As the stratospheric price of real estate on the South Fork soars ever higher and the stock of affordable housing is commensurately diminished, the East Hampton Town Board looked approvingly on a proposal to build up to 56 attached apartments on a recently acquired parcel on Pantigo Road in East Hampton.
The 12 acres of land at 395 Pantigo Road, adjacent to the building that houses Domaine Franey Wines and Spirits and the EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants agency, were acquired for $2.5 million in a court-ordered auction. The plan is to designate an affordable housing overlay and dedicate seven northerly acres of the parcel for affordable housing. The remaining five acres, purchased with community preservation fund money, will be dedicated to recreation or open space.
The town's community housing opportunity fund advisory board recommended the affordable housing overlay designation in a letter to the board last month, Eric Schantz, a senior planner in the Planning Department, recounted in remarks to the board on Tuesday. "The Planning Department concurs with that," he said.
Pantigo Road is on Suffolk County Transit's 10C bus route, connecting the site with East Hampton Village and Amagansett, which are roughly equidistant. The site is "an appropriate location for an affordable housing complex," Mr. Schantz said, and adding the affordable housing designation would maximize the land's potential.
Affordable housing overlay designation would require a public hearing. John Jilnicki, the town attorney, told the board that he would make those preparations.
The seven-acre section of the parcel could house eight apartments per acre for a total of 56, or 15 single-family residences, Mr. Schantz told the board. An existing residence was condemned last year and will have to be removed.
The board had long sought to acquire the parcel, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said, going back to the administration of his predecessor, Larry Cantwell. "We've had our eye on this for a number of years," he said in 2019. "We tried to purchase it a few years ago, but it's been tied up in litigation."
The land was sold as part of a bankruptcy proceeding involving one of its owners.
"We understand that what was already a crisis in housing, because of the pandemic, has really become compounded" by an even greater scarcity of real estate and fewer housing options for working people, he said on Tuesday. "We really have to move quickly to address this postpandemic, additional crisis in housing."
The town acquired property off Route 114 in Wainscott in 2018, on which the board also plans to develop affordable housing. The East Hampton Housing Authority is working on developing a recently acquired parcel off Three Mile Harbor Road, Mr. Van Scoyoc said.
"There's a lot more work to do," he said. "Hopefully, we can move quickly."
With Reporting by Jamie Bufalino
