Periscope

Once in a while I read a quote in the local news that strikes me as part of an ongoing epitaph for the East End.

One such appeared some years back in a report on a planning board meeting. A subdivision designer was declaring that his clients, the developers, did not intend to "develop Wainscott." They only wanted "to build more of it."

There was another in The Southampton Press a couple of weeks ago, under the headline "147 Acres in 33 Lots Hit Real Estate Market."

The reporter interviewed two brokers who have an exclusive on the Bridgehampton farmland, listed at a total asking price of $23.5 million, and photographed one of them grinning at the edge of an open field.

"There is very little property with those kind of beautiful farm views," the other was quoted as saying. "This is the property we have all been waiting for."

Now, the planning consultant who worked on the Wainscott subdivision had a fine reputation in his line of work, and it's clear what he meant. He was talking about building something in character with the neighborhood. And you can see the result today. It's less discordant than most of the developments in nearby Sagaponack, for instance - but still, the result was not more of Wainscott, it was less of it.

The brokers, too, work for a well-regarded firm, and their words and grins were those of professionals anticipating a prestigious, rewarding assignment. Yet there is such a sad irony in their point of view. There is indeed so little land left with such beautiful farmland views. And there will be so much less for the people who buy it to view after they have all finished building on it. So much less of the sense of place for which such a large expanse, farmed for centuries, is central.

The brokers spoke admiringly of the "insight" displayed by the land's late owner, a retired New York City developer who lived in a 28,000-square-foot mansion on 60 nearby acres with a private golf course in the front yard. It was his insight to figure out that farmland north of the highway would soar in value after the land south of the highway was gone, and to corner the market on a big piece of it. As a result, his heirs are in line for $23.5 million in addition to the mansion and 60 acres and whatever else he may have owned, after taxes.

I'm not familiar with the reputation of the late owner, who for all I know may have been a supporter of worthy causes (as some of the other local developers have been). He had every right to hold the land as an investment, and to rebuff, as he did, the approaches of the private land trust that sought to negotiate its preservation.

And yet, for what?

A different kind of insight could have made it a farmland preserve, while there was still time, something for a wider posterity to cherish, something for which his name would have been honored - instead of yet another lost vista full of houses built by people who thought they were buying beautiful farm views, and who end up with views of each other.