More Parking by Next Year
An expansion of Amagansett’s municipal parking lot could happen before next summer, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell told members of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday.
Mr. Cantwell, the committee’s liaison to the town board, said that the town would complete the purchase of one of two parcels this year and close on the other parcel in 2017. The land — two and a half acres of largely open space — is adjacent to the existing municipal lot, which is often filled to capacity in summer. Last month, the town board approved the purchase of the parcels owned by Herbert and Tom Field, both members of the advisory committee, for $1.1 million and $1.8 million.
“We have hired an engineer to give us assistance to design a proposed parking lot on a portion of that property,” Mr. Cantwell said, “and to come up with some designs for using part of it for a park.” The goal, he said, is for the parking lot portion to be completed by next summer. The expansion would add around 80 spaces, or 50 percent of the existing lot’s capacity.
Little else pertaining to the hamlet was discussed at the brief and sparsely attended meeting, held on Columbus Day. Mr. Cantwell told the gathering that work has commenced at the PSEG-Long Island electrical substation at the corner of Abram’s Landing Road and Old Stone Highway.
A long project to upgrade the electricity transmission line has rankled Amagansett residents, with much of the vegetation around the substation stripped in 2013. A chain-link fence and the installation within that enclosure have remained highly visible to passers-by.
Before the revegetation plan can be implemented, temporary poles must be removed. That removal has begun, Mr. Cantwell said. As reported here last week, landscaping is to begin no later than Nov. 1. The utility has pledged that lighting at the installation will also be changed, Mr. Cantwell said, “to something more dark-sky-compatible.”
Construction of the public restrooms in the municipal parking lot was to resume three weeks ago, Mr. Cantwell said. The long-awaited restrooms, for which ground was broken earlier this year, are nearly completed but construction was halted during the summer, when the lot was most active. The supervisor promised to investigate the delay.
Mr. Cantwell encouraged residents to attend the town board’s work session on Tuesday, at which officials from Southampton Hospital are to present their plans to build a stand-alone emergency room building in the town. The board, he said, will also report on a preliminary review of where it could be located, with sites on Pantigo Place and Stephen Hand’s Path under consideration.