Three years is about how long it takes for the East Hampton Housing Authority to see through a community housing project from start to finish, according to Katy Casey, its executive director.
That means for the forthcoming housing development on Route 114 in Wainscott, just south of the Sag Harbor Village border, there are about three more years for stakeholders to work together to “do it right,” several residents and officials from the town and housing authority agreed Saturday during a meeting of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee.
The nature of the discourse Saturday was markedly different from the affordable housing discussions that took place a decade ago, when the Wainscott School District balked at a proposal for 48 units on Stephen Hand’s Path — a project that was ultimately quashed by public opinion and, later, by the town board.
Wainscott is a tiny district, its school serving about 22 students in prekindergarten through fourth grade in a building with three classrooms. In years past — including during the Covid pandemic — the school has struggled with enrollment fluctuations that caused overcrowding and serious budget woes.
“We have three years to get this right and somehow maintain some semblance of the Wainscott School District,” Barry Frankel, a former member of the citizens advisory group, said during Saturday’s meeting. “It sounds like we have the time to do it right, so let’s do it.”
However, taxes and household composition — the number of school-age children, particularly in the upper grades — remain the chief concerns for the district. David Eagan, the school board president, said in an email to The Star on Tuesday that the school’s board members “have no position or stance regarding the merits of the proposal. We have, however, repeatedly made clear to the town and the Wainscott community that a 50-unit project will have material adverse impacts on the district.”
Wainscott taxpayers, Mr. Eagan continued, “will see a dollar-for-dollar increase in their property taxes to pay tuition for new students in grades four to 12 to attend one of our receiving districts.”
When the conversation Saturday turned to school finance, it became clear that many residents in attendance were previously unaware that the Wainscott School pays tuition for each student above fourth grade to receive a free public education through high school graduation. It’s the same system employed in the more heavily populated districts of Springs and Montauk, where tuition is paid for each high school student, and in Amagansett, where tuition is paid for each student in seventh grade and up. The East Hampton Housing Authority doesn’t pay school or property taxes but instead contributes PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes, to school districts in East Hampton, Amagansett, Montauk, and Springs, where its other affordable housing communities are located.
Wainscott at present has both the lowest tax rate of any school district in East Hampton Town and the fewest units of community housing of any hamlet in the town, as well.
“The argument has long been it’s our turn” to absorb a community housing project “because we have undeveloped property,” said Hersey Egginton, the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee’s chairman.
Mr. Eagan continued in his note to The Star, “Accordingly, we have requested that the town either by design or other mechanism (such as a cap) ensure that our limited capacity be respected in their planning. The [school] trustees are confident that the majority of our community share the same concerns and support that reasonable request.”
The impetus for the conversation was an invitation by the Wainscott committee to Ms. Casey to give an update on the agency’s work on the project.
She said it’s in the “preconstruction phase.” On Feb. 24, the housing authority — which was chartered by New York State following a request for its creation by the East Hampton Town Board — issued a “request for qualifications” for a development partner. In past years, the housing authority has partnered with businesses like Georgica Green Ventures on the construction of communities such as Gansett Meadow on Montauk Highway in Amagansett and the Green at Gardiner’s Point on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton.
Affordable housing continues to be a dire need throughout the South Fork. With Green at Gardiner’s Point fully occupied, there still remain about 100 people on a waiting list for a one-bedroom apartment — down from a list of 543 waiting for a chance to qualify for an affordable unit via a lottery system. Ms. Casey has researched the professional makeup of the other affordable housing communities, finding there are nurses, teachers, physicians assistants, police officers, small-business owners, retail workers, bartenders, and many others.
“You really couldn’t go through your day in East Hampton without coming into contact with somebody who lives at one of the housing authority properties,” Ms. Casey said. “I would bet money on that.”
The current Wainscott proposal is for individuals or families who make up to 130 percent of the region’s median income level, as dictated by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. For a one-person household, that income limit is $142,220; for two it’s $162,500, and so on up to a family of six with an income of $235,560.
In areas designated for affordable housing, the town caps the number of units per parcel of land at 60. “This is two sites,” Ms. Casey said of the properties at 776 and 780 Route 114, “but we’re considering it one site. . . . The town has never, ever approved 60 for anybody. They have always muscled us down.”
At this point, she anticipates that there will be 50 units built, but the distribution of units between one, two, and three bedrooms is “completely in flux,” she said. “If it were up to me, I would have more one-bedroom [apartments]. I’m not saying that to appease the school district’s concerns. . . . East Hampton never has enough one-bedrooms.”
Ms. Casey acknowledged, however, that “economic factors pull us toward larger units” because the housing authority can collect a much higher rent on a three-bedroom apartment than it can for a one-bedroom.
As the development progresses through the usual procedure, including oversight by the town’s Planning Department and approval by the town planning board, there will be several public hearings where community members can have their opinions heard by town officials, Ms. Casey said. Additional studies are yet to come, including a projection for how many school-age children a 50-unit development would yield for the school.
“This is both an art and a science. As a right, the housing authority, as long as we follow all the laws and we don’t discriminate and we are completely fair, you could say that as of right, we could build it,” she said. “But we don’t want this to be our last project in the Town of East Hampton, so that’s not our M.O. In the end, we want to do what’s right for every hamlet. We don’t want to take residents and plop them in a place where the people around them don’t want them.”
