The East Hampton Town Board, meeting on Tuesday in an empty Town Hall groaning under gusts of cold wind, has agreed, following public hearings held on Dec. 19, to fund five proposed Community Housing Fund projects. These are the first five projects to benefit from the fund’s new half-percent real estate transfer tax, which took effect in April 2023 and has a current balance of over $10 million. All five were recommended by Eric Schantz, director of housing, and the community housing advisory board.
There was one minor surprise at Tuesday’s discussion. Councilman Tom Flight, who’d originally balked at the second-largest grant — $1 million for Georgica Green Ventures for the Green at Gardiner's Point, the project on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton — changed his mind.
“Initially I was not supportive,” he said. “Since then, I have had time to meet with the housing authority and Georgica Green Ventures to understand what the model is, where they have control and where they don’t. I’m going to change, and I do support this funding. I think it’s a phenomenal project and I think this is the benchmark, honestly, of where affordable housing can be across the state.”
Even so, the board was not unanimous in its support for the grant. Councilman David Lys held strong to his earlier criticism, acknowledging that the grant was lawful but taking issue with the fact that the request for the money had come in after the project was already complete. “C.H.F. process should be reviewed at all phases, from beginning to end, by a town advisory committee,” Mr. Lys clarified in a text.
The rest of the board fell in line, with Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez reiterating the point she made in December, that the town’s $1 million C.H.F. contribution represents only 3 percent of the project’s actual cost.
The largest grant, for $1.5 million, will go to the East Hampton Housing Authority, for the 114 middle income housing project, which received unanimous support from the board. “This is the next large project in the ‘all hands on housing’ initiative,” Mr. Lys said. “These parcels were collected and targeted for this project.”
Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte agreed, making the point that middle-income housing “gets at a category that’s hard to fund otherwise.”
“We know we need more middle-income affordable housing,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. “I think this is a no-brainer.”
Councilman Flight was again an outlier in objecting to a $345,000 grant for the Whalebone Apartments, in part, he said, because some of the money will go toward solar panels, which he characterized as “a stretch.” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, however, strongly supported that grant, likening the project to fixes made on a home. “This development is 36 years old,” she said. “People deserve to live with dignity. I can’t imagine operating a 36-year-old kitchen.”
Windmill I, a senior housing complex on Accabonac Road, won approval for a $338,000 grant that will help expand its 40-unit rental complex, in operation since 1987, by 20 new units.
Finally, the board looked kindly on a $500,000 request from the East Hampton Housing Authority for The Cottages, nine housing units on the Sag Harbor boundary, which Councilman Lys called a “pocket development.” The land was originally purchased by the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust over a decade ago, as part of the Watchcase Condominiums deal in that village. When the condos were built, the builders didn’t want to add affordable housing, and as an option, they were allowed to contribute $2.5 million to that cause. The community housing trust used half of it to purchase The Cottages.
The trust has since transferred management of the development to the East Hampton Housing Authority, which plans to use the $500,000 grant to connect the Cottages to the eventual 114 Middle Income Housing Project, its neighbor, as well as to town water.
Formal resolutions to award the grants are expected when the town board meets next Thursday.
