“I know change is hard, but I can’t understand why someone needs a 20,000-square-foot house in our town, with the lack of affordable housing that’s been created,” East Hampton Town Councilwoman Cate Rogers said during a recent conversation at the Georgica Pond Preserve in Wainscott.
She was responding, in part, to criticism from her Republican opponent, J.P. Foster, who argued that the zoning code revisions she helped pass last winter went too far, too fast.
“The zoning code amendments were very important to me, having served on the Z.B.A. for nine years, and having listened to countless people say, ‘I don’t recognize my neighborhood, anymore.’ I felt I had to listen to the community. I heard them loud and clear and started that effort.”
“We have an affordable housing crisis on the East End,” she continued. “Part of the zoning code changes involved scaling back luxury home building and redirecting those impacts into increased density in affordable housing districts. With some recent laws we’ve passed, we’re seeing that put into action.”
The 68-year-old Springs resident and mother of one is running as a Democrat for re-election to the East Hampton Town Board. She now serves as deputy supervisor.
Ms. Rogers was first elected to the town board in 2021. She served on the town’s zoning board of appeals from 2004 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2018, spending seven of those years as vice chairwoman. In 2017, she became a Climate Leader, trained by former Vice President Al Gore through the Climate Reality Project, and she continues to serve as co-chairwoman of the New York State Coalition of Chapters.
“I hardly think town staff would be considered ‘elite,’ “ she said, responding to another charge on Mr. Foster’s website that the zoning changes were “pre-planned by a few and put forward to the public as a formality.”
“We had 14 presentations and spent 45 hours in work sessions on the legislation,” she said. “We had the most robust public comment that we’ve had for anything before the board in recent times. We introduced the ideas to a business industry group comprised of architects, surveyors, land use attorneys, and others, and hashed out ideas and made changes based on what they said. So, the idea that there was some elite group is simply false.”
Ms. Rogers’s grandparents fled European fascism in the late 1800s to settle in America. “They were poor and had literally nothing.”
“My parents filled me with the values of working in the family business and taking a lot of responsibility, even as a young person. They gave me a love for democracy and country,” she said.
Her parents’ first earnings went to buy a boat, which they took to Sag Harbor in the 1960s. “I always knew I was going to come back here,” she said, recalling her childhood memories of the East End.
The family business was the Long Island Arena in Commack, where Ms. Rogers worked in the box office before starting her own “rock and roll” catering business in her early 20s. That enterprise eventually led her to cater events at Nassau Coliseum.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the arena was home to the county’s largest flea market, which she ran. Her father died in 1996, and she shifted into a caretaking role with her mother. Amidst those life events, she moved here permanently in 2002.
Her start in politics came shortly after. “I got involved with the Green Hollow housing development, which was being built right behind my house,” she said. “I worked with Councilman Peter Hammerle, brought neighbors together, listened, and eventually the development was built with neighbors’ blessing.”
“People have a perception of me as a fighter, but my way of tackling a problem is to bring as many voices as possible to a table. I love a big table. I look at the science behind issues and spend time analyzing data and trends.”
Her analytical nature was on display last week during a presentation about the impact of short-term rentals and the commercialization of residential neighborhoods, an issue she lists among her top priorities if re-elected.
“As a businesswoman, I would be a hypocrite to say I didn’t support business. I do,” she said. “However, there are appropriate places for business to exist. I’m 100 percent supportive of businesses in our commercial districts, which is why securing the $600,000 resiliency grant for Montauk was so important to me.”
Supporting Montauk businesses also means understanding the climate risks in the hamlet.
Ms. Rogers has done a deep dive on the issue, studying how other municipalities, such as Fort Myers, Fla., recovered from direct hurricane impacts.
In the wake of Hurricane Ian, that municipality struggled with debris removal, and learned that having preapproved building plans could get businesses back up and running faster.
“Right now, we have zero plans. For me, it ties in together. How do we protect our commercial districts from the impacts of climate crisis and how do we protect our residential neighborhoods from commercialization? This is really the balance that I try to bring to the town,” she said.
Ms. Rogers has also been instrumental in the Ditch Plain dune reconstruction project. “We have permits and community support,” she said. “These are expensive projects, and people are always concerned about how small municipalities can fund them, which is why we ensured the dune was built to FEMA compliance. If it’s damaged in a storm, there will now be a funding source to repair it.”
Another costly initiative under scrutiny is the stalled senior center, with a more than $30 million price tag. While the idea for the new senior center pre-dates her time on the board, Councilwoman Rogers supported exempting the project from the town’s own zoning laws.
“This is not a private development; we’re acting on behalf of the public and that’s a definite difference. We went to the planning board and listened to their comments. We use the same planners as they do and receive the same advice from the Natural Resources Department. If we made a mistake, it was that we focused too much on the structure itself and not on what was happening inside of it. We could have done a better job giving people an understanding of what the Human Services Department does for the town. The services are much more important than any kind of structure.”
About a third of the proposed senior center is to house that department. It would also be a permanent home for the East Hampton Food Pantry.
On a separate subject, acknowledging residents’ frustrations with permitting delays, Ms. Rogers believes the process could be streamlined, especially regarding natural resource special permits, which account for many Z.B.A. applications.
“If you already have an N.R.S.P. and you’re just changing windows, or adding solar within your existing footprint, why do you have to go through the whole process again?” she asked.
As a liaison to the town’s sustainability committee, she’s proud of helping to establish East Hampton’s first composting program, which has diverted more than 23,000 pounds of food waste from landfills. “We brought a community of people together who wanted to participate in that,” she said. “That was a big achievement for me.”
Like her fellow councilmember Ian Calder-Piedmonte, also up for re-election, Ms. Rogers holds a degree in philosophy. “I was into justice and living a just life. And logic,” which in part informs her theory of problem solving.
“I try to find the best solution that ticks off the most boxes. We talk about local politics versus national politics. I think leading in local government is extremely critical right now. Residents are getting letters saying they’re no longer eligible for Medicaid. You can’t keep national politics out of the town.”
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This is the third and final article in a series profiling the three candidates for East Hampton Town Board. Also running are J.P. Foster on the Republican ticket and Ian Calder-Piedmonte, an incumbent Democrat.
