After a public hearing two weeks ago on removing the nature preserve designation from the triangle at the intersection of Springs-Fireplace and Three Mile Harbor Roads in East Hampton, the town board is set to vote Thursday evening on a resolution concerning the future of the property.
If the resolution passes, the question will then be presented as a ballot measure to East Hampton Town residents in November.
“The purpose of the referendum is for voters to decide if the town should convey the property, should the resolution pass, known as the Sherrill Triangle to Suffolk County to improve safety and traffic delays at that intersection,” Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez explained Tuesday, later clarifying that “if that passes it’s incumbent upon town residents to reach out to the county and make their voices heard on what type of roadway improvement makes the most sense for our community.”
A roundabout is among the key suggestions for the busy intersection, and could be tackled when the county redoes the road (also called County Road 40) from North Main Street at the intersection of Collins Avenue to Three Mile Harbor Road at its intersection of Copeces Lane in Springs.
On Tuesday, Brian Frank, the chief environmental analyst in the Planning Department, offered the board an overview of environmental conditions at the 2.4-acre property, known as the Sherrill Triangle, or Lions Gate Park. The Planning Department and Department of Land Acquisition and Management had visited Sherrill Triangle on Aug. 27.
“If you do have some nice pockets of quality habitat in town, as kind of an island of refuge for our native species, that’s a great thing to retain where possible,” Mr. Frank said, “That’s not really present on this property.”
“The northern two-thirds is wooded, and the Planning Department would characterize it as ‘disturbed woodland,’ “ Mr. Frank said. “Most of the species in there are non-native and are considered invasive species.” These include Norway maple, tree of heaven (which can host the destructive spotted lantern fly), and black locust. The only native species observed was black cherry, although Mr. Frank noted that it is a “minority in the canopy.”
To be included in the town’s nature preserve system, new properties must meet eight criteria. “It doesn’t really appear that this property satisfies any of those criteria,” Mr. Frank said. The one caveat, he said, is its potential as a habitat for the northern long-eared bat. However, Mr. Frank noted that the tool used by the two departments, a resource mapper, “is not definitive on anything, especially protected species.”
Councilmember David Lys looked back at the history of the property and similar properties that he described as “leftovers that were put into nature preserve status,” but “without knowing what these properties were going to be and not going to the standards that are set forward in the code.” Nevertheless, he said that he “always loved this property. It was a little bit more of a mullet: a lot of business in the front, a lot of party in the back.”
“I really wish I had used that in the memo,” Mr. Frank said.
Commenting on the need for change at the intersection, Councilwoman Cate Rogers said that doing nothing “is a threat to public safety.”
