Government

The environmental and traffic impacts of a proposed 27,000-square-foot fitness center across from Bridgehampton Commons on Montauk Highway were discussed last Thursday at a Southampton Town Planning Board public hearing.

Carol Konner, the principal owner of an eight-acre parcel, is seeking to subdivide the land into three lots. One lot, adjacent to Kellis Pond, would be in a residential zoning district, the other two  zoned for highway businesses.

New York State’s Department of Agriculture and Markets has issued a clarification of its rules pertaining to cannabidiol, or CBD, as a food, food additive, or ingredient — saying, specifically, that CBD cannot be used in those ways in New York.

An attorney who had threatened to sue the Town of East Hampton over its allowing the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night benefit to be held on an Amagansett field purchased with community preservation fund money, said yesterday that he has reached an agreement with the town, under which officials will adopt a “suitable” management plan for the 19-acre site, popularly known as 555 Montauk Highway, by the end of this year.

Suffolk County officials have unveiled a $4 billion, 50-year wastewater plan to rid the county of environmentally unfriendly cesspools and outmoded septic systems.

East Hampton Town announced that officials obtained a temporary restraining order to stop promoters' parties, photo shoots, product launches, and other commercial activities at a 10,000-square-foot house at 145 Neck Path in Springs.

A proposal from AT&T to build a freestanding 50-foot-high structure at St. Peter’s Chapel on Old Stone Highway in Springs, to house cellphone antennas and associated equipment, was discussed at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

Susan McGraw Keber, an East Hampton Town Trustee, urged the Suffolk County Legislature at its July 16 general meeting to pass legislation that would prohibit the intentional release of balloons, a move intended to protect wildlife and the environment.

A practical move to consolidate the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery, or an ill-advised and unseemly rush to do the wrong thing? The town board debated the question anew last Thursday, much of its four-hour meeting devoted to a heated debate pitting the board’s majority against one member and two residents.

It now appears that the Springs General Store is not covered after all by a facade easement, which, according to a 2015 report in The Star, would have precluded the addition of new structures to the site, protected the store, the gas pumps, and existing outbuildings from external change, and preserved the view of the property.

Farmers, shocked that proposed legislation requiring the planting of a cover crop on agricultural fields includes jail time as a potential punishment for failing to do so, pushed back at a public hearing during the East Hampton Town Board’s meeting last Thursday.

The Danish energy company Orsted, which acquired Deepwater Wind last year, announced on Tuesday that Jeffrey Grybowski is stepping down as co-chief executive officer of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, PSEG Long Island, and the Long Island Power Authority have announced a partnership that will be included in the county’s 2020 shared services plan to assist local governments with energy efficiency projects, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce electricity bills.