Hamlet Studies: Residents First

East Hampton Town has begun work on a set of so-called hamlet studies. Six in all, they are supposed to result in recommendations for the town’s commercial areas. The objective is to produce a document that will guide future land-use decisions and allow commerce to function while avoiding sprawl and other negative effects of growth. So far, the effort has consisted of forums at which interested residents have weighed in. These have been worthwhile, but we worry that the planners are missing a key element: the nature of the town itself.

In a statement of goals for the studies, the town and its consultants have evinced a fundamental misunderstanding of the local business environment. In materials provided at the forums, references are made to a “thriving tourist economy” and to East Hampton as a “premier international resort community.” We are troubled by these characterizations.

The greatest irritations to year-round and summer residents alike in recent years have come from transient visitors and the businesses that cater to them. These give very little back to the community, both in social terms and in terms of dollars, and yet the costs they engender are high. It is no longer correct to call a community with a majority of second homes a resort, international or otherwise.

Unlike the hamlet studies organizers, it is our belief that the truly important commercial activity within East Hampton Town is related to houses, landscaping, and people who spend a meaningful amount of time here. The so-called resort economy, by contrast, is dominated by seasonal businesses whose suppliers and work force are from away, and whose profits flow to distant corporate offices. Meanwhile, ordinary residents are left to deal with noise, litter, traffic, and a good hunk of the costs, through taxes, of cleaning up the messes and law enforcement.

Public meetings are to start in late May at which the hamlet studies will begin to take shape. Before that happens, town officials and the consulting firm must think long and hard about what kind of community this really is and in whose interest the forthcoming recommendations should be. 

For our dollar, the answer is that residents and people who make long-term commitments to this place must come first. The indifferent, extractive tourist industry cannot be allowed to lead the discussion without a full accounting of its real impacts and, as we see it, minimal benefits.