Hamlet Studies Coming

Detailed studies of East Hampton Town’s various hamlets are to be commissioned by the town board in an effort to plan for future development or preservation in accordance with the comprehensive plan.

A draft outline of studies for Wainscott, Springs, East Hampton, Amagansett, and the downtown and dock areas of Montauk is being developed by the Planning Department. It will provide the basis of a request for proposals from professional planning consultants for the studies. Their full scope will take shape during the course of the consultants’ work, which is to include discussions with the public about concerns and visions for the individual hamlets.

According to the draft outline, the studies will cover existing environmental, zoning, land use, and traffic conditions, and each hamlet’s design. They are then to take a look at these matters with regard to future development, as well as recreation and open space, providing for pedestrian and bicycle access, and public transportation.

While the town comprehensive plan, last updated in 2005, contains overall goals for the separate areas of town, it calls for more detailed studies to pinpoint goals for each hamlet.

“The hamlet studies need to fit into the overall comprehensive plan,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a May 19 town board work session. “We’re drilling down into the specific kinds of planning issues within each hamlet — all kinds of detail. This is a chance to really get into the nitty-gritty.”

For instance, according to a draft prepared by Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town’s planning director, the Springs study might include a look at how the hamlet’s isolated pockets of commercial development serve residents and “what is needed for them to thrive without growing too much for the community or destroying the character of the community.”

In Montauk, planning for the future of the downtown area would include an examination of parking, including needs at the beaches and the difference between nighttime and daytime parking demand. The study of the dock area could address improving public access to the waterfront and the potential there for affordable housing. 

Criteria for a planning study of the town’s economy and business needs, which would dovetail with the hamlet studies, have also been under discussion, following recommendations made to the board by an appointed committee earlier this year.