Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez kicked off her presentation on the Route 114 Community Housing Project at Tuesday’s Town Board work session with a rousing affirmation of Proposition 3, the Community Housing Opportunity Fund that was supported by 68 percent of East Hampton voters.
That measure will add a .5-percent transfer tax on real estate sales, with the proceeds going to create affordable housing in a region that doesn’t have much of it.
Enter the Route 114 project, which aims to add 50 units of housing and 100 beds for persons of moderate means and their families. It comprises two town-owned parcels, at 776 and 780 Route 114, together totaling 6.5 acres, and an adjoining two acres at 782 Route 114, owned by the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust. These long, thin slivers of land extend from Route 114 to Six Pole Highway.
Ms. Burke-Gonzalez told the board that some key preliminary scoping of the land has been completed. The site has no historical artifacts that might delay construction, she said, and a tree survey showed that none of the trees on the property are either rare or unique.
There is one interesting feature, a glacial erratic boulder, that Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said might be worth preserving. (The project is entering a new phase that the town hopes will move forward at something other than a glacial, or erratic pace: Hiring design and building services to construct 50 units of affordable middle-class housing, with a roughly equal mix of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments.)
The town is financing construction of the units, roads, utility installation, drainage, and wastewater treatment. The town will sell the complex, when completed, to the East Hampton Housing Authority, “while retaining ownership of the land,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.
The Housing Authority will secure a bond for the purchase price, with the town guaranteeing the bond, a typical funding mechanism deployed by municipalities for such projects.
Prospective tenants will be chosen via a lottery, and must be making at or below 130 percent of the regional median income to qualify. In East Hampton Town, that translates into a maximum income of $67,000 a year for a single person.
The only other moderate-income housing here is the Springs-Fireplace Apartments complex, completed in 2008, with 13 one-bedroom and 13 two-bedroom units. Its residents work in a variety of fields and professions, including as teachers, police officers, retail employees, and others, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.
As of late November, there were 436 people or families on the Housing Authority’s waiting list. The Route 114 project aims to ease that congestion by offering accommodation to a mix of situations, from single working people to multigenerational families.
A request for proposals will go out on Jan. 10 and is due back a month later. The town expects to award the project to a bidder by May, and to require that the builder obtain all necessary town approvals by February 2024, by which time the property should be cleared.
The development will require the construction of a sewage treatment plant and a tie-in to county water. The town is also encouraging sustainable building practices: All-electric units with solar panels, sustainable landscaping, pollinator gardens, and rain gardens are among the recommendations.
One wrinkle: There are already affordable housing units on the site. They will be demolished or repurposed to make way for the new development, which is in a designated affordable housing overlay zone.
The town engineer, Drew Bennett, is undertaking a “conditions assessment” to determine which of those buildings, if any, can be repurposed for storage, housing for an on-site property manager, or a community room.
One resident, “Noelle,” called in during the public comment part of Tuesday’s meeting to express support for the project but also concern about what it might mean for her. She lives alone with her pets in a cottage on the site, she said, telling the board that she had worked locally for years as a gardener and waitress.
Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc assured Noelle that “people in the cottages will be given the opportunity to move into the new buildings when they are constructed.”
What about the interim period, Noelle wanted to know. Where will she live then?
“That’s part of what we’re discussing,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc.
