Closer to Lazy Point Deal

The East Hampton Town Trustees and homeowners on trustee-managed land at Lazy Point in Amagansett are moving toward an agreement under which residents’ annual leases would rise by 10 percent this year, far below the trustees’ initial proposal of a fourfold increase, and there would be a doubling of the transfer fee, levied when a house is sold, to 4 percent.

A meeting between a subcommittee of trustees and representatives of the Lazy Point community, who own their houses but not the land on which they sit, was “positive,” said Rick Drew, who is serving as a spokesman for the lessees.

At the trustees’ Feb. 10 meeting, a lengthy and contentious discussion at which residents packed the trustees’ meeting room at the Lamb Building in Amagansett, Mr. Drew had implored the trustees to assess only a modest fee increase for the coming year and devote more time later in the year to developing a long-term framework for those increases, which the trustees consider essential to reflect both the services they provide the public and the land’s value.

On Tuesday, the trustees voted 7 to 1 in favor of amendments to the lease rules and regulations, which must be provided to the lessees and public at least 30 days prior to the April 29 expiration of the existing leases. The 10-percent increase would mean a $1,650 annual fee. Residents occupying a portion of a second lot must also pay a proportional share for that property.

The rules and regulations were also amended so that any sublease of a house must include the name and mailing address of the subtenant. The amended rules and regulations are effective April 14.

Still to be determined is a storage fee for boats or other property on vacant trustee-managed land, which would run concurrently with leases. Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, said that small boats can be kept next to residents’ houses, but the “one or two really huge boats” she saw there should either be in the water or stored at a marina. “This board would like to get a handle on what’s being stored on the vacant properties and who’s storing it,” she said. A storage fee of $15 per foot was fair, the trustees said.

A trustee subcommittee and residents’ representatives agreed to meet on March 17 for further discussion of lease terms.

“The relationship is much improved,” one resident summarized at Tuesday’s meeting. If the two groups devote sufficient time this year to negotiating a long-term framework for incremental fee increases, he said, “hopefully we’ll be done before the holidays.”

“It’s an effort,” Ms. McNally said of the negotiations. “Like a marriage,” she said, to laughter.