Neighbors Buck Stable’s Request

Neighbors on Newlight Lane and West Pond Drive in Bridgehampton, backed by the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, are bucking an attempt by the owners of a private horse farm to use part of an agricultural reserve for summer stabling.

Since its certificate of occupancy was issued in 2015, Campbell Stables has added a 50-square-foot circular-roof  building with a horse “walker” inside on the northwest corner of its 17.8-acre property, and a service road. A tent with temporary stalls to house more horses popped up, landing the owners in Southampton Town Justice Court, though it has since been taken down.

The owners are seeking approval for the horse walker and the service road, as well as permission for a temporary tent to house five additional horses between June 1 and Sept. 30, prime show season on the South Fork. The tent would be erected on 2.6 acres of agricultural reserve they own to the south, on the corner of Newlight Lane and West Pond Drive. The agricultural reserve parcel would be used only as turnout pasture, with no other structures.

Several neighbors have objected because that property is not contiguous to the ranch’s 17.8 acres. The town code is silent on the matter.

“I think this is absurd,” said Marie Christodoulou, who lives on the corner of Kellis Pond Lane and Newlight Lane, right next to the 2.6-acre parcel. Using the same reasoning, she told the Southampton Town Planning Board last Thursday, someone could buy a parcel five blocks from their house and add it on to their total acreage. She was dismayed, she said, at the idea of having “horses right on top of us,” and concerned about the effect on her well water.

Larry Penny, the former director of the East Hampton’s Natural Resources Department, said he was worried about the impact on the health of Kellis Pond and Mecox Bay. He spoke on behalf of Bridgehampton Action Now, a community group. Mr. Penny, this newspaper’s nature columnist, is engaged in a study of freshwater ponds for the Southampton Town Trustees.

“I know horses are not potty-trained and they urinate on the ground, and one horse can urinate as much as 10 humans in a day, depending on how much it drinks and eats and so forth,” he said.

Mecox Bay and Kellis Pond are on the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Impaired Water Body lists, due to elevated levels of blue-green algae. Heavy amounts of nitrogenous waste are making their way into the pond and into Mecox Bay by way of Calf Creek, Mr. Penny said, cautioning against bringing in more horses to add to the problem.

Neighbors have also complained that a manure pile was moved too close to the property line, though Kieran Pape Murphree, the applicants’ attorney, told the board they have agreed to move it back to its approved location. Robert Campbell, the founder of B.B.C. International, a leading children’s and athletic footwear and design and sourcing company, and his wife, Barbara, are the owners of Campbell Stables.

Harry Wagner, who lives on West Pond Drive east of the ranch, said the manure pit is by his property. He estimated each horse produced 18,000 pounds of manure per year, and wanted to know how the additional manure would be taken care of. Ms. Murphree replied, citing a covenant in the ranch’s 2011 site plan approval requiring that manure be shipped out at least once a week, and said it would be carted out more often if necessary.

Ms. Christodoulou asked how this would be accomplished on the property across the street, and again raised concern about smells. Dennis Finnerty, the chairman of the planning board, replied that agriculture does involve smells, odors, and noises, but noted that “the real estate listings place a premium on agricultural reserve.”

Those who spoke not only opposed the requests before the planning board, but objected as well to the scale of the operation at Campbell Stables.

“The enterprise that has grown up there is very far from what I expect to my trip to the Hamptons,” said Joan Shumaker, who lives on West Pond Drive. People and deliveries are coming and going, including catering trucks for events that have music playing past midnight, she said. “All of us have made investments out here, and we are entitled to protect our investments as well.”

  Aris Christodoulou said he felt the owners had misrepresented how the facility would be used — as a family stable with low impact to the neighborhood — when it was first proposed in 2010. The use has grown to be more commercial, he said.

   Mr. Finnerty said an agricultural use, such as a horse farm, is considered commercial either way, and that those representations seven years ago had had no bearing on the planning board’s approval of the 18-stall barn. In 2011, the board approved, in addition to the barn, a 15,000-square-foot indoor riding arena, outdoor riding ring, two-story building with tack and storage rooms and second-story apartment, an accessory equipment/storage barn, manure storage areas, and paddocks. The approval stipulated that only people boarding their horses be able to ride there.

What now also seems at question is whether the horses are being made available to the general public for lessons. Ms. Murphree agreed that hourly leasing of horses is prohibited by covenant, but mentioned that the stable was within its right to do other things which it has not done, such as hold a horse show for up to nine days.

   What about the property being rented out for weddings, Philip Keith, a board member, wanted to know, after a printout of the stable’s website revealed that the facility hosts special events. Ms. Murphree agreed that should not be happening and that it would require a special permit. She said she had not always represented the owners.

   “It’s particularly disheartening when a website that still, two days before this hearing, is advertising illegal activity,” Mr. Finnerty said.

Pamela Harwood, the chairwoman of the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee, told planning board members that the advisory committee was against their approving the application.

The public hearing was closed, but the record will be kept open for 30 days for written comments.