Government

The East Hampton Town Board passed a somewhat rushed resolution Tuesday, allowing the town to spend just over $500,000 to acquire five pieces of land, including one 7.7-acre tract, from Suffolk County. Four of the five parcels would be used for affordable housing and one unbuildable lot in Montauk would go to open space. Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez explained that the county had set tomorrow as a deadline to authorize the expenditure.

“I only know that I have been advised that I’m not serving next year as chair,” said Samuel Kramer, who has served as chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board since January 2019. The decision, which requires a vote of the entire town board, won’t become official until a resolution to that effect is passed at the reorganizational meeting on Jan. 2.

In its second discussion about adjusting maximum house size based on lot area, the East Hampton Town Board seemed swayed by public opinion, calling the original numbers too restrictive, especially for small lots. Comments from the public, nearly 20 of them, were divided between those saying the work group’s original recommendation was the only thing that could save the character of East Hampton, and those saying that that recommendation would surely ruin the town.

Twice a year, the Town of East Hampton awards money to homeowners and businesses to incentivize water quality improvements. On Dec. 16, applications opened to award $1 million to fund eligible projects for 2025.

For Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor, the last several weeks have been filled with proclamations, plaques, parties, and praise for the work he accomplished over the course of a nearly 40-year career as an elected official, including 29 in his current post in Albany. Like all lively dinner parties, popular television series, and the Mets’ playoff run this season, good things must at some point come to an end: Mr. Thiele, 71, is officially retiring from government.

The East Hampton Town Board discussed on Tuesday the procedure for when members of the architectural review board or the zoning board of appeals must be absent from meetings and an alternate must be formally accepted into the process.

The Springs General Store has been shuttered since the end of the 2022 summer season, and while the new owners are getting closer to winning approvals for changes they plan, one of them, Daniel Bennett, confirmed via text last week that the store will remain closed for the summer of 2025.

Despite concerns from one board member about setting an unwelcome precedent, the East Hampton Town Board voted three to one — with one recusal — to exempt the planned senior citizens center in Amagansett from local zoning and land-use regulations.

Mashashimuet Park could be getting a new entrance, Sag Harbor Village’s deputy mayor, Ed Haye, announced at Tuesday night’s village board meeting. It would be moved south of its current location, he said, onto the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, and could be folded into Suffolk County’s planned renovation to that road.

The East Hampton Town Board has proposed designating two structures at 66 Main Street in Wainscott, on a 30-acre property recently purchased from Ronald Lauder, as historic landmarks to be known as the John Osborn Homestead Historic Landmark. Some advocates say the whole property should be landmarked.

A Sag Harbor Village plan to connect two sewersheds to the wastewater treatment plant is moving ahead. The village accepted construction bids on the projects at a meeting on Nov. 19, and Aidan Corish of the village board expects the work to begin in early 2025.

Upward of 50 people attended East Hampton Village’s first workshop as it prepares to update its comprehensive plan, filling nearly every chair in the Emergency Services Building. Familiar themes peppered the conversation: traffic congestion and speeding, lack of affordable housing, the departure of mom-and-pop shops, and the constant clatter of the landscaping and construction industries.

East Hampton lifeguards performed a record number of rescues, 226 total, during the 2024 season at town beaches, according to the town’s chief lifeguard, John Ryan Jr. Of that number, 202 rescues occurred at protected beaches, while 24 took place at unprotected beaches. Both of those numbers doubled from last year’s totals.

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday heard the first round of pitches for affordable housing projects angling for money generated by the half-percent community housing fund real estate transfer tax, which has produced more than $10 million since it went into effect in April 2023.

A management plan for a new pocket park in Amagansett, featuring recreation and meeting spaces, had a public hearing before the East Hampton Town Board on Nov. 21, with just one speaker offering thoughts on the proposal.

After the town board agreed to slash the maximum allowable house size from 20,000 to 10,000 square feet townwide, the board focused Tuesday on recommendations from the Planning Department to change a formula that would also reduce the maximum gross floor area of houses by tying that to the size of their lots.

Several residents of the Lazy Point neighborhood on Napeague have voiced concerns at recent meetings of the East Hampton Town Trustees about a Suffolk County dredging project in the channel between Lazy Point and Hicks Island, arguing that widening the channel as proposed would allow water to rise and encroach even more on their houses.

The real estate developer Jeremy Morton discussed his plans for the commercial buildings at 2 Main Street and 22 Long Island Avenue in Sag Harbor at a village planning board hearing on Nov. 26. 

The town board awarded about $120,000 in community development block grants to four organizations last week, Maureen’s Haven and OLA among them.

The town board tackled a quirky piece of legislation at last week’s work session, involving the temporary storage of prefabricated homes. The problem arises when trucks arrive with their oversize loads. They often sit idling, sometimes for hours, while they wait for a local builder to arrive to pick up the goods.

A bill that would designate Plum Island as a national monument has been passed by the House Natural Resources Committee, paving the way for a congressional vote.

The town planning board, which would need to give site plan approval, has reviewed the Devon Yacht Club's project for over two years before deciding that it could not move forward until knowing whether the Z.B.A. would approve the many variances required, 20 in all: nine for wetland setbacks, eight for dune crest setbacks, and three for front yard setbacks along Abram’s Landing Road.

The owner of the Huntting Inn, spurned by an October decision of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals that a pool and other improvements it had planned for its historic property could not be considered, filed papers last week to sue the board and the village.

Construction work at a long-controversial nightclub on Three Mile Harbor Road was set to begin three months ago, at which point it became strikingly apparent that the building had no basement at all, as had been assumed during the planning process. Rather than being retained, it would have to be built. This created an issue: Is excavating a new basement an expansion of a nonconforming building?

With the Republican Party winning the White House and both houses of Congress, local immigration attorneys and the nonprofit OLA of Eastern Long Island are preparing for major changes to immigration policy.

The restaurant Page at 63 Main Street on Tuesday presented the latest iteration of its expansion plan before the Sag Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals meeting. The restaurant’s management hopes to expand up to the second floor of the building, netting an extra 41 seats, bringing the total number of seats to 165 — a proposal that would see the second-floor zoning classification changed from residential use to commercial use.

Design work has yet to begin on a new lighting plan for downtown Amagansett, where large trees line Main Street and sometimes block light, but the East Hampton Town Board appeared happy Tuesday with a preliminary study by L.K. McLean Associates, the project engineers.

The East Hampton Town Board dropped a surprise into another lengthy discussion of proposed zoning code amendments in the wake of a well-attended public hearing on Nov. 7. The board agreed on most amendments as written; however, in a straw poll, four members voted against a measure that would include a portion of basements in the gross floor calculation of residences.

Piggybacking on a law passed in the spring, the East Hampton Village Board passed another on Friday prohibiting nightclubs, “or similar entertainment establishments,” in the historic preservation district. In so doing, the board updated the village’s zoning code to place nightclubs alongside “garbage disposal plants and junkyards” as the only specific business enterprises outlawed anywhere in the village.

Debate over the addition of an area for small dogs at the Springs Park continued this week as the park committee met to discuss recommended changes that also include removal of invasive species.