Three New C.P.F. Purchases Authorized

Using the community preservation fund, the East Hampton Town Board has authorized the purchase of three properties, from which houses will be removed in order to return the lands to their natural states.

In Northwest, 6.4 acres will be purchased for $2.5 million from former Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and her husband, Hugh Quigley. The land, at 78 Swamp Road, includes three separate lots, one with a residence, which will be removed before the purchase. The land abuts over 500 acres of preserved town, county, and state open space, and contains pine barrens and wetlands as well as the majority of a freshwater pond.

On Gerard Drive in Springs, an ecologically sensitive beach peninsula where the town has made several land buys in order to remove septic systems and structures, a .59-acre lot will be purchased from the estate of Dorothy King, for $900,000. The removal of a small house on the site will allow the re-establishment of a natural buffer area that helps filter water flowing into Accabonac Harbor, according to Scott Wilson, East Hampton’s director of land acquisition and management.

The third purchase approved at a meeting last week was once the home place of Zebulon Montgomery Pike Field, a fisherman who worked Three Mile Harbor. The house, on 2.75 acres at 30 and 32 Three Mile Harbor Road, near the head of the harbor, dates to around 1800, with a mid-1800s addition, according to Bob Hefner, a consultant to the town on historic preservation. The structure, however, is not salvageable and will be taken down. Mr. Hefner said Mr. Field, who was known as Uncle Zeb, would sell herbs that he had harvested on East Hampton Main Street. His house, one among a number of small houses in Springs that reflect different building types than the historic structures seen in the village, was of note back in the day, Mr. Hefner said, as its owner would whitewash it, but only up as high as he could reach.

The property, which will be purchased for $1 million, is currently owned by Jonathan Miller. Mr. Wilson said it contains an oak and hickory woodland and will become a “pocket wildlife reserve area.”

A number of land purchases made by the town of late have been of improved parcels from which houses are removed. The strategy enables the town to restore natural areas and eliminate development, and associated septic waste, from environmentally sensitive areas such as that around Accabonac Harbor.

After an outreach program to owners of land around Lake Montauk, which resulted in a number of preservation fund purchases, Mr. Wilson’s department has begun to focus on acquisitions in Springs.

The acquisition of land with houses has been criticized by David Buda, a Springs resident who submitted written comments to the town board on the three purchases approved last week. Mr. Buda questioned whether the town was paying full price for houses that are then removed. He suggested that there should be a review of whether the preservation fund is being used according to “sound and fiscally prudent policies,” and whether the town is getting “the most bang for the buck.”

The town, he said in his letter, should pay for the value of the land component only.

Mr. Wilson said yesterday that the appraisals on which the town bases its purchase offers do, of necessity, include the value of any houses on a lot. However, he said, “Do we try to strive for a bargain sale on each property? Sure we do.”

In the King and Miller cases, he said, the houses added “no real contributing value” to the sites.

After years of land preservation efforts, he said, and with few large vacant parcels left undeveloped, preservation opportunities often focus on reversing the buildup of areas that perhaps should never have been developed. Some lots, for example, were created by hauling in fill, he said. “Why wouldn’t we try to protect Accabonac Harbor?” he asked.

By returning to nature lots that are contiguous to other preserved areas, he added, “we are filling in the missing pieces.”