to close or close it, the F.A.A. will fold its cards. That can’t happen.” A Part 161 study initiated by the town — an analysis that must be completed in order to propose and enact noise or operational restrictions on aircraft — is “stalled,” he said. “We have to do that study.”
“We’ve worked very hard to resolve this problem, to gain control” of the airport, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, including taking the town’s case to the Supreme Court. “We’ve exhausted every judicial means” of addressing the problem. Absent a successful Part 161 process, which has never succeeded when employed previously, or legislative action by Congress, the town will have to wait until the expiration of federal grant assurances in 2021 to assert control and enact restrictions, he said.
The town has added three new communications tower sites, in Springs, Northwest Woods, and Montauk, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, which will provide increased cellphone coverage. “We have been working actively for that,” he said, adding that there are a number of new cellphone-related applications under the planning board’s review.
This, Mr. Gruber, said, was “a perfect example of town government being stuck.” Cellphone communication was also identified in the comprehensive plan as a top issue. “In the intervening 15 years, essentially nothing has been done to solve the problem of cellphone communication.” He said that the issue caught the board’s attention only when the Springs fire commissioners warned of dangerous gaps in their emergency communications system.
Mr. Van Scoyoc complained that his opponent continually mischaracterizes events and misleads the public. The Springs Fire Department tower was meant only for cellular use and was built as a revenue source, he said; for emergency communications, it would have to be 30 feet taller. “Yes, they did opt out,” he said of the fire district’s exclusion from the town’s emergency communication network.
The claim that the tower was not engineered for emergency communication “is just false,” Mr. Gruber said. “Most of the problems we’ve been talking about,” he said in his closing statement, “have technical solutions.” The town board has been unable to accomplish its goals while the incumbents have been in the majority on the board, he said. “I know they can be solved,” he said of the town’s problems. “I know how to solve them.”
Mr. Van Scoyoc told the gathering that he has “worked very, very hard to address these many difficult issues. We’ve taken them head-on and made a lot of progress on them. These aren’t simple questions we can solve overnight. A lot of them were a long time coming. . . . We are actively addressing them.”
The town, he noted, went from a $27 million deficit to $40 million in reserve, and its tentative 2020 budget remains below the tax cap. “That shows responsibility,” he said.
The portion of the debate devoted to candidates for town board will be summarized in next week’s issue of The Star.