An East Hampton Town proposal for 16 affordable housing units on a vacant 12-acre parcel at 395 Pantigo Road in East Hampton is set for a public hearing Wednesday before the town planning board.
The town purchased the lot in the fall of 2020 for $2.5 million. It is an affordable housing overlay district. Students who live there will attend East Hampton schools.
The land is adjacent to the shopping center between East Hampton Village and Amagansett that includes Franey Wines & Spirits. It would be the third affordable housing project in the pipeline for the town, where both the public and private sectors are having difficulty finding and keeping employees, in part due to a lack of housing options.
“This project is doing more than just addressing the township’s affordable housing needs,” said East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys. “It’s also building a micro community and neighborhoods for families and residents to be proud of. Just like Whalebone and Green Hollow of years past, the 395 Pantigo project will have a foundational goal of building community. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to lead this project as part of the town board’s All Hands on Housing approach to the needs of affordable housing,” he said.
If approved, seven of the 12 acres would be developed, with the remaining five acres toward the back of the property set aside as open space. When the lot was purchased, some community preservation fund money was used. Because houses, and not apartments, will be built, the town board amended a portion of the code to increase the maximum yield of housing units on a property to allow up to four single-family houses per acre.
The layout is a simple road leading north from Pantigo, ending in a cul-de-sac, with houses on either side. Lot sizes are relatively small — from a third to a quarter of an acre — and the town board capped the gross floor area of each residence to 10 percent of the building lot area, meaning most houses would be roughly 1,500 square feet. It is thought the smaller lot and house sizes will help to maintain affordability of the homes into the future.
The board last discussed the proposal in January, when Mr. Lys hoped that work on the access road could begin by the summer. In the meantime, the fire marshal has determined that there is adequate water service for the development.
One topic that could arise at the public hearing are the details of the town’s lease agreements with the eventual homeowners. The land under the houses would not be owned by the purchasers but leased for 99 years from the town.
Screening along the property line with the shopping center could also be an issue. The planning board said an extensive environmental review of the proposal wasn’t necessary, voting unanimously at its April 26 meeting. However, the uplisting of the northern long-eared bat as a federally endangered species might limit clearing, as its presence was noted in the January meeting regarding the housing proposal. The bat overwinters in caves but spends the spring and summer in woodland habitats.
“We’re ready to go to a hearing,” said Randy Parsons, a planning board member, at the April 26 planning board meeting. “Let’s get some people in those houses.”
