The New York State Public Service Commission has once again ruled against Sag Harbor Village, in a last-minute denial of the village’s request to rehear its July decision allowing KeySpan Gas East Corporation to lease the so-called “gas ball lot” to the developer Adam Potter. The lot, at 5 Bridge Street in the village, contains 93 parking spaces.
Mr. Potter said in a phone call on Tuesday that “We’re keeping it open to the village of Sag Harbor.” The decision was handed down last Thursday; his lease officially began on Saturday. He said nothing would change in the short term and that a pile of dirt, left by an adjacent construction project, had been removed.
“I don’t know what rules we’re going to put in place at this point in time. Park at your own risk, just like it is today,” he replied when asked if someone could leave a car there for months on end, or how rules would be enforced.
On Nov. 9, 2022, KeySpan, doing business as National Grid, informed the P.S.C. of its intention to lease the lot to 11 Bridge Street L.L.C., controlled by Mr. Potter, for 99 years. Two months later, after a public outcry, the commission agreed to review the proposed lease. In March, then-Mayor Jim Larocca and Liz Vail, the village attorney, wrote to the state opposing the lease. On July 21, the commission nonetheless said the lease could go ahead, but delayed the start date until Sept. 15 because of village concerns about parking. On Aug. 18, the village petitioned for a rehearing.
According to Ms. Vail, the village can appeal last week’s P.S.C. decision, but she did not say if that would happen. Mayor Tom Gardella would not comment, other than to say, “As I’ve said from the start, the village is looking for a long-term solution.”
In denying the petition for rehearing, the P.S.C. said that in order to grant rehearing, it must have “committed errors of law or fact . . . or that new circumstances warrant a different determination.”
Sag Harbor had argued many points of the 99-year lease, most importantly that the benefit to National Grid ratepayers, stated to be $5.4 million over time, was greatly exaggerated because Mr. Potter’s L.L.C. was “not a credit-worthy entity.” The village also suggested that the company had no way to enforce the lease, and that Mr. Potter might walk away from it should the village not approve his speculative real estate project proposed for adjacent lots.
The P.S.C. was not swayed. Neither was it swayed by Sag Harbor’s request that the commission ask National Grid to negotiate a long-term agreement with the village itself, instead.
“The Commission cannot compel such an action, [as it is only empowered] to review a proposed transaction presented to it by a utility,” wrote the commission. “Accordingly, we find no error of law or fact, nor a new circumstance, raised which warrants our reconsideration.”
Its members, however, were not unanimous in their vote. Commissioner Diane Burman dissented. Commissioner John Maggiore said that “the actions that we’re going to take are at odds with local governments, which concerns me, because the local government asserts that our actions hinder their ability to perform their own functions. I have some sympathy for the petitioners.”
