Developer to Attempt Gateway Redesign
Following a hearing last month that made it clear plans for the Bridgehampton Gateway project did not meet community or Southampton Town approval, the developer has agreed to redesign the project.
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said the town board was prepared to pay for a consultant to take another look at a proposal for a planned development district across from the Bridgehampton Commons, where a Carvel now sits. The project is different in that the town initiated the proposal, not the property owner, Konner Development, a Bridgehampton firm run by Carol Konner and her son, Greg. “She really wanted to take a crack at it,” Mr. Schneiderman said Tuesday.
The board had been considering a zone change for the 13.3-acre property to allow for a mixed-use complex that would have 90,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, including a fitness center, restaurant, a furniture store, and 30 residential units.
Mr. Schneiderman met with Ms. Konner on March 2 to go over the community concerns, which include the scale of the mixed-use proposal, traffic, and the environmental impacts it could have on neighboring Kellis Pond. He said he wants to see “an overall project that isn’t as massive as what the town proposed and had more in it for the community.”
“She said she heard, as well, what people were saying,” he told the town board during a work session last Thursday.
He has asked for a reduction of the square footage of the commercial buildings. While the developer could build 90,000 square feet of commercial space under the current hamlet business zoning, the zone change is necessary to include a mix of retail and residential uses. Mr. Schneiderman said he did not feel it was fair to allow the zone change and allow the maximum build-out on commercial space.
On the residential side, Mr. Schneiderman asked Ms. Konner to eliminate all eight of the market-rate condominiums and reduce the affordable housing component by one-third to 20 apartments, above the scaled-back commercial spaces. Part of a planned development district requires that there be a community benefit, and while affordable housing is sorely needed, Mr. Schneiderman said, “I could not argue how it was a community benefit to have market-rate when we have it everywhere.”
The community green, which in the town’s plans was to be a one-acre space in front of the buildings, will likely be moved. The supervisor said it should not be surrounded by the commercial element. He would like to see it connected to Kellis Pond with a more defined park space around it in some way. He also wants it to feel like it belongs to the community. “It might involve a gift of some sort,” he said.
Ms. Konner said she would also make one of the commercial spaces “affordable” for a local business. She plans to finance some 3-D imaging of what the project would look like. The next public hearing on it had been scheduled for late April, though it may have to be adjourned to allow Ms. Konner more time to revise the plans.
If the updated proposal does not meet with the board’s satisfaction, the town can still bring in a consultant. “I think at the end of the day we can change it all we want. It’s our project, but if the owners are not interested in developing that way, we’ve gotten nowhere,” Mr. Schneiderman told the board. “There has to be a balance between the community, the town, and the developer.” Ms. Konner did not return a call for comment.