The most detailed justification to date of the size, design, and cost of East Hampton Town’s new senior citizens center was aired before the town board on Tuesday, as several residents continued to question and voice skepticism about the need for a 22,000-square-foot, $31.6 million building.
Over more than two and one-half hours and more than 100 slides across two PowerPoint presentations, the town’s planning director, the director of the Human Resources Department, and the architects retained to design the new center on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett gave exhaustive presentations to underscore the pressing need for the new center and the services and amenities to be provided, and to refute critics’ assertions that a new center could cost millions less with a different design and elimination of some features.
Eight residents, including a former builder, an architect, and a former town councilman, spoke to the board to question various components of the new center’s design or features and urged a pause in the timeline that would have construction starting later this year. Though the board has indicated an inclination to exempt the senior center from planning, zoning, and architectural review board purview by use of what is known as the Monroe “balancing of public interests” analysis, thus designating itself the sole agency that must approve the new center, only one resident referred to that element of the board’s deliberations on Tuesday. The board has indicated that it will make a decision on that subject at its meeting next Thursday.
Armed with charts, graphs, and statistics from the United States Census Bureau, Jeremy Samuelson, the planning director, told the board of a nationwide “gray tsunami,” with the population over 65 and above larger than at any time in history both in number and as a percentage of the total population. The 65-plus population is projected to grow by 47 percent between now and 2050, and from 17 to 23 percent of the total population. While 2050 may seem far off, he said, “it is not that far in planning terms,” likening the time frame to the span of a typical mortgage. “We’re inside that 30-year window,” he said. “This is the moment. What we build now needs to have a 30-year life span.”
More older adults are living outside nursing homes and assisted living facilities, increasing demand for services from senior citizens centers and similar programs, he said.
In East Hampton, those 60 and above grew from 21.8 percent of the population in 2000 to 32 percent in 2020. The number of residents 60 and above went from 4,298 in 2000 to 7,394 in 2020, a 72-percent increase, Mr. Samuelson said.
The 60-to-64 demographic, a group that just became eligible for senior citizen programs, is the largest population cohort in the town, 9.4 percent of the total. Those 55 to 59, who will soon be eligible, are next at 7.9 percent, followed by those 70 to 74, at 7.5 percent.
The current senior citizens center, on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, serves residents ages 60 to 100, Mr. Samuelson said, representing three generations. However, offering new programs and opportunities to these residents is precluded by the physical constraints of the current center, a building that is more than 100 years old and barely half the size of the planned new center.
The architects, Ronnette Riley and Carol Ross Barney, recounted the community engagement and related efforts since they were awarded the project in December 2021, including workshops, a survey, and multiple presentations to the board as the design of the new center took shape. Residents were invited to share their vision for the new center.
An environmentally sustainable design, a “home away from home,” net-zero energy consumption, and “open and airy” were commonly desired features, they said, along with adequate space for lectures, a building that engages mind, body, and soul, a coffee bar, a place to eat, and use of the outdoors for exercise.
The single-story “windmill” design, featuring three “blades” extending from a center, was chosen because it “used the site well,” Ms. Ross Barney said, required the least amount of clearing on its seven acres, and required the least alteration of its topography. It also allows parking very close to the building, she said. “A two-story building for this particular type of building is not the most cost-effective way to build,” she said, answering some of the criticism leveled by residents earlier. The windmill design “is most efficient in terms of energy and materials,” she said.
Where some residents have wondered why solar canopies are planned for the parking area and not the building’s roof, Ms. Ross Barney said that solar panels are most efficient at a 30-degree angle, which would require another structure to mount them in that position on the roof.
The plan for reflective stainless-steel shingles, which has also drawn criticism, is a nod to the ubiquity of wood shingles on buildings throughout the town, the architects said, but also to “almost camouflage” the building into its surroundings and for their minimal maintenance requirements.
Some board members seemed uncertain as to the wisdom of stainless steel shingles and the color that would be chosen. Ms. Ross Barney proposed that “we mock it up onsite and see what fits,” adding that the architects would consider other shingles “but metal has the longest life cycle, a very good sustainable footprint, and maintenance will be minimal.”
