East Hampton Town should never have gotten itself into the public storm it now faces over a plan to install artificial turf playing fields on a site off Stephen Hand’s Path in Wainscott. But the problem is not simply that a loud and growing number of people are speaking out against the plastic grass, but that the town board agreed to eliminate a public park in the first place — a decision with ominous future implications.
It was not until recently that public attention became focused on the question of what the fields themselves would be made of. There have been expressions of concern about the plastic surfaces’ effects on the environment, as well as whether injuries to players may be more severe than on grass — the internet is full of arguments on one side of these issues or the other. However, there is no escaping the fact that artificial turf is not very, well, East Hampton. In fact, when the project was being contemplated by the town committee, its leaders consulted with Little League officials in Brookhaven, of all places, who said that they were delighted with their artificial turf.
In Sag Harbor, a similar debate is being revived over Mashashimuet Park and Pierson High School. In 2017 Sag Harbor School District voters approved a change from a planned artificial turf field to grass, but school officials now say that the field is in poor condition and should be replaced by a more durable engineered surface.
The town got to this place after Stony Brook Southampton Hospital pressured it to give up the centrally located Pantigo Place natural-grass Little League fields so that it could build a multimillion-dollar emergency room “annex.” In the early going, the town had offered up the Stephen Hand’s location instead, but the hospital leadership rejected that as too far away. Of course, in the town board’s mind, it’s not too far for young ballplayers and their families, many of whom would have to travel from Montauk during Little League season.
To free up the Pantigo Place ball fields for the new medical facility, the town board had to follow a procedure known as alienation, set in state law, that governs how public parkland can be taken. Whether by intent or ignorance, the board kept quiet and also kept the focus away from this key point, and in a 4-0 vote agreed that the ball fields had to go. The plan then went to the State Legislature for approval and then Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his signature.
Under alienation law, the town’s obligation may be to acquire new equal or greater parkland to take its place. In any event, the State Parks Department strongly supports a “no net loss” policy and strongly suggests that local governments “include provisions for substitute parkland in all alienation bills.” There has been no movement in this regard. Misunderstanding, perhaps, the board appointed a committee to find a new location for the to-be-destroyed ball fields. The committee settled on the Stephen Hand’s site, already town-owned and used by soccer leagues in part. The new fields were to have artificial turf and better lighting than at Pantigo — all the bells and whistles, sure, but not the new parkland that might have been required. Nor did the alternative follow the town’s own comprehensive plan, which called for the creation of more park and recreation opportunities. Sadly, the town board decided to reduce them by eliminating the Pantigo fields — and clearing woodland in a groundwater-protection area as the replacement.
The artificial-turf outcry came later. The board announced that it would go along with the ad-hoc committee’s recommendation regarding the site and synthetic playing surfaces in fall 2019. At the time, only Councilman Jeff Bragman publicly expressed concern. A formal decision to go plastic was announced in October 2020. Again, Mr. Bragman resisted, but was ignored. All along, the crucial question of parkland alienation was also ignored. This could be a very slippery slope if the town continues to eye such sites for other purposes than had originally been intended.
Parkland preservation is rooted in public trust doctrine, which “imposes a duty to hold public land for the benefit of the people and restricts the ability of local governments to sell or convey certain land or change its use, including parks. The public trust doctrine is a judicially developed doctrine that has been evolving for centuries. It provides that certain land should, by its nature, be available for the use and enjoyment of all,” as set forth in the New York State handbook on the subject. That the Legislature and governor agreed so easily with East Hampton Town on the faulty Pantigo Place deal suggests that there need to be better safeguards to prevent such obvious abuses in the future.