A proposed Sagaponack subdivision on the south side of Montauk Highway drew the ire of the East Hampton Town Planning Board on March 14. The conversation began when its chairman, Job Potter, said, “This is a big, if I can use the word, ugly subdivision of farmland.”

The proposed 41.3-acre subdivision calls for nine clustered house lots and a slightly under-27-acre agricultural reserve on what is now open farmland. The Sagaponack Village Board is scheduled to take up a preliminary map of the subdivision, called Meadowmere, at its meeting on Monday. Under state law, the village is required to invite East Hampton to weigh in due to the property’s proximity to the town line.

On March 16, the East Hampton Town Planning board wrote to the town board, saying it would “strongly recommend that the town board urge Sagaponack Village to use community preservation fund money to conserve the farmland, or if preservation of the entire farm were not possible,” to save as much as they could.

Kenneth Schwenk and his family own the rectangular parcel. Mr. Schwenk, who is represented by Alice Cooley of Matthews, Cooley & Kirst, has submitted a preliminary subdivision map to the Sagaponack Village Board, which is scheduled to discuss it on Monday. Neither Mr. Schwenk nor Ms. Cooley would comment Tuesday on the proposal. 

Mr. Schwenk’s property is marked by an unusual 19-foot-tall sculpture of sorts and contains a house and several small structures. If the subdivision were approved, these structures would become part of a tenth 55,000-square-foot lot. 

According to Rosemarie Cary Win- chell, the clerk-treasurer of Sagaponack Village, Mr. Schwenk’s property is the only piece of contiguous farmland on the south side of the highway on which the Town of Southampton has not bought development rights, which it has done for 17 acres on Town Line Road behind TownLine Barbecue and 88.3 acres to the west of Mr. Schwenk’s property. 

The new house lots would range from 53,000 to 56,597 square feet, clustered on the southwest corner of Mr. Schwenk’s property and about 700 feet from structures now on the highway. A new, 50-foot-wide, over-1,000-foot-long roadway would be constructed for access. 

Ms. Winchell had sent a letter about the subdivision to Carole Brennan, the East Hampton Town clerk, on Feb. 27, which was forwarded to the town board and subsequently to the planning board and Planning Department. 

According to Ms. Winchell and the planning board’s attorney, John Jilnicki, such letters, while rare, are generally innocuous, and do not usually call for a response. That will not be the case here, if the planning board’s comments at its March 14 meeting, as well as the position of the town’s Planning Department, hold any sway. 

Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town planning director, reading from a memo at March 14 meeting, said, “Every person traveling Montauk Highway to and from East Hampton passes by this farm.” She pointed out that the lots are clustered away from Montauk Highway and are located adjacent to existing residential development. “This will help minimize impacts to the rural character of the highway,” she said. However, she then turned to a point that became key for board members. “If there is a way to provide access to the new parcels while avoiding a new curb cut on Montauk Highway, we strongly recommend that the village explore this with the applicant.”

 “Bad move,” Randall Parsons, a planning board member, said about the access road. Mr. Potter added, “The road is the most offensive thing, in a way. You have that long, long stretch of undisturbed farmland, from Town Line Road to Sagg Main Street. Right in the middle of that, you’re going to have a cobblestone, paved access road.” 

“And, it is going to be right in the middle,” Ed Krug, another board member, agreed. Mr. Krug then turned the conversation to the possibility of the project’s not going forward at all. “These are prime agricultural soils. This is as good as it gets,” he said. “Once it is gone, it’s gone,” Kathleen Cunningham, another board member, said. 

Later in the meeting, Mr. Parsons suggested, at the very least, that an attempt be made to reduce the density of the proposal, to which other members agreed.

Mr. Potter said he would encourage the Village of Sagaponack and the Town of Southampton to explore the use of the community preservation fund “to protect this farmland and stop the subdivision.”

“Absolutely,” Mr. Krug said. “I agree,” Nancy Keeshan, another member of the planning board, added.

“It is kind of hard to do this, because it is not our code,” Ms. Wolffsohn said. “I think it is very hard to do this,” said Ian Calder-Piedmonte, himself a farmer and partner in Balsam Farms on Town Lane in Amagansett. “I am certainly not in favor of subdividing farm fields if we can help it, but I think the language of doing everything you can to stop the subdivision is unfair, maybe, because we don’t know their standards.”  

Mr. Potter agreed with Mr. Calder-Piedmonte, telling his fellow board members that the focus of their letter to the East Hampton Town Board should be on “conserving the farmland, as opposed to stopping the subdivision.”

President Trump has signed bipartisan legislation sponsored by Representative Lee Zeldin that expands severely disabled veterans’ access to health day care. 

Veterans whose disabilities are at least 70 percent connected to or aggravated by their military service can need significant day-to-day assistance, with the burden often falling on family members, Mr. Zeldin’s office said in a release. “Some veterans may even need to reside in institutionalized facilities to receive the daily assistance of a trained medical professional. Both of these options can create financial and emotional hardships for the veteran and their family,” acccording to Mr. Zeldin’s office.

Adult day health care for disabled veterans can be provided at state veterans homes, but veterans and their families are often responsible for the cost of the care, and such care is offered only in three facilities in the country, including the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook. 

Mr. Zeldin’s bill, which was signed into law late last month, defined the adult day health care program as a reimbursable treatment option through the Department of Veterans Affairs, making veterans whose disabilities are 70 percent or more service-connected able to access the care at no cost. The bill, which passed in the House of Representatives on a voice vote last year, also expands the program, which could be offered at any of the country’s 153 state veterans homes.

“This is important legislation that provides a valuable and necessary service to our nation’s veterans, and I thank President Trump for signing it into law,” Mr. Zeldin said in a statement. “By expanding access to adult day health care, we can ensure that all veterans receive the best and most efficient outpatient services that provide each veteran with the assistance and special attention they need, while still allowing them to maintain their independence.” 

The East Hampton Town Planning Board held a public hearing on March 28 on a site plan that would allow AT&T to place cellphone antenna panels on three of the four sides of the World War II-era fire-control tower at the Montauk Lighthouse.

The Montauk Historical Society, which oversees the facility, had received a variance from the zoning board of appeals in January; it was needed because the lighthouse and surrounding state park are zoned for parks and recreation, which excludes cellphone antennas. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation has already approved the project.

At the hearing, Joe Gaviola of Montauk, who has been leading the effort to have cell antennas installed, reminded the board that the lighthouse was the first public works project in the United States, commissioned by George Washington in 1792. While the lighthouse is self-sustaining, he said it is visited by 100,000 visitors a year, with another 100,000 per year visiting surrounding parkland. Nearby Montauk Harbor has visitors on an estimated 1,800 boats. 

“What we don’t have at the lighthouse and the surrounding areas is reliable cellphone coverage,” he said.

All the supporting equipment will be installed inside the six-story tower, which was built to guard against German attack. The panels will be placed on the north, south, and east exterior walls, mounted flush and painted to match the color of the tower. The west exterior wall, the one most visible to visitors walking up the hill toward the lighthouse, will look exactly as it has for the past 70-plus years.

The board is likely to discuss the request at its meeting on Wednesday.

A jury found a Northwest Woods man charged with violating East Hampton Town’s rental registry law in 2016 not guilty after a trial at East Hampton Town Justice Court last week. 

The town had accused James Henry, who rents year round on Settlers Landing Lane, of living in the house despite knowing that its owner, Dolores Karl, a Manhattan resident, had not obtained a rental registry number, as of the date the charge was brought, July 29, 2016.

Under the law, which engendered much controversy before being passed by a unanimous vote by the East Hampton Town Board in December of 2015, the owner and the tenants are equally liable in cases where a rental house has not been registered.

Michael Sendlenski, the town’s lead attorney, handled the prosecution, while Lawrence Kelly, who had taken out a full-page advertisement in The East Hampton Star’s March 22 issue decrying the town’s approach to ordinance enforcement, represented Mr. Henry. The trial began on March 20 and concluded on March 21.

Violation of the law is considered a misdemeanor. If Mr. Henry had been convicted, he would have been left with a criminal record. The law also allowed a fine of up to $3,000 and up to six months in jail.

There was little dispute over the basic facts. Mr. Henry told the court that he had been renting the house for several years from Ms. Karl, who was elderly and had died after the charge was brought, and that he paid $3,000 a month. Ms. Karl was an absentee landlord, and it was established that Mr. Henry frequently rented out one or two rooms in the house. 

From the beginning, Mr. Kelly tried to make the trial about the law itself, which he called “slimy” during his opening statement. This brought an objection from Mr. Sendlenski, followed by a conference between the lawyers and the judge out of earshot of the jury. When they returned, Justice Tekulsky struck the sentence from the record and told the jury to disregard it.

Mr. Sendlenski called three witnesses on March 20, including Kelly Kampf, an ordinance enforcement officer in 2016 who is now East Hampton Town’s assistant director of public safety. 

Ms. Kampf told the jury that, as the town began enforcing the new law in the late spring of 2016, her department received a number of online complaints about the property in question from a neighbor who lived several houses down. These complaints included reports of debris in the yard, and allegations that the house was not registered as a rental.

Ms. Kampf visited the house in June 2016 and spoke with Mr. Henry, who allowed her to enter and inspect the property. Ms. Kampf described Mr. Henry as “cooperative.” She said she found several violations beyond the lack of a rental registry number, including the absence of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and an illegal addition to a deck. 

A warning was issued, Ms. Kampf said, and the violations were eventually cleared. Still, there was no rental registry number.

During cross-examination, Mr. Kelly asked if Ms. Kampf had ever gone to the owner’s Manhattan address. She responded that she had not, explaining that she had no jurisdiction in Manhattan. With the town unable to reach or serve the owner, the tenant was the sole person charged.

Including the time they spent listening to Justice Tekulsky’s re-reading of the law and the charge, the jurors spent less than half an hour coming to their not-guilty verdict.

In the hallway after the trial, none of the jurors wanted to give his or her name, yet most were eager to talk. “The burden was left on him. It is a weak law. The law needs help. It is unfair. It needs to be revamped,” said the foreman.

“He thought it was registered at the time,” one of the two female jurors said. “Under oath, he said he thought it was registered.” 

“He said that he talked to [Ms. Karl] and that she said she was going to register,” a male juror added. “It is not his fault.”

Other jurors agreed that this assertion cast doubt on Mr. Henry’s guilt. 

Court observers believe that this is the first jury trial on a rental registry violation in East Hampton.

The former Boys and Girls Harbor campsite on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, which the town and Suffolk County purchased in 2011 for $7.3 million, may see a renovation that would include a covered pavilion, an amenity that East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said is in too short supply. 

At the town board’s March 20 work session, Mr. Van Scoyoc said that the town’s property management committee was created to evaluate town-owned structures that had fallen into disuse and decide if they should be retained and restored for public use. Properties including Fort Pond House and Second House in Montauk, and Duck Creek Farm in Springs, are among those restored or undergoing restoration. Earlier this month, the board approved an estimated $850,000 expenditure to restore the 11-acre property in Springs that once belonged to the Abstract Expressionist painters James Brooks and Charlotte Park. 

Last week, the board turned its attention to the Boys and Girls Harbor mess hall, part of the original Boys Harbor camp founded by Anthony Drexel Duke. From 1954 to 2006, he brought underprivileged inner-city youth to the camp to hike, boat, swim, and learn about nature. 

The site, adjoining Three Mile Harbor, is approximately 60 acres, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, and “to date has been very much underutilized, because although there’s room to park, there really are no other amenities there.” 

The mess hall is approximately 45 by 105 feet, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, and contains a large dining area, kitchen, and restrooms. “That building has fallen into disrepair,” he said. After the town and county purchased the property, “that building was retained with the idea that it be used for recreation in the future.” 

The board engaged Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, to conduct a study to determine whether the structure would be safe and in a condition conducive to restoration. “That revealed that there are some major problems with the existing building,” he said. “However, the slab, which is pretty much the whole footprint of the building, is in good shape.” The chimney and fireplace are also in good condition, he said, and Mr. Bennett’s recommendations included retention and restoration of the bathrooms and some mechanical elements. 

“We now have a proposal to do the plans and specs to get this structure put out to bid for restoration, with the concept of an open-air covered pavilion,” the supervisor said. The covered pavilion at Maidstone Park in Springs and the picnic area at Fresh Pond in Amagansett are the only such amenities in the town, he said, and they are solidly booked for events. “The idea is to not put the roof over the entire footprint, to have an outside concrete deck area.”

The creation of more accessible trails that adhere to Americans With Disabilities Act requirements has been added to the plan, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “The topography is already very much disturbed, having been a camp,” he said, “and dirt roads and whatnot go throughout the property.” A wide path improved with a pervious surface would allow those using walkers or wheelchairs to better enjoy the park setting, he said, and children to learn to ride bicycles.

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This article has been updated to correctly reflect that the Maidstone Park picnic pavillion is the only covered site of its type on town property.

“I really have that strong understanding of how federal policy comes down and intersects with local policy — what happens on the ground,” David Pechefsky said of his tenure as the New York City Council’s assistant director for housing and economic development. 

Mr. Pechefsky, who lives in Port Jefferson, is one of six candidates vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in the Nov. 6 midterm election. He moved to Patchogue from Manhattan at age 4, and was the valedictorian of Patchogue-Medford High School’s class of 1986, later earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Hunter College and a master’s degree in international development at American University in Washington, D.C.

In New York, he also worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Mayor’s Office of Appointments, worked to protect children from lead poisoning, promoted sustainable “green” buildings, and in 2009 made a bid for City Council, running on the Green Party ticket. “The system needed to be challenged,” he said of his Green Party affiliation. “I wanted to be free to be critical of the system, to not be worried about endorsements,” he said. “It was very liberating to do that. It was also instructive about how entrenched the system is.” 

Though he has largely focused on housing policy, Mr. Pechefsky also touts his foreign policy credentials, which he says set him apart from his rivals seeking the Democratic nomination. He served as a consultant for the National Democratic Institute from 2010 to 2013, working to build democratic institutions in Liberia, Somalia, Iraq, and Sierra Leone. 

He is on leave at present from his position as senior adviser at Generation Citizen, a nonprofit organization that trains college students to be “democracy coaches,” providing civic education for middle and high school students so they can be informed and active participants in democracy. 

Speaking two days after several March for Our Lives events, in which hundreds of thousands of people demanded legislative action on guns, Mr. Pechefsky pointed to that issue as one that leaves Mr. Zeldin vulnerable. The congressman was a co-sponsor of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would require all states to recognize any other state’s concealed-carry permit, and has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund. “He’s been wrong on so many issues — the gun issue, clearly,” Mr. Pechefsky said. Whether it is Mr. Zeldin’s statement that Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior adviser, could be a great senator, which Mr. Pechefsky called “ludicrous,” or what he called Mr. Zeldin’s grandstanding on anti-gang legislation, which “feeds into the racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric” of President Trump, “it’s hard to say what he’s done right.” 

“We know that youth that are not engaged are susceptible to join these gangs” and participate in other antisocial behavior, he said. “Has there been any effort to get more funding? It seems he’s not doing any of that. . . . As far as I can see, as far as anyone in the district I talk to can see, it doesn’t seem he is active in trying to deliver for the district.” 

“His public persona is a Trump apologist,” Mr. Pechefsky said of Mr. Zeldin. “The fact that he’s chosen to be a mouthpiece for the Trump administration — how is that providing good representation to the district?” he asked, referring also to the congressman’s December 2017 fund-raiser attended by Steve Bannon, a divisive figure who worked for the Trump campaign and administration. “It seems he’s thrown in his hat with the Freedom Caucus,” a group within the House Republican Conference that is considered the most conservative. 

“He’s well out of the mainstream of where the district is,” Mr. Pechefsky said of Mr. Zeldin. “But also, when you look at the needs of the district, where is the leadership? The district is facing a housing crisis. He hasn’t done anything to address that. . . . For working people on the East End, there’s no work-force housing.” 

Though President Trump won the First Congressional District by nine percentage points over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, Mr. Pechefsky said that the more densely populated western portion of the district is not as conservative as residents on the South Fork may perceive it to be. “On the East End,” he said, “there’s a perception that somehow Brookhaven is solid Trump territory. It’s not.” Brookhaven “is much more heterogeneous, there’s a lot more diversity in political views than people might think. Patchogue is very diverse politically, very diverse ethnically, much more than when I was growing up.”

If the Democratic nominee “is a unifier and has a strong message that galvanizes all Democrats and young people that may not identify as strongly as 

Democrats . . . talking about a better future, a vision of government as a force for good, and is honest about the struggle people are facing,” that person will win, he said. “There’s a demand, a cry for honesty, for accountability. If we go that route, we’ll win.” And, he said, “When I’m the nominee, I will beat Lee Zeldin.”

The Democratic nominee, he said, will be “someone who captures the new activism. Someone that people feel is really speaking with conviction about issues that matter to Democratic primary voters.” But Mr. Zeldin’s position on guns, he predicted, “will be what galvanizes people.” 

In Congress, Mr. Pechefsky envisions himself as part of a coalition working on big-picture issues including economic inequality, Medicare for all (“the only solution to having a better, fairer, more cost-effective health care system,” he said at a Jan. 13 forum at Southampton College), redirecting investment toward “human and physical infrastructure,” and addressing climate change. At a March 9 forum for Democratic candidates at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, Mr. Pechefsky challenged a foreign policy he said is “based on militarism.” This, he said on Monday, is also “fiscally irresponsible because of the vast amounts of money given for defense.” 

With respect to the First District, “I would like to work on affordable housing. We’re not talking low-income housing — that’s a subset of that — we’re talking about middle-income housing that the market is not producing.” Also, “working on the clean-water infrastructure — sewers, septic systems, protecting waterways. I’d be a founding member of a ‘sewer infrastructure caucus.’ ” The district’s public transportation system also needs improvement, he said. 

“This is a moment where we have to be bold,” Mr. Pechefsky said. “Look at all the pressure on people. There’s no relief in sight. Where do you turn for relief from housing costs and medical bills that are too high, wages that are too low? What is [Mr. Zeldin] doing about the housing crisis, to improve health care? He passed an egregious bill that was going to strip people of health care,” he said, referring to Mr. Zeldin’s 2017 vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 

Mr. Trump, he said, “is conducting himself in such an offensive manner: demeaning political opponents, using racist language. He’s doing real harm.

 . . . In terms of our civic fabric, it’s classic distraction: Exploit divisions — ethnic division, racial tensions — for your own ends. The damage he’s doing to relationships with other countries, as well — his comments about African nations are deeply offensive.” Mr. Pechefsky’s in-laws are immigrants from Uganda. 

Asked if he would support a movement to impeach the president should Democrats win a majority in the House, Mr. Pechefsky was circumspect. “I don’t think it’s on the table quite yet. I’m going to reserve judgment on that. I want to see evidence” from the special counsel overseeing the probe into Russian meddling and possible ties to the Trump campaign. “But there are so many things that look bad.” 

The Democratic Party primary is on June 26. Mr. Pechefsky is one of six candidates seeking the nomination.

In light of the fall 2017 detection of chemical contamination of more than 100 wells in Wainscott and the recent discovery of concentrations of lead and chemicals in the surface water and aquifer around the Sand Land mine on the Bridgehampton-Noyac border, the president of the advocacy group Amagansett-Springs Aquifer Protection and other residents implored the East Hampton Town Board to act quickly to preclude additional development atop the Stony Hill aquifer in Amagansett. 

At the board’s meeting on March 15, Alexander Peters of Amagansett-Springs Aquifer Protection, who is also on the board of the New York League of Conservation Voters, asked that the board use the community preservation fund to solicit the purchase of some 50 lots atop the aquifer, which provides potable water to northern East Hampton, Amagansett, Springs, Napeague, and most of Montauk. “It’s just incredibly important for the vast majority of the people in our town,” he said.

Mr. Peters, who is known as Sas, read a letter to the board from Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who is chairman of the State Assembly’s committee on environmental conservation. The Stony Hill aquifer recharge area is important to the portion of the upper glacial moraine aquifers that underlie this part of the South Fork, according to Mr. Englebright’s letter, and can provide potable drinking water to East Hampton residents “because it is relatively large, geographically centered within the town, and still lightly developed.” Relatively few potential sources of contamination, its present pristine state, its value as a source of drinking water, and the voter-approved use of a portion of community preservation fund money for water-quality improvement all point to the importance of implementing a plan to preserve the remaining open land atop this part of the glacial moraine, the letter said.

“Freshwater reserves are limited in East Hampton,” particularly east of Amagansett, Mr. Englebright wrote, due to the region’s geology and topography. Further, “Because sea level is rising, the fresh groundwater reserves of the entire town will be significantly diminished in the next 50 to 150 years,” while residential development “is likely to follow the trend of numerous other towns, by gradually transitioning from a mixture of partial and year-round occupancy to almost exclusively year-round use, and thereby create a higher demand for potable water.” 

Should a severe contamination crisis occur elsewhere in the town, the letter continued, the Stony Hill aquifer recharge area “will also be vitally needed” for short-term emergency water supply. “Considering East Hampton’s unique geological and hydrological limitations as well as threats to the future availability of pure drinking water, I believe it is critically important to act now upon the fact that protection of this groundwater catchment area should be a priority.” Additional development, he said, “should be considered to be just as inappropriate and unwelcome as would be any hypothetical houseboat development” atop the Ashokan, Roundout, or Croton reservoirs that supply New York City’s drinking water. 

New development at Stony Hill, Mr. Englebright’s letter said, “could be a tipping point,” and he urged “wise utilization of the C.P.F. tool that the State Legislature and the people of the town of East Hampton have provided to preserve and protect, both for now and all time, the clean recharge of rainwater into the Stony Hill aquifer recharge area.”

Richard Smolian of Amagansett also decried “the rapid pace of development that has endangered the aquifer” and lamented the fact that the town had purchased just two lots above it in the last four years. “This must be the year for change,” he said. “With the Democratic town board in command, a program to initiate the purchase of undeveloped land in order to conserve and protect our water supply must now commence.”

Mr. Peters and Mr. Smolian share an unusual bond, one that underscores their mutual aspiration. Mr. Peters bought the lots at 42 and 46 La Foret Lane in Amagansett from Mr. Smolian in 1992 and 1997. He has long sought to sell the 3.5 acres of undeveloped land to the town. The deed to each lot, however, gives Mr. Smolian, along with Randy Smolian, his former wife, Darielle Smolian, his daughter, and Jonathan Smolian, his son, a right to repurchase the land so long as the family retains ownership of an adjacent lot. In April 2015, Mr. Smolian signed an affidavit formally waiving his right of first refusal; while he supports preservation of the land, his family members do not. 

Mr. Peters told The Star in December 2014 that the right of first refusal was included in the deeds “for the very simple purpose of making sure that the land was always conserved. I promised Dick I would never develop the land and never have, and now am trying to nail that down forever.”

Mr. Peters said he had offered a settlement of $100,000 to Jonathan Smolian through an intermediary. He refused, and a suit filed in December 2014 claims that he told Mr. Peters “he had enlisted ‘partners’ who he intended to work with in order to develop the property and achieve a substantial profit.” Randy Smolian and Darielle Smolian, the suit alleges, will not waive their right of first refusal unless Jonathan Smolian also does.

On March 15, the elder Mr. Smolian told the board that his son “prevailed in his ability to exercise a right of first refusal” on the land he sold to Mr. Peters, preventing its sale to the town, “and that particular dispute is still in a holding pattern that’s going to go on forever. . . . I have thrown my lot in with Sas, and have incurred the wrath of my family to make good on a promise I made over 25 years ago to Sas, to keep the aquifer clean.”

Councilman Jeff Bragman told Mr. Peters and Mr. Smolian that Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition and management, was “at work already for us” to identify the owners of parcels that the town could potentially acquire with C.P.F. money. 

“You’re not going to find anyone here on this side of the board arguing against the importance of our recharge areas within the town,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc told Mr. Peters and Mr. Smolian, “and I thank you for your efforts.” 

Mr. Peters said on March 19 that he is hopeful that the board will act swiftly. “We’re really hoping the town board gets moving here, and frankly we have a dream team of conservationists on the board now,” he said. “There should be no disagreement. I hope to God they move ahead quickly.”

The East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery disseminated about 40 million oysters, clams, and scallops into town waters last year, its director told the town trustees on Monday. The hatchery was established in the 1980s after a brown tide reduced the shellfish harvest by some 80 percent; in more recent years, it has made a hit with its oyster-gardening program, which gets the public involved in oyster growing and which, its director said, has great benefits for the marine environment of the creeks and ponds where the gardens grow.

In delivering his annual report to the trustees, who manage many town waterways and bottomlands on behalf of the public, Barley Dunne said that weather conditions had been generally favorable for growth and survival of the shellfish seeded in 2017. Periods of unusually warm water temperatures can be harmful to the shellfish habitat, but the water last summer, he said, had surpassed 80 degrees for just a few hours at a time, which was good news for the survival of the eelgrass that provides critical habitat for juvenile shellfish. 

Mr. Dunne, who also delivered a report to the town board on March 20, said that hatchery staff grew 2.25 million oysters to 40 millimeters, the size at which they can be disseminated. “This year, the average size was something like 52 millimeters,” he said, with the larger size increasing the oysters’ odds of survival. 

About 4.3 million clams were grown to a seed size of about 10 millimeters, Mr. Dunne said, and are overwintering in Northwest Creek. “We’re going to try to move them out of there early in the season and into more flowing water.” 

The hatchery’s effort to grow and seed scallops was less successful, he reported. “Overwinter survival last year wasn’t very good. Coupled with our hatchery production, we didn’t have a great scallop year, unfortunately.” 

In 2018, Mr. Dunne hopes to build on last year’s successes. “We’re going to shoot for a lot of the same numbers that we have achieved recently — more scallops, hopefully,” he said. 

The oyster-garden program, started two years ago with 15 individual or family-operated plots in a designated area in Three Mile Harbor, is a hit. As reported in The Star’s March 15 issue, on March 12 the trustees reauthorized the program, which expanded to Hog Creek last year and will expand farther this year to Accabonac Harbor. The trustees also voted to double the size of the Three Mile Harbor garden, expanding the plot to 60 by 70 feet so it can accommodate up to 40 gardeners. The other sites will be 30 by 70 feet and available for up to 20 gardeners each. 

Modeled on what is known as SPAT, a Cornell Cooperative Extension initiative in waters off Southold, the program allows individuals to harvest half of 1,000 oysters seeded. The cost, approximately $250 per participant, includes gear and instruction in addition to the oysters. 

An increase in the numbers of shellfish in town waters, Mr. Dunne said, can have a broader positive effect on the environment: “Filtration is a huge factor in shellfish. They create habitat, they increase biodiversity.” An effort to seed Northwest Creek, years after its closure to the harvesting shellfish, paid off handsomely, he said. “We seeded it one day and came back a year later, and the oysters were huge, there was tons of macroalgae, and a lot of stuff you can’t even see, like grass shrimp, nursery finfish swimming around. It changed the landscape of the bottom for the better — tons of habitat, tons of filtration.” 

The hatchery also raised about $60,000 last year, he said, through seed sales, fund-raisers, and the oyster-gardening project. 

Meanwhile, the trustees are exploring an oyster-transfer program, in which the bivalves would be harvested from Oyster Pond in Montauk, the waters of which are uncertified (or closed to harvesting), and planted in one or more seasonally certified water bodies.

At the March 12 meeting, John Aldred of the trustees’ aquaculture committee said that the oyster-transfer program, intended to put a neglected resource to use by cleaning other degraded waterways, had been conducted in the 1990s, “until the oyster population gave out. It hasn’t been evaluated since then, as far as I know.” 

The initial step, said Mr. Aldred, a former director of the hathery, would be a population survey of Oyster Pond, which is subject to park-use and survey permits from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, respectively. “The first step would be to get in and see if there’s anything worth transplanting,” he told his colleagues. “As soon as we get these permits in place we will go into the pond with Barley . . . to see what’s down there, what condition it’s in.” 

Should a sufficient number of oysters be found in the pond, the trustees would then seek a transplant permit from the D.E.C. and solicit participation of baymen to harvest oysters. 

As the oysters would come out of uncertified waters, they would have to be transplanted in uncertified waters and live there for at least 30 days, Mr. Aldred said, before they could be harvested for consumption. “As long as they go into seasonally closed waters — uncertified for the season — they would then be open to harvest the following winter.”

Also on Monday, the trustees announced that Christopher Gobler, who has overseen water-quality testing of multiple water bodies for the trustees for several years, would deliver his annual report to the trustees at their meeting on April 23.

For many years, New York commercial fishermen who catch fluke, also known as summer flounder, have loudly complained that they have been working under unfair quota allocations when compared to nearby states. But that anger and frustration may change as New York’s top government officials have voiced their concerns and vow to see that the state’s fishermen can one day catch their fair share of the popular flatfish.

Late last week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, announced that New York has filed a petition with the federal government to establish fair quota allocations for the state’s commercial harvest of fluke. The governor directed the State Department of Environmental Conservation to petition for revised allocations, which would put New York on more equitable footing with other East Coast states. New York’s petition, drafted by the D.E.C. and the attorney general’s office, is the first step in the legal process to bring equity to the state’s fluke quota. 

“Our federal government cannot rely on decades-old data to uphold these unreasonable fluke quotas, as they continue to put New York at a disadvantage to neighboring states, while ignoring the needs of communities across the state,” Governor Cuomo said in a release. “New York’s commercial fishing industry has been held back by archaic federal restrictions for too long, and by taking action to defend fair treatment of our fishers, we will help this valuable industry reach its full potential.” 

Specifically, New York State has filed a petition with the United States Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Ser­vice, and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to demand that commercial fluke allocations be revised to provide New York’s fishers with equitable access to summer flounder. New York is also reviewing other species where there is an unfair allocation, including black sea bass and bluefish, and may pursue similar actions with regard to those, it said in its statement. 

State-by-state allocations for commercial fluke were set in the early 1990s using incomplete landings data from a period between 1980 and 1989. At that time, New York’s allocation was set at a region-low 7.6 percent of the coastwide quota, compared to 15.7 percent for Rhode Island and 16.7 percent for New Jersey. Virginia and North Carolina were allocated 21.3 percent and 27.4 percent. New York’s low percentage of allocation makes fishing for fluke a tough proposition. Daily trip limits were a measly 50 pounds in 2017 and 70 pounds in 2016.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has played an active role in trying to engage Albany to take action on the unbalanced fluke quota. “New York State action on unfair federal fishing quotas and commercial fishing licensing reform is long overdue,” he said on Saturday morning. “Quotas and antiquated licensing laws have unfairly prevented New York’s commercial fishing industry from competing with other states. The result is lost economic development opportunities and jobs for eastern Long Island and New York.”

“Late last year, I joined with Senator Ken LaValle to convene a meeting with the commercial fishing industry and the D.E.C. commissioner to address these issues,” he added. “The commissioner promised action. I am pleased that the governor is now taking the first step to revitalize New York’s commercial fishing industry.”  

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said she was encouraged to hear the news last week. “It’s the way it should be done procedurally,” she said. “The petition covered all of the key points and I’m glad New York State took this action, but it will likely take a long while before we see any possible changes to the allocation.”

Ronald S. Baron, the billionaire founder of Baron Capital who owns a string of beachfront properties on Further Lane that straddle the boundary between East Hampton Town and the Village, had two bad days in a row last week. 

On March 20, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals rejected his application to build a walkway to the ocean beach over and through the fragile double dunes. The wooden walkway was to be used jointly by the properties at 258 and 264 Further Lane. Then, the next day, the New York State Appellate Court in Brooklyn released an opinion rejecting an appeal by Mr. Baron of a prior Z.B.A. decision regarding two walls he had built through the dunes a decade ago without obtaining the required building permits. Joining the town in arguing against the appeal, which was heard by the court on Nov. 2, 2017, was a neighbor, Taya Thurman. 

In 2007, Mr. Baron bought two lots off Further Lane in East Hampton Town, containing a little over 40 acres of oceanfront land, from Adelaide de Menil and Ted Carpenter, who were then in the news for their donation of several Early American buildings that had been preserved on the property but were destined to become the new Pantigo Road offices of East Hampton Town. The land has been described as some of the most valuable in the United States. Mr. Baron also purchased from them a lot that falls within the village, paying a total of $103 million, reportedly a record price at the time. He then took the two properties in East Hampton Town jurisdiction and combined them into one lot, which he then subdivided into three buildable lots, on which law allows him to build up to seven houses, total, according to the Planning Department. Also included in that subdivision was the creation of an agriculturally reserved parcel, as well as a scenic reserve.

In 2008, Mr. Baron built a double wall — parallel walls about four feet apart — in an area of beach vegetation on the dunes, which are protected by town code, according to the findings of the court. “These walls ran from east to west along the southerly portion of the property, and extended north along the easterly portion of the property, at a total length of approximately 762 linear feet,” the new State Supreme Court decision said.

The court found that the Z.B.A. “had a rational basis, and was not arbitrary and capricious” when, in late December of 2012, it rejected Mr. Baron’s appeal, which questioned a determination by East Hampton Town’s head building inspector at the time, Tom Preiato, that the walls required a special permit before being built. “Contrary to the petitioner’s contentions, the record contains sufficient evidence to support the rationality of that determination,” the court wrote. 

At the same time, in 2012, having been told he was lacking the special permit that would have legalized the walls, Mr. Baron applied for that permit, although the walls had been built years before. The Planning Department argued against its being issued, citing town code and the rarity of the double dune ecosystem. Brian Frank, chief environmentalist for the town, told the board then, as he did again recently regarding the proposed walkway, that the double dune was one of the last of its kind, and that it contained important animal and plant species. The Z.B.A. rejected that special-permit application from Mr. Baron.

The State Supreme Court agreed that the town has the right, through its zoning code, to protect its natural resources.

The town made many of the same arguments in the matter of Mr. Baron’s proposed wooden walkway. On March 20, Roy Dalene, a member of the Z.B.A., told the rest of the board that he would recommend denial of a permit for the walkway’s construction. Although he did not mention the 2012 case, he echoed it as he cited specific laws governing the protection of the dunes and wild habitat; he also told his fellow board members that the boardwalk was not necessary, particularly as there is already a footpath from the living areas to the beach. Theresa Berger, Samuel Kramer, and John Whelan, the chairman, all agreed with Mr. Dalene’s reasoning, which will form the basis for Beth Baldwin to write an official determination that the board can sign off on. 

Michael Sendlenski, lead attorney for the town,  would not comment yesterday on what the next steps would be regarding Mr. Baron’s walls, though he did say that the town expects that the properties will be brought into compliance with town code, at some point. “The town is very happy that the court recognized the reasoning, evaluation, and analysis by the zoning board of appeals,” Mr. Sendlenski said. He complimented the board’s attorney, Ms. Baldwin, for having guided the board through the legal thicket.