Don’t Let Things Get Worse: Consultants

The commercial areas of Amagansett and East Hampton outside the incorporated village were in the spotlight when residents met in discussion and hands-on design sessions with planning consultants last week. Following similar meetings that concentrated on Wainscott and Springs, Harry Dodson and Peter Flinker of Dodson and Flinker, a firm hired by the East Hampton Town Board, Lisa Liquori, an independent planner who was East Hampton’s planning director in the 1980s, and traffic and economic planning consultants led residents in walking tours and workshops from last Thursday through Saturday.

The town’s comprehensive plan, a blueprint updated in 2005 that addressed overall zoning and land preservation, had called for additional studies to home in on the town’s hamlet centers so that new laws and policies could shape how what are considered their downtowns would be allowed to change over time.

During one of the sessions last week, Mr. Flinker said the consultants had been hearing, overall, that residents don’t want to see more development or traffic. The key, he said, is to achieve balance between “allowing for appropriate growth,” shaping the future of what is already here and setting conditions in place for it to change in desirable ways over time, and not doing anything to destroy what’s cherished.

“If this was going to change —  and certainly it’s going to change over time — we want to guide it in some way,” he said.

Those who have taken part in the hamlet sessions have focused generally on creating or maintaining a village ambience in the hamlets even if Montauk Highway runs through them, as it does in Amagansett and Wainscott. In Mr. Dodson’s view, by setting standards the town can foster areas that have “pedestrian amenities . . . pleasant places to be.”

Among the goals discussed for all of the hamlets were enhanced transportation and traffic safety, for pedestrians and bicycles as well as vehicles, and identifying services and amenities desired by the community and then suggesting ways in which the town might help maintain or achieve them. New regulations governing private property and town actions, such as designating parkland, were mentioned.

With plans for such things as access roads behind commercial buildings, which would be set back and screened from the road by trees and bushes, “walkable centers that feel like they are a natural part of a historic town like East Hampton,” can be created, Mr. Dodson said last week.

  “Not doing anything would just allow the current trends to continue, and it will get worse,” Mr. Dodson said. “Instead of just waiting for things to happen to you, it’s so important to solve these problems of affordability, to solve these problems of traffic, of having businesses to serve year-round locals. Change —  especially if it’s change that you control, can be very positive,” he said. “New development can be a tool to address the needs of the community. It doesn’t have to be ugly. It can fit in with the historic character of the town.”

“We want to make sure that the plan reflects your concerns, and isn’t something that’s imposed from outside. You need to take control — which is what tonight is all about,” Mr. Flinker told a group of residents.

According to Mr. Dodson, there’s a high potential for future development in the hamlet of East Hampton outside of the incorporated village. More than 900 housing units could be created in the hamlet under current zoning, he said. With an average of 16,000 vehicle trips per day, the North Main Street area is second only to the Montauk Highway in Wainscott in traffic.

East Hampton beyond the incorporated village is also second only to Springs in population density; a third of its land mass is preserved, the largest block of preserved farmland in the town. 

Discussion also centered on potential changes to traffic patterns along North Main Street to relieve congestion, on the possible future commercial use of the former Stern’s department store site on Pantigo Road, and on the use of the Bistrian mining pit on Springs-Fireplace Road at some time in the future after the sand extraction that takes place there is exhausted. That area has the potential to provide a mix of parkland, housing, and space for local businesses, the consultants said.

As for Amagansett, the consultants said 11 percent of the land is still vacant and subject to development under current zoning. The hamlet has 2,500 residences, fewer than almost every other hamlet in the town, and only 24 percent are year-round residences, Mr. Dodson said. An additional 403 houses could be built. It was noted that the farmland behind the municipal parking lot on the north side of Amagansett’s Main Street is not preserved and is zoned for two-acre house lots

Some of the Amagansett discussion centered on the future of the eastern part of the hamlet along the Montauk Highway. This included the potential for redevelopment of the IGA shopping area, and the inclusion of affordable housing above stores. One group listed new businesses residents would like to see: a variety store, drugstore, dry cleaner, hair and nail salon, hardware store, shoe repair, and bank.

But Michael Cinque, the owner of a liquor store in the center of Amagansett’s downtown, said the hamlet’s central Main Street should be the focus of planning efforts “instead of creating an ‘Amagansett A’ and ‘Amagansett B.’ ”

To ease traffic and beautify the area near the Amagansett train station — perhaps also screening the unsightly new power substation built by PSEG — there was a suggestion to reconfigure the end of Old Stone Highway and its railroad crossing, creating a right-angle intersection with Montauk Highway and eliminating the Y-shaped jog motorists must take to get on and off the highway. A planted expanse was suggested there.

 Also last week, Russell Archambault of RKG Associates, the economic consultant for the hamlet studies effort, surveyed year-round residents during a number of focus group sessions, polling them on positive and negative factors of life here, shopping patterns and preferences, and priorities for economic development.

The consultants will return in the fall for sessions on the last of the hamlets to be studied — Montauk. In the interim, they will draft plans to be considered by the public and town officials for the four hamlets already studied.