Montauk Lot Preserved

The East Hampton Town Board agreed last Thursday to pay $125,000 toward the $550,000 purchase of a 2.9 acre oceanfront lot in Montauk owned by James Kollegger. The Nature Conservancy will contribute the rest.

The Kollegger property is in the moorlands of Montauk on Deforest Road and adjoins the historic Montauk Association properties.

The Town Zoning Board of Appeals had twice denied Mr. Kollegger's development proposals for the land, largely on environmental grounds. Neighboring property owners in the Montauk Association opposed his application for several variances to build a 3,474 square-foot house on the land.

Neighbors Kicked In

A group of them, including Dick Cavett and his wife, Carrie Nye, Marshall and Nina Brickman, Roberta Gosman Donovan, Michael and Jane Hoffman, and Walter and Eva Iooss, worked with the Nature Conservancy, and later the town, on a plan to purchase the environmentally sensitive property from Mr. Kollegger. According to Paul Rabinovitch of the Conservancy the neighbors donated more than $200,000 to the Conservancy for this purchase.

The oceanfront land was valued at significantly more than $550,000. Mr. Kollegger will claim the difference between the purchase price and his appraisal as a charitable contribution.

In April, the Nature Conservancy bought the Sanctuary, a 339-acre parcel nearby. The Conservancy eventually hopes to preserve a greenbelt that would run all the way from the preserved land on the ocean to the Andy Warhol Preserve and the Sanctuary.