A meeting of Montauk Shores Condominiums owners will take place at the trailer park’s clubhouse on Saturday at noon at which, according to a letter inviting their attendance, “the most exciting news to reach Montauk Shores in decades” will be presented.

The letter, sent to The Star by sources who asked not to be identified, announced that “two-story manufactured homes are now available. Owners may finally have the opportunity to double their living space without any increase in building coverage . . . while greatly enhancing owner’s investment potential.”

The announcement was of public interest because the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals had recently given final approval to Mike Luckas for a new beachfront house. It was the first to be formally compliant with Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations, and it also prompted the board to decide that in the future condominium owners will have to present full sanitary system details when applying for variances or permits. The potential proliferation of other large new units would be of concern.

According to Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney who drafted Mr. Luckas’s approval, the sanitary system at the trailer park “is being reviewed by the town and Suffolk County Health Department for compliance and adequacy. Many of the projects that have been constructed recently and will likely be proposed in the future have and will result in an increase in building size and use. Many of the mobile homes being constructed have increased the number of bathrooms over what previously existed.”

The sewage system for each unit is now regulated by its square footage. Up to 600 square feet of living space calls for a system that can handle 150 gallons a day. That number jumps to 225 for units between 601 and 1,200 square feet, and jumps again for any unit greater than 1,200 square feet.

The letter to condo owners came from James R. Graham, Montauk Shores Condominiums president. An attempt to reach him by phone yesterday was unsuccessful, and Matthew Yudleson, the park’s manager, said, “If you’re not living here, there isn’t much I can say except have a good day.” The line then went dead.

East Hampton Town

Photos Wanted

East Hampton Town is redesigning its website, and is seeking photographs for it. The idea is that visitors to the website would get a look at landscapes, people, activities, parks, culture and art, nature and animals, and so on.

Local professional and amateur photographers willing to donate their work have been asked to contact Nicole Ficeto at [email protected] before March 22. The photos should be submitted on a disc, at a minimum resolution of 72 d.p.i., and at least 2,200 pixels, or 1 MB.

Restaurant Seating

Restaurants in East Hampton Town should be allowed to set up tables and chairs outside, using the public right of way, as long as there is ample room for pedestrians to pass, members of East Hampton Town’s business advisory committee told the town board at a meeting on Tuesday. The hitch is that restaurants would have to reduce the number of seats indoors in order to remain within their overall allowable capacity.

The committee has recommended allowing such outdoor dining with a seasonal permit. Tables and chairs would have to be taken in by midnight and set out no earlier than 7 a.m., and the area to be used limited to the space directly in front of the restaurant. While the recommendations regard only full-service restaurants, the committee intends to also examine outdoor seating at establishments like delis and takeout shops.

Food Truck Bidding

The town Purchasing Department will accept bids through the end of the month from vendors interested in leasing sites at town beaches for food trucks.

Leases up for bid this year include those for the spots at Gin Beach, Kirk Park, and at the western parking lot at the Ditch Plain beach in Montauk, and at Albert’s Landing in Amagansett. The lease period will be three years.

Specifications are available from the Purchasing Department.

Permanent Drinking Ban

A ban on drinking at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett on weekends in the summer season, which was put into effect on a trial basis in 2014, became permanent with a vote of the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday, following a hearing on Feb. 25.

Alcoholic consumption will not be allowed on the popular gathering site during the hours when lifeguards are on duty on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, from the Saturday before Memorial Day to Sept. 30 each year.

Question C.P.F. Buy

A proposed $475,000 purchase by the town of .85 of an acre at 33 Cross Highway in Amagansett, owned by Patrick Bistrian Jr. and Britton Bistrian, was put on hold after a hearing last Thursday when questions were raised. The purchase would be made with the community preservation fund.

David Buda, a Springs resident, objected to the manner in which a possible purchase was brought to the town’s attention — by Ms. Bistrian, who at the time was about to buy the site — and to the price, which he said was excessive for a lot containing wetlands. He claimed the property owners were “flipping” the land, trying to sell it for profit after recently buying it.

But, according to the town’s director of land management, Scott Wilson, Ms. Bistrian, with partners, had purchased two adjacent lots, and the prices had been transposed in legal documents.  The cost to Ms. Bistrian of the lot in question was $500,000, not $352,500, as Mr. Buda noted, Mr. Wilson said, adding that an appraisal commissioned by the town had set the value at $475,000. Mr. Wilson also explained that the wetlands in the area drain into Fresh Pond and that properties within such watersheds are targeted for preservation.

The Suffolk County Independence Party has endorsed Dave Calone, a businessman and former chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, in his bid  to represent New York’s First Congressional District. Mr. Calone will face Anna Throne-Holst, the former South­ampton Town supervisor, in a Democratic primary on June 28. The winner will face Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican who is seeking a second term.

“Dave Calone has a proven record as a prosecutor, as a businessman, and as chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission,” Frank MacKay, chairman of the Suffolk and New York State Independence Party, said in a statement. “The dysfunction in Congress has grown to alarming levels, which is why we need someone with Dave Calone’s broad real-world experience. His background makes him the best candidate in this race to fight to create jobs, protect our environment, and deliver the results that Long Island families need.”

The Independence Party estimated that its endorsement would result in a 4-percent vote advantage for Mr. Calone in a matchup against Mr. Zeldin.

Mr. Calone previously received the endorsement of East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Peter Van Scoyoc, Sylvia Overby, and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez of the East Hampton Town Board, as well as of Southampton Town Councilman John Bouvier, State Assemblyman Steve Englebright, and Suffolk County Legislators Bridget Fleming, Al Krupski, Rob Calarco, and Sarah Anker.

Elected officials including New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip, and Representative Steve Israel of the Third Congressional District are among those endorsing Ms. Throne-Holst, along with Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, Shelter Island Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and County Legislator Bill Lindsay.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons will host a conversation with the supervisors of East Hampton and Southampton Towns on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton.

East Hampton Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Southampton Supervisor Jay Schneiderman will talk about their priorities and plans, the similarities and differences between the two towns, and the possibility of shared or consolidated services. Mr. Cant­well, the longtime administrator of East Hampton Village, was elected to his second term as supervisor in November. Mr. Schneiderman was East Hampton’s supervisor for two terms before serving six terms as a Suffolk County legislator. He was elected to the Southampton post in November.

The league will serve refreshments before the discussion. The supervisors will take questions from the audience following their presentations.

Following a hearing last month that made it clear plans for the Bridgehampton Gateway project did not meet community or Southampton Town approval, the developer has agreed to redesign the project.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said the town board was prepared to pay for a consultant to take another look at a proposal for a planned development district across from the Bridgehampton Commons, where a Carvel now sits. The project is different in that the town initiated the proposal, not the property owner, Konner Development, a Bridgehampton firm run by Carol Konner and her son, Greg. “She really wanted to take a crack at it,” Mr. Schneiderman said Tuesday.

The board had been considering a zone change for the 13.3-acre property to allow for a mixed-use complex that would have 90,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, including a fitness center, restaurant, a furniture store, and 30 residential units. 

Mr. Schneiderman met with Ms. Konner on March 2 to go over the community concerns, which include the scale of the mixed-use proposal, traffic, and the environmental impacts it could have on neighboring Kellis Pond. He said he wants to see “an overall project that isn’t as massive as what the town proposed and had more in it for the community.”

“She said she heard, as well, what people were saying,” he told the town board during a work session last Thursday.

He has asked for a reduction of the square footage of the commercial buildings. While the developer could build 90,000 square feet of commercial space under the current hamlet business zoning, the zone change is necessary to include a mix of retail and residential uses. Mr. Schneiderman said he did not feel it was fair to allow the zone change and allow the maximum build-out on commercial space.

On the residential side, Mr. Schneiderman asked Ms. Konner to eliminate all eight of the market-rate condominiums and reduce the affordable housing component by one-third to 20 apartments, above the scaled-back commercial spaces. Part of a planned development district requires that there be a community benefit, and while affordable housing is sorely needed, Mr. Schneiderman said, “I could not argue how it was a community benefit to have market-rate when we have it everywhere.”

The community green, which in the town’s plans was to be a one-acre space in front of the buildings, will likely be moved. The supervisor said it should not be surrounded by the commercial element. He would like to see it connected to Kellis Pond with a more defined park space around it in some way. He also wants it to feel like it belongs to the community. “It might involve a gift of some sort,” he said.

Ms. Konner said she would also make one of the commercial spaces “affordable” for a local business. She plans to finance some 3-D imaging of what the project would look like. The next public hearing on it had been scheduled for late April, though it may have to be adjourned to allow Ms. Konner more time to revise the plans.

If the updated proposal does not meet with the board’s satisfaction, the town can still bring in a consultant. “I think at the end of the day we can change it all we want. It’s our project, but if the owners are not interested in developing that way, we’ve gotten nowhere,” Mr. Schneiderman told the board. “There has to be a balance between the community, the town, and the developer.” Ms. Konner did not return a call for comment.

A couple of months later than expected, but the Southampton Town Board has hired a new town attorney. Supervisor Jay Schneiderman’s pick, James M. Burke, was sworn in on Tuesday afternoon following unanimous approval by the board.

The supervisor joked that Mr. Burke, who has served in both the private and public sectors, has been with “the other Schneiderman” — New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — for the past five years. An assistant attorney general, he was the head attorney for the Real Property Bureau, representing Albany in the five boroughs of New York City and on Long Island. He litigated numerous multimillion-dollar claims, according to his resume.

“He has the municipal law experience that is needed for a position like this,” Mr. Schneiderman said after the meeting. The supervisor, a former county legislator, has known Mr. Burke for a long time, having worked with him when Mr. Burke was deputy director of the Suffolk Department of Real Estate. In that position, he managed the department, negotiated with landowners for acquisition of land for open space, drinking-water protection, and parkland totaling over $50 million per year. He also worked closely with the Suffolk County Police Department on facilities management issues and coordinated efforts to lease county spaces.

Mr. Burke’s career began in 1987 when he joined the Nassau County D.A.’s office. In the bureau of municipal and environmental affairs, he began and defended Article 78 proceedings on behalf of the county comptroller’s office. He has also worked as a deputy town attorney with Brookhaven Town, from 1992 to 1996 and from 2006 to 2009. Among other duties, he served as counsel to the planning board, handling all major zoning and land issues.

In private practice, Mr. Burke was senior counsel to Lewis and Johs L.L.P. in Melville from 2009 to 2011. During that time he represented corporate clients and real estate developers before planning and zoning boards.

He prefers the public sector. “I’ve always liked public service; it’s more rewarding,” he said. He is proud of his success with the county in preserving open space, and said it was what attracted him to the job in Southampton Town. “You hope to leave some sort of positive legacy behind,” he said.

Public service runs in Mr. Burke’s family. His father was a fire chief in the Bronx, and his brother, William Burke Jr., was a captain in the New York Fire Department who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I think he’s a good fit for the town attorney’s office, knowing the individuals that are there. We have a very talented crew of attorneys,” Mr. Schneiderman said. Mr. Burke is filling a vacancy left when Tiffany Scarlato resigned as the supervisor took office in January. Without a full board, Mr. Schneiderman decided to postpone voting on a new town attorney and waited until after a special election. Kathleen Murray, a deputy town attorney, stepped up to fill the role in the interim, and Mr. Schneiderman thanked and praised her during the meeting.

“I think Jim, with his very calm demeanor and his breadth of experience, will fit in very well as a manager,” Mr. Schneiderman said. Mr. Burke, who will oversee a staff of five, is a Port Jefferson resident, but said he does not mind the commute, even with the traffic, having traveled back and forth to Hauppauge and Mineola for his previous positions. “Any day I can go east instead of west is a good day,” he said.

The board approved his annual salary at $132,651 for the two-year term, concurrent with the supervisor’s term.

East Hampton Town

Hamlet and Business Studies

Residents of East Hampton will be asked to share thoughts, concerns, wishes, and other information regarding their hamlets at a series of upcoming meetings with consultants who are beginning studies of each individual hamlet, as well as a business study of the economic state of the town.

The studies are to develop into a set of planning recommendations that would guide public policy, zoning, legislative, and other decisions by the town board in order to address needs and problems and to provide for the best future development.

After a presentation at a town board meeting at Town Hall on March 15, the consultants will lead a 4 p.m. session, also at Town Hall, focusing on Wainscott and Amagansett, and a 7 p.m. session on the Montauk downtown and dock areas, at a Montauk location to be determined.

The Montauk areas will be the subject of a repeat discussion the next day, March 16, at 1 p.m. in Montauk, with another at Town Hall focusing on Springs and on areas of East Hampton, outside the incorporated village, at 7 p.m.

Each session is expected to last about two or three hours.

To Lower Speed Limits

East Hampton Town officials agreed last Thursday to seek authority from the state to regulate speed limits within the town.

To maximize safety for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians, the town wants to lower the speed limit on some roadways to 25 miles per hour, where it is generally 30 miles per hour, and to 15 miles per hour in school zones.

As speed limits are now set by the state, local municipalities must submit a “home-rule” request in order to be able to set them locally.

Increased Tax Exemptions for Vets

The maximum amounts on property tax exemptions for veterans in East Hampton will be increased, according to a vote of the town board on Tuesday.

Up to 15 percent of the assessed value of qualifying properties will be exempted from taxation, with a new maximum exemption amount of $75,000 or a calculation based on the assessors’ equalization rate, whichever is less. Recommended changes to other exemptions for veterans in particular categories were also adopted.

In response to public comments at a board meeting last week questioning the impact of the exemptions on other taxpayers, who must pick up the slack, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday that the exemptions could result in between $50,000 and $100,000 in town taxes not being collected; that amount, apportioned among the tax bills for the remaining taxpayers in the town, would perhaps result in a $2 a year increase for each, he said. Mr. Cantwell said he believed that, if asked, those taxpayers would be willing to shoulder the additional cost in order to recognize veterans for their service.

A mini-workshop on East Hampton Town’s new rental registry law will take place on Saturday at a meeting of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the Wainscott Chapel.

Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, and Betsy Bambrick, who heads the town’s Ordinance Enforcement Department, will be on hand to discuss the legislation, which requires all landlords to register with the town before renting a property. Members of the public have been invited to attend.

Jay Schneiderman may have switch­ed jobs from Suffolk County legislator to Southampton Town supervisor, but his concern for traffic congestion on the main corridor onto the East End remains.

Supervisor Schneiderman is focusing on the bottleneck that forms at the intersection of Country Road 39 and Tuckahoe Road, where there is a traffic light near the Stony Brook Southampton college campus. Anticipating more traffic when Southampton Hospital eventually moves from the village to the campus, he is looking at ways to improve that area.

Both the town’s and the county’s public works departments have suggested that the light itself may be the problem. It takes large trucks pulling heavy equipment a while to move after a red light goes green, Mr. Schneiderman said. One solution might be to build an underpass, he said, but, short-term, the town wants to tinker with the light.

A three-day test is planned for April 19 to April 21, a Tuesday through Thursday, during which the signal will be converted to a blinking yellow light for east and westbound traffic during the peak morning commute, 6 to 9 a.m. Officials will compare data gathered by county engineers, who make the eastbound trek during those times, to data collected the week before under normal conditions, on the same days of the week during the same times.

During the blinking-light test, left turns from Tuckahoe Road onto Country Road 39 and westbound left turns from 39 onto Tuckahoe Road will not be allowed. Also, drivers will not be permitted to move straight across the highway between the north and south portions of Tuckahoe Road.

“I would personally like to see a 10-minute reduction in time,” Mr. Schneiderman told the town board during a work session last Thursday.

Barricades would prevent drivers from certain traffic patterns, eliciting memories of the old “cops and cones” program, the predecessor to the widening of Country Road 39, which was completed in 2008. As a legislator, Mr. Schneiderman was behind that program, which began as a one-week test in 2006. It allowed for extra travel lanes during morning and evening rush hours.

“This is an experiment,” the supervisor said in response to concerns raised by the Tuckahoe School Board regarding student transportation routes. A blinking light would not be a long-term solution, he assured the board. “This is the beginning of the process, it’s not an end-all at all.”

There is a cost associated with the test program. The county would incur $6,000 in overtime, and Mr. Schneiderman recommended the town board free up enough money to reimburse the county.

Councilwoman Christine Scalera was not keen on that suggestion. “I appreciate the cost issue,” she said, but pointed out that 39 is a county road and the county is responsible for traffic tests. “I don’t know why we’d be bearing all the cost.”

Daniel J. Dresch, director of traffic engineering with the county’s Department of Public Works, who sat in on the discussion, said that if the test did not happen because the county declined to fund it, his department would have nothing on which to base a future recommendation. “The only way we ever considered the removal of the traffic signal is for the benefit of Southampton. Every spring, we hear from Southampton about traffic on County Road 39,” he said.

Mr. Schneiderman said he could ask Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone to approve the overtime costs. “We might get a positive answer. I don’t know.”

Ms. Scalera said she felt it was incumbent on the town board to explore it. John Bouvier, a councilman who joined the board in January, said he felt it would be money well spent. “If we’re successful, it gives us a brighter future.” The board needed to get “creative” to solve traffic woes, he said.

Beyond the “trade parade,” the daily morning commute many UpIslanders make to work east of the Shinnecock Canal, the traffic jams affect teachers, hospital employees, and town workers. “There’s a lot of our workforce that is stuck in that traffic.” Mr. Schneiderman observed. “Ten minutes may not sound like a lot of time, but it’s 10 minutes a day, that’s 50 minutes, almost an hour a week out of our lives. That’s why I think it’s an endeavor worth gathering the data.”

Before the test can occur, the town board has to pass a resolution. Members are expected to set a public hearing on the temporary restrictions next week, to be held on March 22 at 6 p.m.

When 40 members of the Surfrider Foundation participated in the organization’s national lobbying effort on Feb. 12 in Washington, D.C., Nicole Delma and Jesse Spooner of East Hampton, vice chairwoman and vice chairman of the eastern Long Island chapter, were there to ask for a ban on offshore oil drilling on the East Coast, funding of the federal Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act, and a fee on plastic bags to reduce marine debris.

With fellow Surfrider members, Ms. Delma and Mr. Spooner, who plan to marry in the summer, took a crash course in lobbying before meeting with members of New York’s Congressional delegation or their staffs. “It was fascinating, and empowering in a lot of ways,” Ms. Delma said last week. “In many cases they were not familiar with the issues we were talking about. It felt like the first thing I’ve done in a long time that made a difference.”

The Obama administration moved early last year to open a large stretch of East Coast waters to oil and gas drilling, which aroused the interest of environmentalists. The announcement was part of the Interior Department’s five-year plan to sell leases for drilling between 2017 and 2022.

An oil spill is not the only potential hazard to oceans and beaches, and the economies on which their health depends, Ms. Delma said. Seismic air guns are used to find oil and gas under the ocean floor, she said. “It’s really gone under the radar. That was the most dangerous thing. We want to make everyone aware that seismic air guns do quite a lot of damage to sea life, before any drilling occurs. We will see more wildlife washing up on our shores. It kind of slips under the radar, and before we know it, it’s happening.”

Connie Gillette, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s deputy chief of public affairs and media relations, said in an email last week that the next phase of the proposed program would be announced by the end of this month. “At that time the Atlantic may or may not be included in the program,” she said.

 In calling on Congress to fund the BEACH Act, the Surfrider delegation noted that its elimination was a perennial proposal. The act sets national quality standards for recreational waters and provides funding to coastal states for testing and public notices.

“Every county in coastal states and the Great Lakes is dependent on that funding to support clean water testing,” Ms. Delma said. “It is very much a public health issue.” This year, she said, marks the fifth that the Surfrider Foundation has lobbied for restoration of its funding.

The couple also pushed for the Trash Reduction Act of 2015, which would require retailers to pay a 10-cent tax on each non-reusable carryout bag. Sixty percent of the revenue, Ms. Delma said, would fund cleanup and prevention of marine debris.

Reaction from members of Congress was generally positive, she said. The group called on Representative Lee Zeldin, whose district includes East Hampton, and Representatives Peter King, Nydia Velazquez, and Kathleen Rice. Kevin Dowling, a legislative assistant to Mr. Zeldin, “was very open to supporting most of our concerns, especially the BEACH Act,” Mr. Spooner said on Tuesday. He and Ms. Delma hope to schedule a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Zeldin soon.

Others the couple spoke with expressed strong support for alternative energy, Mr. Spooner added. With the exception of Mr. King, he said, “we generally heard pro-environmental concern. I think people are finally catching on that that is the way to go.”

A surfboard, signed by Mr. Spooner, Ms. Delma, and business owners opposed to drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, was brought to Ms. Velazquez’s office, which Ms. Delma said was funny, cumbersome, and a great tactic. It was later presented to the White House and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 

“They are politicians,” Ms. Delma said, “so we’ll have to see how they follow up. I was also impressed with the willingness to support anything around clean energy and protecting the oceans and beaches. We heard a lot of enthusiasm about shifting toward green energy, especially when we spoke with Kathleen Rice’s staffer.”

Mr. Spooner expects to know this month if he will be accepted into a master’s degree program in environmental science and policy at Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Delma, who founded the Fond Group, a marketing agency, would like to further her lobbying for the Surfrider Foundation. “One of my areas is engaging the next generation,” she said.

Their experience in Washington, she said, “was both scary and motivating. If we don’t do this, who’s going to? It was the first time I had that feeling.”