Sues to Stop Town Purchase

A Springs property owner has sued East Hampton Town and the Nature Conservancy to stop the public purchase of two lots next to his Squaw Road house. Two houses would be torn down by the conservancy, which owns the land, before the purchase, and the site left in its natural state. Money for the acquisition is coming from the town’s community preservation fund.

Richard Levin, who circulated a petition against the purchase before a hearing and vote on it last summer, asserts in a lawsuit filed last month that public use of the 1.6-acre site, for which the town is to pay $2.6 million, would “seriously affect the use, value, and quiet enjoyment of his residence.”

“Once the land becomes public it will attract swimmers and picnickers who will trash the property,” he said in a letter to the town board last summer.

Mr. Levin asserts that the town failed to consider the impact of the acquisition on his Squaw Road neighborhood, and of its residents’ quality of life, and failed to “produce any evidence to justify the proposed purchase.”

According to the board resolution approving it, the purpose of the land purchase “is the preservation of parks, nature preserves, or recreation areas.” In accordance with town policy, a management plan for the site will be developed, and a hearing held to solicit public comment on the plan before it is adopted.

“They never said what the land was going to be used for,” Mr. Levin’s attorney, Stephen Grossman of Sag Harbor, said this week. But, he said, in the  Nature Conservancy’s application to the town for a permit to demolish the residences, the future use was described as a “park.”

“Dropping a park” next to a residential lot has “a strong negative effect on the value of your house, and your privacy,” said the lawyer.

The property was tapped as a top candidate for preservation by a C.P.F. committee that advises the town board, in part to eliminate shoreside septic systems that could contribute to pollution of Three Mile Harbor.

Mr. Grossman disagrees. “To say this would have an effect on the quality of water in Three Mile Harbor is ridiculous.”

At a hearing on the purchase in August, some nearby residents said they would prefer to see houses on the land, particularly new ones that would have to adhere to current environmental standards. Several echoed Mr. Levin’s concerns about disruption from visitors to the public site. Others, however, strongly supported the purchase and the preservation of open space in their neighborhood.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Levin said he offered the Nature Conservancy $4 million for the land on Sept. 9, several weeks after a contract with the town was signed, and his offer was declined. The conservancy acquired the property from the late Robert Olson.

A response by the town and the conservancy to the lawsuit is due to the court by Feb. 11.