After its site plan was unanimously approved by the East Hampton Town Planning Board in November, work has begun on the expansion of Gardiner’s Marina on Three Mile Harbor, which was originally created in the 1950s.
A large crane is visible from Three Mile Harbor Road as the basin is expanded. The marina is owned by Harborlands L.L.C., which is controlled by the brothers Mark and Peter Mendelman. In appearances before the planning board, they said the purpose of the expansion was to allow larger vessels to dock there, not to increase the number of boat slips.
The boat basin will be enlarged by over 4,000 square feet, with a new floating catwalk and finger piers. A 25-foot-deep and 166-foot-long area along the north side of the boat basin will create the extra room. The dredged sediment (the Mendelmans estimate anywhere from 200 to 400 cubic yards) is now being “de-watered” in a gravel area surrounded by straw bales on the 5.5-acre property. When it is sufficiently dried out, a 120-by-30-foot area of the paved parking area will be cut, with three feet of fill removed. The dredged material will be placed in that hole and sealed with asphalt and bluestone, before the area resumes its life as a parking lot.
A new bulkhead will replace the old and gain a foot and a half in elevation. The soil that is removed to increase the size of the boat basin will be used for the bulkhead boost.
The current 600-square-foot clubhouse will be demolished and a two-story clubhouse, four times as large, will be built in the same location, with 550 square feet of decking. A separate 600-square-foot storage shed is being added to the northeast corner of the property. Come springtime, invasive trees and grasses will be removed and replaced. Eastern red cedar trees will line the eastern property boundary.
At an October public hearing in front of the planning board, no one from the public spoke in favor of or in opposition to the plan. Kevin Cooper, the head of enforcement for East Hampton Town, said no complaints have been received since the beginning of construction.
