Sag Harbor Unveils Plans for Waterfront Park
Sag Harbor Village officials unveiled conceptual drawings and related details on Friday for a waterfront park they would like to see on Ferry Road, despite unwillingness by the private property owners to sell the property.
Because the owners have had longstanding plans for condominium development on the four parcels they own there, village officials have been considering buying the land through condemnation. They have been working with the Town of Southampton to obtain community preservation fund money for the purchase. The vacant Harborview Professional Building is on the property.
Working on the design with a top landscape architect, Edmund D. Hollander, a village homeowner, the idea is to combine five parcels with an adjacent village-owned property, to create a park that would provide beach access, recreation, and more parking. It would be named for John Steinbeck, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was a long-time Sag Harbor resident.
The parcels are 1,3, and 5 Ferry Road, plus a small right of way that used to be owned by the Long Island Rail Road, and a contiguous lot at 2 West Water Street, where the 1-800-LAWYER building, known for its previous owner, stands.
Greystone Property Development, a Manhattan-based real estate company, has submitted an application to create 11 condos, 8 on the Ferry Road parcels and 3 on neighboring West Water Street.
Plans released on Friday show the two-acre park with two sandy beaches, a fishing and small boat pier, and a pedestrian walkway under the Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge that connects it to Windmill Park on the other side of the bridge. There would be public restrooms with a solar-paneled roof, three trails celebrating the ecology and history of the village, a weather station, osprey nest stands, restored oyster and eelgrass beds, and a playground, among other amenities.
“Public response to the Steinbeck Park has been overwhelming,” Mayor Sandra Schroeder said in a statement on Friday. “I cannot tell you how many people have expressed their very strong support for this plan. Many see it as our last chance to get it right and save our historic waterfront. The village does not need or want more condominiums. What we want and need is a transformative park plan that will build on our maritime heritage and protect it for our children, their children, and their children’s children into the future.”
By phone Friday afternoon the mayor said she would prefer to buy the properties directly, using C.P.F. money, to which village taxpayers have contributed millions of dollars through real estate transaction fees, but, she said, “If we have to we’re going the condemnation route.”
The Sag Harbor Village Board has retained an attorney, Saul R. Fenchel of Garden City, who specializes in condemnation proceedings. State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. the village attorney, said on Friday that planning and preparation for condemnation was well underway. He expects the village to make a decision about whether to start legal proceedings for condemnation in the next few of months. A public hearing would follow.
Since only towns administer C.P.F. money, the village asked Southampton to put the properties on its acquisition list back in October, a move that allowed the town to obtain an appraisal, which was completed recently, according to Mr. Thiele. The figure has not been made public to allow for negotiations with the property owners, he said.