A controversy is taking shape over 555, the proposed large housing complex in Amagansett. Both the developers and those opposed to the enactment of new rules that would pave the way for the 79 units to be built are making appeals in the court of public opinion.

    The development, proposed by a Connecticut company called Putnam Bridge, would go up on the 24-acre former Principi farm along Montauk Highway at the hamlet’s eastern edge. It is described as a senior citizen housing complex; the minimum age for residents would be set at 55. Market-rate units would include both houses and apartments, with prices reportedly ranging upward of $1 million, along with eight one-bedroom apartments designated as “affordable” housing, to be sold for $550,000.

    Such a development is not allowed under current zoning regulations. To proceed, Putnam Bridge needs the town to create a new zoning district, for which the developer has submitted draft legislation for a “senior citizen housing overlay district.” The Amagansett property would then have to be rezoned to that district.

    Over objections from the East Hampton Town Board’s two Democrats, the board’s three-member Republican majority voted to hold hearings on both proposals on Dec. 19, the last town board meeting of the year and the last scheduled session for the Republicans, all of whom are outgoing.

    Under the name Stop 555, residents, who gathered several weeks ago to organize opposition to the project, have been collecting signatures on a petition against it. The petition, which describes the Dec. 19 hearing as a “last-minute raid on our zoning code” by the outgoing town board, is being circulated at various places around town and online at change.org.

    A crowded meeting at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett on Saturday drew another large group of the concerned.

    Meanwhile, Putnam Bridge has placed ads in local newspapers asking people to “Know the Facts, Be Progressive, Respond Intelligently.” The ad cites a need in the town for senior citizens housing and asserts that “growth is inevitable” and “smart growth is essential.” The project “will be one of the most environmentally advanced projects in the country,” it says.

    The Dec. 19 hearings at Town Hall, on creating the new zoning category and  on rezoning the Amagansett property, will begin at 7 p.m.

       If the East Hampton Town Board votes to approve a new zoning classification for 555 Montauk Highway in Amagansett, it will do so without the approval of the town planning board, judging by its Nov. 20 meeting.

       The controversial action, which would establish a new “senior citizen housing overlay district” for a 23.5-acre parcel of former farmland, was discussed toward the end of a two-hour meeting.

       The planning board has been asked by the town board to weigh in on the change, which the town board intends to consider at its last meeting of the year, on Dec. 19. The new zone would allow for far denser development than anywhere else in town. If the town board approves it, it will decide immediately afterward whether to apply it to the 555 development.

       Planning board members appeared to indicate that while a new zone for senior citizens might not be a bad idea, the town board will be acting on its own if it applies the change to the specific parcel under discussion.

       “I’m not against creating a new zone,” Diana Weir, a member, said. “Now, where that zone is placed is a different issue . . . We should look into a new zone, but the public should be involved.”

       Another member, Ian Calder-Piedmonte, had strongly questioned the proposed new zoning at previous planning meetings. Last week he went further. “I can’t support the zone change as written,” he said. “I spent a lot of time with the comprehensive plan.”

       The town’s comprehensive plan, which was revised in 2005, offers guidance to future development — what kind, and where it might go, among other things. JoAnn Pahwul, the assistant director of the Planning Department, wrote a scathing memo to the town board about the proposed change, pointing out that the 555 property is currently zoned for both affordable housing and agriculture, in addition to six or seven detached houses.

       Mr. Calder-Piedmonte took up that point. “This land is farmable,” he said. “We’d be losing both an affordable housing overlay and an ag overlay . . . I don’t think this is the right spot. I don’t think this is the right legislation.” Mr. Calder-Piedmonte is himself a partner in Amagansett’s Balsam Farms.

       Nancy Keeshan also referenced the comprehensive plan, saying that while senior citizen housing is needed in the town, affordable senior citizen housing is desperately needed. “Our seniors are being transplanted,” she said, referring to longtime residents who have moved away.

       Reed Jones, chairman, then weighed in. “I do not think that overlay is an appropriate place on Montauk Highway.”

       “They came to us with 89 units,” he said, “then they came back to us with a haircut, 79 units. I don’t think that’s much of a haircut.”

       But the chairman cautioned that the project’s opponents need to appreciate that it is privately held land, and will, at some point, be developed.

       The board was short-handed on the night of the 20th. J.P. Foster was unable to attend and Robert Schaeffer had to leave early. Both are expected to be present on Dec. 11, when members will draw up a final recommendation

      A hearing on a five-year capital improvement plan for the East Hampton Airport drew questions about the price tag of the projects in it — which grew from $6 million in August to $9.8 million last month and $10.4 million in a final draft — as well as pleas from airport users to address neglected maintenance and repair.

       “Funding these improvements is not the topic of tonight’s hearing,” Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the town’s airport liaison, said in introductory remarks. The choice, he said, will be to use “local money, or F.A.A. money,” and would be made by next year’s town board.

       Jim Brundige, the airport manager, said that significant capital projects had not been undertaken at the airport in close to a decade.

       Pavement is crumbling, lights failing, and “main infrastructure declining,” said Mr. Brundige, and those things must be immediately addressed. “Otherwise, I’m concerned that the airport could close out of neglect.”

       Dennis Yap of DY Consultants, who prepared the draft airport capital plan for the town, said that the five-year plan focuses on the repair of existing facilities and does not include any expansion projects.

       On the list are taxiway lighting, a perimeter and security fence, taxiway signs, reconstruction of a section of runway 4-22 for use as a taxiway, a terminal ramp, a noise mitigation project, and the demolition and replacement of a hangar.

       The capital plan, Mr. Yap said, is meant to serve as a “financial planning” tool for the board to “identify airport needs.”

       With the exception of the hangar project, all, he said, are listed in the town’s adopted airport master plan and airport layout plan. The capital plan, he said, would be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration as a prerequisite to the submission of requests for F.A.A. grants to fund any of the projects.

       Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc questioned that step. The question of taking new federal airport grants, which would extend by 20 years the town’s obligation to abide by certain parameters on F.A.A. airport use, has been central to the contentious debate over the airport. Town efforts to enact use restrictions on the airport in order to reduce noise disturbances would be affected by East Hampton’s obligations to the F.A.A., or freedom from them.

       “Could we choose to keep this as an internal document and not submit it to the F.A.A.?” he asked. “Yes,” Mr. Yap said.

       “Taking this step doesn’t mean you’re going after F.A.A. funding,” Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said.

       Among the capital plan projects is a proposed $186,000 expenditure next year to reformat the already submitted airport layout plan to comply with F.A.A. requirements. That, Mr. Yap said, is needed if the town wants to add new airport projects to the plan and seek F.A.A. funding for them. Ms. Overby questioned that, as the board has not yet made a policy decision about airport funding, she said.

       During the hearing, several pilots and airport business owners stressed the need to take action on airport repairs. “It’s simply about maintaining the airport,” said Bruno Schreck, a pilot.

       Several others questioned the expansion of the capital plan and its price tag over several drafts in the past few months, and suggested that the need for the proposed projects, their alternatives, costs, and benefits had not been sufficiently discussed or established.

       The final draft of the plan had been submitted by Mr. Yap just before the hearing, other speakers complained, leaving insufficient time for the public to review it and prepare comments for the hearing.

       Tom MacNiven, a Wainscott resident, said that the plan was not publicly available. “I got it from a friend who got it from a friend — I’m just wondering if that’s transparency,” he said.

       “A thoughtful public response to the plan would require enough time to read it, digest it, and really understand it,” said Kathy Cunningham, who heads the Quiet Skies Coalition. “We need more information about all of these things.”

       Without detailed project descriptions, rationales, and cost estimates, she said she feared the $10 million capital plan was an “attempt to scare” the board and the public “into accepting F.A.A. funding.”

       Drafts from August and October are “very different” from the final draft, with its $10.4 million price tag for all of the projects included, Charles Ehren, also of the Quiet Skies Coalition, said. He called it a “transparent attempt to support the political argument — the phony argument — to take F.A.A. money to save the taxpayer, and so on.”

       Mr. Yap said that as he developed the plan and examined airport needs and the town’s long-range airport master plan, it “brought some of the long-term projects into the short term.”

       “But none of that has been discussed by the board,” Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said.

       Councilman Van Scoyoc agreed. While he said he is glad the board is discussing airport maintenance and safety needs, the board has not been briefed on the specifics of the proposed projects and their costs. “So I’m very reluctant to accept a plan without going through many of the important details,” he said. “I think it is extremely important to review this.”

       Whether the town board can legally adopt the capital plan as proposed is at question. The town code, said John Jilnicki, the town attorney, requires that the plan “reflect the goals of the master plan that has been adopted by the board.” Pat Trunzo of the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion said that beyond the hangar project there is a total of six projects in the five-year capital plan that were not previously analyzed and approved in the master plan and layout plan. Town law requires a public hearing on and environmental analysis of airport projects.

       Margaret Turner of the East Hampton Business Alliance urged the board to look at the airport as a town asset that “should be treated and maintained, as any other town asset,” and evaluate the capital plan separately from the issue of airport noise and funding.

       But, said Bob Wolfram, one of a number of Sag Harbor and East Hampton residents affected by airport noise who spoke at the hearing, taking more F.A.A. money would be akin to “making a deal with the devil.”

       With general agreement that the airport needs to be maintained, the question at hand, said Rachael Faraone of East Hampton, is if adopting the capital plan “is the first step on a path that will require F.A.A. funding, which will basically eliminate the town’s ability to regulate the airport on our own.”

       The East Hampton Chamber of Commerce will receive a $37,000 grant from the Suffolk County Legislature to be used for the construction of an illuminated crosswalk on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village. The village will provide 50 percent of the cost in matching funds.

       As with the two lighted crosswalks on Main Street, the new crosswalk will improve visibility for and of pedestrians. It will be installed at the site of an existing crosswalk on Newtown Lane approximately 500 feet north of Main Street.

       A series of L.E.D. lights will be installed in the pavement, wired to a control box and a push-button switch on either side of the street. The fixtures and wiring will be embedded in the surface of the pavement. Pedestrians waiting to cross the street will be able to press a button to activate the lights and signal oncoming motorists that they are about to enter the crosswalk.

       It has been estimated that it will take about a week to install, and it is expected that the work will be completed in the next year. The village’s Department of Public Works will maintain the crosswalk by repainting traffic markings every year.

In a split vote on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board’s Republican majority approved a $69.4 million budget for 2014 over objections from the board’s two Democrats that an almost $500,000 reduction in the amount budgeted for employee health insurance, proferred by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, could create a budget shortage next year.

The budget had originally included enough in the health insurance line to cover a 10-percent increase in its costs next year, a figure calculated by the New York State Health Insurance Program. The exact increase for next year has not yet been determined, and board members battled over a prudent amount.

Mr. Wilkinson advocated decreasing the allocation to cover only a 5-percent increase, citing NYSHIP figures that estimated the projected increase at between 2 and 6.8 percent.

However, Len Bernard, the town budget officer, who has been tapped by incoming Supervisor Larry Cantwell to continue in that role, cautioned that there was no guarantee that the increase would be at the low end, or within the estimate. He advised budgeting for at least a 7-percent increase.

And Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, along with Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, advocated a “conservative” approach, keeping the figure as is. Should the health insurance money not all be needed next year, they said, the remainder could be set aside to help cover costs the following year.

Mr. Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley balked at collecting any amount above what might be needed, accusing Mr. Van Scoyoc of seeking to create a “slush fund.” Councilman Dominick Stanzione voted with Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley to adopt the budget as amended.

       East Hampton Town Supervisor-elect Larry Cantwell announced on Sunday that he will reappoint Len Bernard as the town’s budget officer in January.

       “While it is the supervisor who makes this appointment, I have consulted with all members of the town board who will hold office in January and they all agree with this appointment,” Mr. Cantwell said in a press release.

       Mr. Bernard served under Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and was the budget officer during Jay Schneiderman’s two terms on the job as well.

       “Len Bernard helped spearhead the financial recovery of the town, reorganized the Finance Department, and developed strong working relationships with the New York State comptroller’s office and the financial professionals who advise the town,” Mr. Cantwell said.

       “While we may be loyal members of different political parties, Len and I agree there is no room for party politics when it comes to the financial health of the town.”

       Mr. Cantwell, a Democrat who ran unopposed, has been holding transition planning meetings in preparation for taking office in January, and said on Sunday that those have included not only his running mate Kathee Burke-Gonzalez but also Fred Overton, both of whom will be new members of the town board.

       Come January, the town board will have a 4-1 Democratic majority, with Mr. Overton as the sole Republican.

       “With the support of the Democrats on the new town board, I have invited Fred and he has agreed to be a full partner in our transition planning,” Mr. Cantwell said.

       Representing the owners of Balasses House, who have applied to change the classification of the Amagansett antiques shop and gallery from limited business overlay to central business, allowing a broader use that he called “general retail,” Rick Whalen, an attorney, sought the support of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday night.

       The building, at the corner of Main Street and Hedges Lane, is in the heart of the hamlet’s business district, Mr. Whalen pointed out, opposite the Amagansett Square complex and across from the stores on the north side of the street. It is in a residential half-acre zone, but has been used commercially, he said, since “at least the ’70s.”

       General retail, Mr. Whalen explained, includes both “dry and wet retail,” “wet” meaning uses such as a grocery store or deli and “dry” referring to, for example, a clothing store or a bank. A restaurant, he said in answer to a question, would not be an allowable use.

       The building’s coverage is now 5,000 square feet, which could be doubled under the central business classification. Two separate uses are permitted on a commercial lot.

       “They are looking to enhance the value of the property,” said Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, who is a real estate broker. The property, which is in the hamlet’s historic district, was said to be for sale for $2.65 million.

       The East Hampton Town Board scheduled a hearing on the proposal for Dec. 19, the same night it will hold two hearings, expected to be contentious, on the controversial 555 senior citizen project in Amagansett. The advisory committee’s discussion of that project is reported elsewhere in this issue.

       Jeanne Frankl, a member of the committee, said the Balasses House proposal ought not to have been included with the other two. “At a hearing that takes up a matter of profound seriousness to us, this hearing has been sandwiched in. It isn’t right. It isn’t fair. They should postpone it.”

       Mr. Whalen said he had had “no idea” that it would be scheduled on that night.

       There is apparently some confusion with the application. “There was delay, delay, from the Building Department” before it issued a new certificate of occupancy granting limited commercial use in September, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the committee’s town board liaison. “I’d like to get a correct planning memo, based on the new C of O, before the town board makes any decision,” she said. “That may delay it again.”

       “None of us is saying, if they postpone it we’ll go for it,” Mr. Brew told Mr. Whalen.

      While the East Hampton Town clerk waits for delivery of a vault to store town records, to be placed in or adjacent to the new Town Hall building that opened four years ago, a storehouse of official records is moldering in the basement of the old Town Hall.

       Abandoned and left shuttered, unheated and uncooled, the old building, which had occasional mold problems that were quickly dealt with when it was occupied, has become so infected with mold that employees, after going there to fetch files, have complained to Ed Michels, the town’s safety officer, of headaches and sinus problems.

       Mr. Michels said this week that the chief fire marshal, Dave Browne, has been asked to inspect the building and consider posting keep-out signs.

       While the building was still in use, its courtroom was sealed off and condemned due to a leaking, crumbling ceiling.

       The building has been targe ted for an overhaul and renovation to create a “European office landscape” — an open floor plan accommodating numerous town departments that would be moved from their present sites, including the nearby Pantigo Place office complex — using a $536,425 New York State Local Government and Efficiency Program grant awarded to East Hampton in June. The grant rewarded efforts from 2010 to 2012 under Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s administration to reduce and reorganize the town staff and to establish better financial controls.

       The open work space design envisioned for the renovated old Town Hall is “intended to provide a more collaborative and humane work environment,” according to the grant application submitted to the state by the town, and “a more conducive work environment [that] will create greater work flow efficiencies and positively impact employee confidence levels.”

       Mr. Wilkinson, whose two terms in office conclude in six weeks, did not respond to questions this week about how the mold problem in the building might affect the renovation plan.

       According to Carole Brennan, the assistant town clerk, who will take office as town clerk in January succeeding incoming Councilman Fred Overton, the historic records contained in a vault on the main floor of the old town hall building are intact.

       With a larger vault accessible to the clerk’s office at its new site, in which the majority of the town records could be stored, she said she would be better able to serve members of the public seeking historical information.

       The town recently announced the receipt, with East Hampton Village, of a second state grant, for $400,000, to be used for a joint fueling facility for official vehicles.

       In a press release, Mr. Wilkinson credited the town’s chief auditor, Charlene Kagel, and grants administrator, Nicole Ficeto, for the successful application. “This is an example of how municipal governments can cooperate through a shared services model that benefits the taxpayers of both jurisdictions.  As you know, this now totals over $900,000 in Local Government Efficiency Awards this administration has received in 2013 alone and is a clear template for future administrations to follow,” he wrote.

East Hampton Town

Town Vehicles Up for Grabs

       East Hampton Town has placed a number of vehicles for sale online at auctionsinternational.com,  where bids will be accepted through Dec. 2.

       The cars and trucks include pickups, dump trucks, former police cars, and more.

Deer Project Collaboration

       With a 3-to-1 vote on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board opted to participate in the Long Island Deer Project, a collaboration between the Long Island Farm Bureau and the United States Department of Agriculture to reduce the deer herd in the five East End towns. The town expects to join East Hampton Village in allowing a deer-killing effort to be undertaken; the cost to each municipality is expected to be $15,000.  Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who has advocated for the town’s participation, was absent from the vote; Councilwoman Sylvia Overby voted against the resolution, saying additional information was needed.

New York State

Grant for Fuel Facility

       Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last week that East Hampton Town and Village have been awarded $400,000 from the state’s Local Government Efficiency Grant Program for construction of a new joint fuel facility, which will replace and relocate aging facilities.

       A town-conducted feasibility study had concluded that a joint facility would save money through a reduced per-gallon cost for fuel, allow for state-of-the-art inventory control and billing, and reduce environmental impacts. The facility will be equipped with a generator and safety measures to ensure the site is operating according to local, state, and federal requirements for toxic and hazardous materials.

       The Local Government Efficiency Grant Program, administered by the New York Department of State, provides technical assistance and competitive grants to local governments for the development of projects that will save money and improve municipal efficiency through shared services, cooperative agreements, mergers, consolidations, and dissolutions.

       The East Hampton Aviation Association, the group that has vociferously defended East Hampton Airport against what it says are unreasonable efforts to limit its use and even shut it down, last week asked the East Hampton Town Board to delay a hearing on the airport capital plan until after the administration of Supervisor-elect Larry Cantwell settles in.

       Gerald Boleis, the association’s president, made the request in a letter to Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson dated Nov. 9. It requests that the hearing, originally set for next Thursday, be postponed “until at least February 2014 to provide the new administration an opportunity to review the plan prior to the public hearing.”

       The move might appear to be an olive branch to airport opponents, but Mr. Boleis said yesterday that it was simply in recognition of the slow pace of the political process.

       “Realistically, nothing is going to happen between now and the end of the year,” he said. “Whatever resolution they do now, the board could change next year.”

       The current Republican majority on the board has been friendly toward the airport and could reasonably be expected to pass a capital plan to its liking before turning off the lights and passing its office keys to the new Democratic majority.

       Mr. Cantwell said during the campaign that he doubted accepting Federal Aviation Administration grants would have an impact on town efforts to impose reasonable restrictions on the airport. Fred Overton, who will be the lone Republican on the new board, supports seeking federal funding. Incoming Councilwoman  Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who like her fellow Democrats, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, has expressed concerns about the airport, said she would favor holding off on seeking additional F.A.A. funding until the town is assured it will be allowed to clamp down on noisy helicopters and other annoyances. That could result in a majority that could block efforts to obtain federal grants.

       Airport opponents have expressed fear that if the town moves to accept additional grants from the F.A.A., efforts to impose a curfew and limits on the type of aircraft that can use the airport will be in vain.

       Mr. Boleis disputed that notion, saying that the shutdown of the federal government was still having ripple effects. “Even if the town asked the F.A.A. for money, the government is not going to be writing a check between now and the end of the year,” he said.

       A unanimous town board in 2012 adopted an airport master plan and requested F.A.A. funding for the construction of a deer fence around the airport, he recalled.

       “It’s been two years and nothing has been done. It is disappointing, but we think nothing will happen [next Thursday] either.”