In May, at a preliminary review of 555 Montauk Highway, a massive project that would change the eastern face of Amagansett, the East Hampton Town Planning Board greeted the owner of the property and his design team with a heaping dose of skepticism. But the plan, now called 555 Montauk Highway II, has been revised, and at a second review, held on Sept. 11, the board, with a couple of exceptions, seemed more amenable.

    The project would require the East Hampton Town Board to create a new zone for the land before it can move forward. According to a detailed memo prepared for the planning board prior to the Sept. 11 meeting by JoAnne Pahwul, the assistant town planning director, the owners have already asked the town board to create that new zone, which they call Senior Citizen Housing District. If the board takes up the matter, it would seek a recommendation from the planning board before holding a public hearing.

    Ms. Pahwul sent the town board a memo dated Aug. 25, in which she wrote that the zoning change, if adopted, “would allow for a relatively significant increase in density that is contrary to a number of goals in the town’s Comprehensive Plan.”

    Covering 23.5 acres, and consisting of three lots that straddle a Shell station north of the highway, two lots to the east of that station, and one to its west, the land has been farmed since the first half of the 19th century, according to the Institute for Long Island Archeology at Stony Brook University, which conducted an archeological survey for the applicants. Viewed from the highway, it appears much the same as in 1895, the survey indicates, when the Long Island Rail Road tracks, which run along the site’s back border, were extended through Amagansett to Montauk.

    The applicants propose to merge the three lots into one, and then build a 79-unit condominium community for affluent older residents, down from the 89 units first proposed. Thirty-six units would be part of an apartment complex to the west, while the remaining 43 would be single-family, two-story houses.

    Eight 647-square-foot apartments would be priced at $550,000, which the applicant called “affordable” during his presentation; the other 24 apartments would be much larger and would be priced much higher, as would all the houses.

    Francis P. Jenkins III addressed the planning board on Sept. 11 for 10 minutes, saying that the town of East Hampton needs the project, which was designed by the architect Jaquelin T. Robertson, a partner in a Manhattan firm that specializes in the design of large-scale planned communities.

    Mr. Jenkins stressed, several times during his presentation, that the westernmost property sits in an affordable housing district, in what almost seemed to be a veiled threat. “The planning department memo pointed out that we could build 36 affordable housing units on the western lot,” he said.

    He was saying, in effect, that if his company, Putnam Bridge, were allowed to put up 36 units for affluent older residents, the average density would be about 1.5 persons per unit, whereas there would be about 4 people per average unit under affordable housing.

    Mr. Jenkins repeated the figures over and over, until Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a planning board member, broke in, “I’m not so sure that we should be afraid of affordable housing.”

    In a 2011 memo to the planning board concerning a proposed 36-unit affordable housing development by the site’s then-owner, Richard Principi, Ms. Pahwul pointed out that the project could not be built without complying with Suffolk County Health Department regulations regarding septic systems, and that such a project would require an on-site sewage treatment plant.

    Mr. Calder-Piedmonte was the most skeptical of the board members, challenging Mr. Jenkins’s proposal point by point, with the subject of affordability coming up several times.

     “Affordability is a huge issue in this town, as everybody knows,” Mr. Calder-Piedmonte said. “I don’t know that eight units is enough to tip it over the edge to say yes, this large project is appropriate because there are eight units of affordable housing.”

    “I’m still a long way from recommending a zoning change for this application,” he concluded.

    The term “affordable,” as used by Mr. Jenkins, actually means market rate, and is contrary to the town’s definition of affordable, which states that the initial offering price for a one-bedroom apartment can be no more than 250 percent of the average annual salary of a moderate-income family.

    Diana Weir was the one board member who seemed strongly supportive of the revised plan. “I want to thank the applicants. They did pay close attention to what we said last time and I’m pleased. I applaud you for that. Especially the open vista in the center,” she said.

    The original plan had no open vistas where one could look north from the Montauk Highway across the fields. However, taking a ruler to the “open vista” in the new plan on file with the planning board, it measures a bit less than five inches long, which translates, according to the plan’s scale, to under 200 feet, a very narrow corridor compared to the current 1,500-plus linear feet of view from the highway.

    Robert Schaeffer told his fellow board members that he was in favor of the concept of a senior-zoned community, but he still seemed to have reservations about this particular proposal.

    He questioned, for example, whether people who had paid hefty prices for their units along with monthly maintenance fees, would be happy that anyone at all could walk from the highway through their community to get to a proposed public playground to the north of the site, near the train tracks.

    “We have reserved the upper playground for public use,” Mr. Jenkins told him.

    “But if it’s private property, and I’m an owner, I’m going to say, who are these people using my property? It seems a little strange. It doesn’t seem realistic to me,” Mr. Schaeffer said.

    “It’s a gorgeous plan,” said Nancy Keeshan, the board’s vice chairwoman. “But for there? it looks like a community within a community. Kind of like something that would be in Florida.”

    Reed Jones, chairman, gave his assessment. “The uncomfortable fact here is, the applicant didn’t spend 10 million dollars to let this land sit there as open space.”

    “We have three options,” he continued. “Ask the town to consider using C.P.F. funds to purchase the land. But that requires a willing seller. I’m sure you’re looking for a multiple of what you spent in order to sell it,” he said, addressing Mr. Jenkins.

    “The second option is to work with the applicant and get something that is agreeable, or, three, we say no, or the town board says no, then you come back and change the whole concept and we lose some control over the whole thing.”

    Ms. Weir pointed out that the whole debate is moot until the town board acts.

    Mr. Schaeffer said it was pointless to go much further with the application “until we hear from the town board. The current town board has 31/2 months left. They could do nothing about it, or they could do something.”

    Mr. Jenkins had told the planning board his design team spent “hundreds of hours” reconfiguring the application. Patrick Schutte observed that they might want to hold off spending any more until the town board weighs in.

    The expansion of a house and an artist’s studio along with a Zen garden got a peace sign from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals at a busy Sept. 10 work session, but a deer fence on the same property raised the board members’ ire.

    The almost one-acre property, at 58 Fenmarsh Road on Hog Creek in Springs, contains a 1,432-square-foot two-story house and 592-square-foot studio. An eight-foot-high deer fence, which, according to a memo prepared for the board by Lisa D’Andrea of the town’s Planning Department, sits on wetlands and was installed without permits.

    The board first considered the application at a hearing on Aug. 28. Peter Gamby proposed a 488-square-foot addition to the first floor of the house, a 165-square-foot addition to the second floor, and a 413-square-foot expansion of the studio. He also said he would upgrade the sanitary system and move the deer fence from actually in the wetland to its border.

    The setback variances required to construct the additions varied from 9.5 to 42.9 feet. The fence, however, would have required an even greater setback variance; Mr. Gamby proposed placing it right at the wetland’s edge when 100 feet is required. This translated to a 100-percent variance. The board was unanimously against any such variance both at the initial hearing and on  Sept. 10.

    “What we have to deal with here is a structure in a wetland that is strictly prohibited by town code,” Alex Walter, the board’s chair, said in August. Three weeks later, that sentiment was expressed by the other four members of the board.”To me, it’s pretty clear the deer fence should go,” Don Cirillo said. The rest of the board concurred that it would have to be removed.

    The expansion of the house and studio was another matter, with the board voting 5-to-0 to allow all the needed variances for the house but agreeing to the variance for the artist’s studio by a split vote.

    “I don’t have a problem with extending the living space. I do have a problem with the expansion of the artist’s studio,” Mr. Cirillo said. He pointed out that the proposed expansion would make the studio larger than some of houses in the neighborhood. Mr. Walter agreed.

    David Lys, however, took the opposite view. He had looked inside the studio, which is used by Mr. Gamby’s wife. “She did have a lot of large pieces,” he said. He argued that the expansion “stays in character with the neighborhood,” and Brian Gosman and Lee White  agreed, setting up a 3-to-2 vote for approval.

    The Zen garden on the property was the final issue. The Planning Department had recommended a 10-foot wide buffer between the garden and the wetland. The problem was that, because of a retaining wall, the buffer proposed would destroy part of the garden.

    “The guy has a beautiful Zen garden,” Mr. Walter said. “It was the first Zen garden I’d ever seen, to be truthful, but it is beautiful.” In the end the board agreed, perhaps in a spirit of tranquillity, to ask the Planning Department and Mr. Gamby to work together to find a way to have the garden and a buffer zone coexist peacefully.

    A public meeting with the consultants preparing a comprehensive wastewater management plan for East Hampton Town will be held at the Montauk School library on Oct. 2 from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

    The meeting is the first of a series that will focus on wastewater issues, needs, and potential solutions in each of the town’s hamlets. A Web site, EHWaterRestore.com, has been set up to provide information and updates on the process.

   East Hampton Studios, the building on Industrial Road in Wainscott that was constructed as a film production soundstage in hopes that it would stimulate a developing film industry here, will become a storage facility.

    Permission from East Hampton Town, which leases the underlying land to the building owner, Michael Wudyka, was needed to change the use of the site, and town board members agreed Tuesday to the plan. Mr. Wudyka’s rent is in arrears, and he has been unable to turn the stage into a successful film production facility. A sale of the building to a storage company is pending, which would allow Mr. Wudyka to pay the town what he owes.

    Town board members expressed regret that the film industry did not take off here. The property is a part of the town’s industrial park on land around East Hampton Airport, which was envisioned as an incubator for industry that would create local jobs.

    Board members said at a meeting on Tuesday that  a number of town residents, including Frazer Dougherty, had called or written to suggest the town retain the use of the studio building for film production, or perhaps other businesses with a greater economic impact than a storage facility. Mr. Dougherty, the founder of East Hampton’s public access cable station, LTV, also founded and built East Hampton Studios.

    In recent weeks, following an East Hampton Star report on the East Hampton Studios request, representatives of Harvey Weinstein, a film producer who co-founded Miramax Films, called The Star to inquire about the studio, but Mr. Wudyka said earlier this week that he had not been approached.

    On Tuesday, the town board unanimously agreed to allow Mr. Wudyka to assign the lease of the property to the new building owner, whose name has not been made public, for the remainder of the lease, as well as for any renewal period provided therein. A formal resolution is expected shortly.

    Like the post-Labor Day calm that descended on East Hampton Village last week, the village board’s work session last Thursday was brief, quiet, and uneventful.

    The board discussed the possible reduction of the speed limits on Hither Lane and Middle Lane from 30 to 25 miles per hour. Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told the board that Andrew Right, who lives on Further Lane but is in the process of relocating to Hither Lane, had brought to his attention that, while the speed limit on Middle Lane is currently 30 miles per hour, surrounding arterial roadways have a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit. He suggested that, in the absence of discussion by the board or comment by members of the public, a public hearing be scheduled.

    Linda Riley, the village attorney, asked the mayor whether other residents had complained about the speed limit. Some had done so informally, the mayor said, but Mr. Right’s mention of the higher speed limit on the streets in question was the catalyst for this discussion. “What we’re doing is, assuming that we had the public hearing, bringing that into compliance with the contiguous streets,” he said.

    The board members agreed to schedule a hearing for next month.

    Also at the work session, the board adopted a resolution declaring a state of emergency to allow the immediate excavation and restoration of the Hook Pond outflow pipe. “It’s been a little bit more of an undertaking than we expected,” the mayor said, adding that Scott Fithian, the village’s superintendent of public works, was at the site as the work session was taking place.

    Excavators worked for five days, Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said in an e-mail on Tuesday. The water levels, she wrote, have decreased to acceptable levels, but the village may have to revisit the matter, depending on weather conditions. “The Village Department of Public Works will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as necessary,” Ms. Molinaro wrote.

    “Isn’t it nice to be able to get around kind of footloose and fancy-free?” the mayor asked, at the conclusion of the brief session. “We welcome them into the community,” he said of the tourists and summer residents, “and we wish them well on their departure.”

   Representatives of the Long Island Power Authority will present details this evening in a meeting about a project to replace existing utility poles to allow for an upgraded electrical transmission line between East Hampton Village and Amagansett. The session will take place in an open-house format at the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street from 6 to 8 p.m. The public has been invited.

    Rebecca Molinaro, the East Hampton Village administrator, issued a notice yesterday about the meeting that said the new lines and poles would be able to withstand winds of 130 miles per hour. Work is to take place between the utility’s Cove Hollow Road, East Hampton, substation and a substation on Old Stone Highway, Amagansett, adjacent to the Long Island Rail Road station.

   Angela Scott of Spring Street, representing 168 Sag Harbor residents who have signed a petition for what she conceded is a complex problem, once again urged the village board to make flooding in the village a priority. “Last week it hit home,” she said, and offered to do “whatever we can do to help you in the process.”

    With complaints from the heavy rain on Sept. 3 including flooded basements, cars stuck in massive puddles, and some that were destroyed, Mayor Brian Gilbride agreed, saying that “weather patterns are crazier than they were.”

    Weather reports warned of showers, but the mayor said the deluge resulted in widespread flooding including of Glover Street, Route 114, and Garden Street.

    Ken O’Donnell, a village board member, said he saw “a foot of water within minutes” while driving around that day with Dee Yardley, the highway superintendant.

    Mayor Gilbride said he hopes for a comprehensive plan going forward from the “state, county, FEMA, whatever.”

    “I am taking it seriously,” he said. “The board is taking it seriously. . . . I want to make sure we’re doing it right.”

    Ms. Scott urged the board to consider a temporary moratorium on grade changes, but Mayor Gilbride said he trusts the appropriate boards to make the right decisions on such requests.

    Robby Stein, another board member, told Ms. Scott that “the water is running off because drain pipes are running straight into the street” in her neighborhood.

    Mayor Gilbride said that he and Mr. Yardley met with a company and are considering imminent work at the intersections of Spring and Garden Streets, Roger Street between Latham and Henry Streets, and on Hempstead Street at the intersection of Liberty Street. “In my view it has to go up to the school,” he said. “I want to make sure they realize that.” They have received a quote for $9,500 for each storm drain.

    He said that the unexpected rainfall taught him that “Sandy was one incident, that six inches of rain was a completely different issue.”

    “We are investigating. We were talking about hurricane preparedness on Tuesday morning,” Mr. O’Donnell said, “then the skies opened.”

    Chris Hegedus of Garden Street thanked the board in advance for “looking at it as a comprehensive problem of drainage and flooding.”

    Mayor Gilbride told Ms. Hegedus that the village had ordered 500 sandbags, primarily for West Water Street, but added, “If you need some, we would also give them to you.”

    Rosemary Cummins, also of Spring Street, urged the board to inform the public and suggested a community planning committee. Businesses were affected as well, she said. “Water was as high as my long legs.” Her veterinarian had to cancel all of his appointments, she said.

    She said businesses as well as groups like Save Sag Harbor should be involved, along with professional engineers. She believes that the loss of some trees on Willow Street in Hurricane Sandy affected the flooding. “They used to be able to absorb a lot,” she said.

    Larry Penny, a Noyac resident and former East Hampton Town director of natural resources, agreed. He believes that sea levels will rise by 1.5 feet by 2050, and urged the creation of a committee, assistance from organizations set up by Bill Gates and President Clinton, and “containing some of that water in the wetlands, so it doesn’t all run down.” He also liked the idea of planting willow trees. “They absorb a great amount of water,” he said, as well as removing “nitrogen that gives us red tides.”

    Simon Harrison, a real estate broker who asked the board four months ago to ban fertilizers within 200 feet of wetlands, returned again to urge the same thing. He said, “We’ve had a variety of rust tides, mahogany tides, brown tides, and red tides.”

    On Sunday, he said, “there was a red tide the length of Long Beach.” It could be attributed to the rain,” he suggested. “It’s safe to say in this village, it all flushes into the bay.” Solutions discussed at the meeting will “get it into the bay faster.”

    Action could be voluntary, he said, suggesting that anything far outweighs doing nothing.

    Mr. Stein offered to meet with Mr. Harrison to “write something up.”

   The formation of a citizens committee charged with collecting information about businesses and their needs appears to be on the horizon, after a plea from a business organization leader that East Hampton Town officials base decisions affecting business owners on actual data, rather than speculation.

    Margaret Turner, the executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance, spoke to the town board at a meeting last Thursday, highlighting recent discussions about a town code change that would make it easier to cite certain businesses being run in residential areas for illegal operation.

    The proposed code change pertains to the parking of large trucks on residential lots.

    “There are no true statistics,” Ms. Turner told the town board. “You have no idea of the numbers of vehicles that will be displaced.” She said the business community does not dispute that homeowners whose neighbors are illegally operating businesses need relief. “But,” she said, “you need to consider how the problem got started in the first place. We feel it was poor, or lack of, planning.”

    There is a vacuum, Ms. Turner said, where long-term plans for the town’s economy are concerned.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley jump­ed on the idea of creating a group to gather information on businesses, similar to one she led that presented the board with information regarding housing.

    “I think it is important that this town come up with data,” Ms. Quigley said at a board work session on Tuesday. “We have no stats for our businesses; it’s time we get the stats. With that, this town will be better able to make decisions that affect businesses in this town.”

    Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc questioned the scope of the committee’s tasks, and its ultimate goal. “Because business, while it’s a major component of our town, and it provides jobs — it’s part of the fabric of our town — it’s got to be balanced,” he said. “So, are we looking to try to improve the business climate?”

    “I want to know what the town provides in terms of zoning; what their needs are . . . in terms of infrastructure,” Ms. Quigley said. “This is about data; somebody else can interpret it. There are no results considered.”

    Ms. Turner said she envisioned a “multi-pronged approach,” beginning with the collection of “basic data” about numbers of businesses, what types, and their locations, as well as their needs. “What do they need in terms of survival, what do they need to grow their businesses?” Ms. Turner asked. “Can all of their needs be met? Probably not,” she said. “But there can certainly be a lot more assistance from the town.”

    The town’s comprehensive plan, last updated in 2005, called for several undertakings that have not been addressed, including planning studies of individual hamlets, an erosion-control plan, and a business-needs study, Mr. Van Scoyoc noted. “There are a number of unfinished items,” he said.

    With building department and assessors’ records, and the like, the town has “a lot of data,” the councilman said. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed.

    “We have garbage,” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said.

    Ms. Quigley said she envisioned including members of varied professions among the appointed committee members, who could provide information about the numbers of businesses here within their category. She had suggested a similar approach for completion of a planning study on the hamlet of Wainscott, charging its citizens advisory committee members with pulling it together with the help of town staff.

    But Ms. Overby suggested that a professional planning consultant was in order. “This needs to be done professionally,” she said. “The hamlet studies need to be done professionally. We get a better outcome . . . it’s not done just by citizens getting together.” She cited several planning studies commissioned by the town in the past that provided a wide-ranging overview of pertinent issues as well as recommendations.

    Ms. Quigley and Mr. Wilkinson protested. “Every time we need a professional, we go outside,” Mr. Wilkinson complained. “If we don’t have the asset inside, we should get rid of the assets who aren’t doing the job.”

    “We are understaffed,” Ms. Overby said.

    Ms. Turner said she had learned at a recent county-sponsored forum that other East End towns have staff members dedicated to long-term planning and economic development. “They . . . have in-house planners who are working on what they want their town to look like 5 or 10 years down the road,” she said.

    Cochlodinium, or rust tide, has been discovered in Three Mile Harbor, Northwest Harbor, and Accabonac Harbor.

    At the meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees on Tuesday night, Stephanie Forsberg, in the aquaculture report she delivered to her colleagues, reported the recent discovery. Cochlodinium, she said, is algae that can be fatal to shellfish and finfish, but is not harmful to humans when ingested.

    Two weeks ago, as reported in The Star, rust tide had not been seen in waters overseen by the trustees, despite its existence to the west, in Peconic Bay and Shinnecock Bay. “It shows you how quickly things can change in a week,” Ms. Forsberg said. Densities of the rust tide are lower than were found in westerly waters, she said, “but these are higher than we’ve seen in the past.”

    A difficulty in addressing the algal bloom, she said, is that “it can change, from day to day, where it is. It’s not necessarily isolated to one part of a harbor. We can be hopeful for our ecosystem and shellfish that it doesn’t stay in any one place long enough, that tidal flushing will move it.” Tides, wind, and cooler temperatures will eventually resolve the situation, she said.

    The trustees, in cooperation with Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, have funded a comprehensive monitoring of the waters they oversee. Ms. Forsberg told her colleagues that water sampling has been increased to at least once per week. “We’re going to continue to do that now because that’s all we can do,” she said.

    “What’s the leading cause?” Nat Miller, a trustee and bayman, asked.

    “Nitrogen,” Ms. Forsberg answered, “but we don’t know exactly from which source. It can be very site-specific. At least now we have quantification of it.”

    Ms. Forsberg also reported that no blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, had been discovered in Georgica Pond. Last September, a dog died after apparently drinking water containing a toxin that, she said, may have come from a pond adjacent to Georgica Pond.  

    Turnout for Tuesday’s Republican primary was low in East Hampton, with just 67 people casting ballots at the polls.

    While the results of the write-in primary for East Hampton Town supervisor will not be known until at least early next week, unofficial tallies in the races for the G.O.P. nomination for district attorney and county sheriff show clear wins for the incumbents, Thomas J. Spota and Vincent De Marco respectively.

    In East Hampton, no one had stepped forward to express interest in challenging Larry Cantwell, who is running for supervisor on the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families lines. In fact, there was a concerted Republican effort to nominate Mr. Cantwell as a write-in. He has informed the Suffolk County Board of Elections that he would decline the nomination if he won it, but he still has some time to think about it.

    The Board of Elections will not begin the recanvassing process until Monday, tallying write-in votes from polling places as well as affidavit and absentee ballots. The candidate with the majority of votes would be considered the winner, but he or she can choose to decline the nomination.