The public weighed in on a proposal from the Peconic Land Trust to build a more than 4,100-square-foot barn on Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett at an East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on Sept. 11.
The 30-acre property, which is bordered on three sides by Old Stone Highway, Side Hill Road, and Deep Lane, is on land that was donated to the Peconic Land Trust in 1989 by Deborah Ann Light.
The one-and-a-half-story barn would be used to store farm equipment and would contain an office and a bathroom for which a nitrogen-reducing septic system would be installed.
When the board initially discussed the proposal in February, Richard Whalen, a lawyer for the land trust, said the farm, which has never had a barn, had sought to build a 2,800-square-foot one on the property in 2017. The board had approved the project, he said, but the land trust withdrew the application after a neighbor to the north, who was unhappy with the barn’s proximity to his property, filed a lawsuit seeking to have the approval overturned.
The site plan now calls for the barn to be placed farther south on the farm, and within the property’s agricultural easement. Only structures that have an agricultural purpose are allowed to be built within the easement.
Richard Schwag, the neighbor who filed the 2017 lawsuit, and Jennifer Juengst, his attorney, objected to the new location during the public hearing.
“It’s our position that this is a modern barn, and it is antithetical to the very intent and the expressed terms of the easements, covenants, and restrictions that were placed on this property by the prior owner, Deborah Light,” said Ms. Juengst, who submitted an eight-page letter to the board detailing her client’s opposition.
The easement prohibits the installation of a septic system, she said, and construction of that and the barn “will disturb a significant portion of the easement by permanent destruction of the topsoil beneath the structures,” she said.
Ms. Juengst questioned whether agricultural work was being conducted on the property and contended that “the bulk of the . . . growing and harvesting by the trust is occurring across Deep Lane on a separate, large parcel of cleared, flat, agricultural land.”
She also objected to the farm’s construction and use of an access road to Deep Lane, which she said had caused the destruction of topsoil, and poses a safety hazard.
Farm vehicles are driven from that road onto Deep Lane to reach the other agricultural lot, she said, and members of the farm’s community-supported agriculture program park their cars near that access point, thus obstructing sight lines and making it dangerous for pedestrians or farm workers to cross the road.
“Just to be clear, this application has nothing to do with a farm road,” Mr. Whalen said in response.
Furthermore, he said, “agriculture occurs on this property.” Crops are planted in the larger area of fields west of Deep Lane and in a smaller field east of Deep Lane.
The land trust and Mr. Schwag had bought their properties on the same day, he said. “Her client knew at the time . . . that the Peconic Land Trust would be owning this land, and operating it for agricultural purposes.”
As for Ms. Juengst’s claim that the easement bars the construction of septic systems, and the removal of topsoil, Mr. Whalen pointed out that those prohibitions do not apply to structures that are, in the words of the easement, “reasonably necessary for” and “in aid of agricultural operations and activities.”
“We need equipment, we need machinery, we need vehicles, we use them on the property, it’s certainly reasonably necessary at this time for the land trust to build a barn,” he said.
Scott Chaskey, the farm’s outgoing director, who has been farming at Quail Hill for nearly 30 years, said that in addition to serving 250 local families, the farm has been an agricultural training ground. “I’ve had 150 or more apprentices over the years,” he said.
In response to the notion that the barn would violate the easement Ms. Light had put in place, he said, “I take great offense at anyone trying to tell me what Deborah Light prefers,” he said. “Deborah Light loved what we were doing, and I revered her.”
Susan Malfa, a member of the farm’s C.S.A., and several people associated with the land trust and Quail Hill asked the board to approve the application. “For the sake of the community farm, for the sake of the future of agriculture on the South Fork, please support this proposal,” said Layton Guenther, a director at Quail Hill.
Robert Rosenbaum, a real estate agent who said he has been unsuccessfully trying to either sell or rent Mr. Schwag’s house for years, objected to the barn because of the amount of traffic the farm brings to Deep Lane.
The hearing ended after Mr. Schwag offered his thoughts on the proposal. “I think we should have a barn,” he said. “My only problem is, I don’t like the location where you’re putting it. I think it would be a lot safer if you put it across the street, and you should abide by the easement.”