A Fracas Over Water Mill Train Station
 Jennifer Landes
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(7/03/2008) A proposal by former Southampton Town Councilman Dennis Suskind to refurbish the Water Mill Station and add retail and office space to what is considered Water Mill’s downtown has met with community resistance and neighbors complaining that the scope of the proposal is too intensive for the site. The possible development of the property, which is a narrow strip along the train tracks between Station Road and Nowedonah Avenue, could also signal the end of hopes that the station could one day reopen as a train stop.
Mr. Suskind had offered the Metropolitan Transit Authority the opportunity to purchase or lease back the old station, which he was willing to renovate at his cost. “I sent a package with the plans to the M.T.A. and I’ve never seen an agency return something so fast,” he said. “They wanted no part of it.”
The station was envisioned to be part of plan to offer regular inter-hamlet transit service throughout the East End towns. A federal transportation agency is assessing the feasibility of the plan.
Last Thursday evening, a group of residents and neighbors complained that the six proposed buildings, which total more than 23,000 square feet, were too much for the site. They also worried that the town’s proposal to use the strip to connect the two streets would bring more traffic by the hamlet’s recreational fields off Nowedonah.
Marlene Haresign, a Water Mill resident, said, “I like 90 percent of the plan,” including the station restoration, the pedestrian walkways, and the design of the buildings, which resemble the style of the station. Nonetheless, she said, she had a “major objection to connecting Station Road to Nowedonah.”
She noted how the land for the Water Mill Community Club was donated in the 1950s by its members, who also built the indoor gym, tennis courts, fields, and other buildings. “It’s an incredible story of how it came about,” she said, adding that “the community club is never leaving. It will be there long after we’re gone.”
Eileen Noonan, who is president of the community club, said the group would not want to fence in its open fields for aesthetic reasons, but would have to if a new access road brought more traffic onto Nowedonah, which would endanger children who were playing nearby.
Mr. Suskind said that the access road, which was requested by the town, was designed “with great care not to be a speedway. It has a stop sign and a steep curve.” He said he would be happy to work with residents, but he said access for emergency vehicles to the complex, as well as to both streets, was important.
Residents of Mill Pond Road, directly across the train tracks from the property, were also concerned about the environmental impacts of the project. Bob Larimer, who lives adjacent to the old train station, said the proposal ran contrary to almost every recommendation in a 2003 hamlet study.
He added that the proposal’s 68-percent lot coverage with impervious material could cause stormwater-runoff overflow, based on the town’s environmental assessment. The flooding of the nearby pond could affect the water table, flood basements, and create “swampy backyards,” he said.
Steve Abramson, a co-chairman of the Water Mill Citizens Advisory Committee, requested that the planning board still consider a full environmental impact statement for the property, which he said borders on both a wildlife refuge and wetlands.
State law required that the board consider the plan for environmental assessment because it called for more than 50 parking spaces. The board, however, decided it was not necessary to pursue it.
Most of the 11 people who spoke at the hearing against the proposal also expressed concerns about increased traffic in and around the site. Mr. Larimer said that the Citarella store and Blockbuster video, which anchor the shopping center at the front of the site, have already “made Water Mill into the undisputed bottleneck champion of the Hamptons.” The proposed development would only make matters worse, he said.
A traffic study paid for by Mr. Suskind found that the new businesses would only generate 65 trips at the peak hour and was not considered significant. The variety of businesses — food and wine stores, video rental outlets, restaurants, and offices — would also spread out the traffic flow, the report said.
Mr Suskind plans to meet with residents at the next Water Mill Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on July 14.