Field of Broken Dreams
The center of Amagansett, and how it will look in the future, is in the spotlight as East Hampton Town moves forward with a plan to expand the hamlet’s municipal parking lot.
The town board will hold a hearing tonight at 6:30 on the purchase of two parcels adjacent to the lot to expand it to the east, but questions remain about 30 acres of farmland north of the lot and extending to the east and west, which is owned by the Bistrian family.
The announcement last week that the family wants to begin developing the land has a number of residents concerned. It comes after years of their unsuccessful attempts to sell the land to the town, and includes a demand that the town make good on a 1970 agreement to create a public road extending from the parking lot north, in an L-shape, to Windmill Lane. The road would create access to two landlocked lots.
An online petition begun by a group of Windmill Lane neighbors, titled Save Our Farmland Amagansett, has been posted on gopetition.com. It calls on both town officials and the Bistrian family to come to terms on a plan to buy and preserve the farmland acreage. Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and the town board should “disallow the housing development and associated road,” it says, and asks that Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisitions and management, “use all possible means” to secure the land. It also asks the Bistrian family, “as longstanding members of the community, to ensure their legacy as protectors of the town’s character for posterity by coming to terms with the town.”
Besides signing the petition, it asks those who are concerned to attend a Sept. 12 meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee.
Creating house lots and a road into them on the farmland will, according to the petition, “negatively impact the character of the town [by] disrupting the scenic vista”; destroy plant and animal habitats, forcing deer onto nearby property, roads, and the railroad tracks; threaten groundwater; “significantly increase traffic” on surrounding roads, and “increase the number of potential summer rentals and associated problems with mega-mansions right on top of the village.”
Scott Crowe, who bought property several years ago on Windmill Lane, which abuts the former Bistrian land deeded to the town for the unbuilt access road, said last week that the group is “not trying to antagonize any particular party . . . it’s just about balancing. A lot of people in the community are concerned about it.”
With a date of Oct. 10 outlined in the Bistrian lawyers’ letter to the town for installation of the road — and a promise that the family will install it themselves if the town does not — “I’m afraid that they’re going to show up with bulldozers,” Mr. Crowe said.
When two sides — a landowner and the town, as potential purchaser — differ greatly on the value of a parcel, as is apparently the case here, there is often little wiggle room for negotiation. Mr. Wilson explained this week that the town
cannot make an offer, even on a highly desirable piece of land, that exceeds its appraised value to any significant extent. That could open the municipality up to accusations of impropriety, he said, and bring trouble from the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies that set parameters for the appropriate use of public funds.
Expenditures from East Hampton’s community preservation fund, which could be used to make the farmland purchase, are audited yearly, and the files on every purchase, after completion, are public documents open to investigation.
When land is “appraised for X, and they want X times that,” said Mr. Wilson, it becomes something of a stalemate. Appraisers consider a number of factors when setting land value, he said, but always endeavor to pinpoint the value of acreage at its “highest and best use.”
The Bistrian land is zoned for two-acre residential lots. How many lots the acreage north of Main Street could yield depends upon their configuration and the applicability of such zoning regulations as a required 70-percent set-aside of prime farmland, minimum lot sizes, or space needed for setbacks, road access, and the like.
Besides a parcel’s ultimate yield, appraisers factor in the cost of subdivision, if necessary; of improvements, such as roads and utilities; of real estate market variables such as the market’s rate of appreciation, and of the time it could take to get to the point of sales. Those factors, considered differently by different appraisers, could result in widely varying appraisals.
The two parcels the town is considering buying for parking are owned by Herbert E. Field and Thomas F. Field. A half-acre plot zoned for commercial use has a selling price of $1.1. million and a two-acre section of a slightly larger lot has a price tag of $1.8 million. Their addresses are 263 Montauk Highway and 22 Main Street, respectively.
As the two-acre parcel includes farmland, only 30 percent of it may be used for parking; the remainder will be preserved. Accordingly, the town would pay for 30 percent of its cost from capital funds and use community preservation fund money for the remaining 70 percent.