Just over two and a half years ago, the Wainscott Commercial Center, a proposal to create 50 commercial building lots on a 70.5-acre parcel just north of the Speedway gas station in Wainscott, received a public hearing on its environmental impact.
The community turned out in force against the project, with 47 showing up in person to offer comments opposing it. Many more sent letters. East Hampton residents railed against the impact the huge project would have on the nearby and already struggling Georgica Pond, and noted that it was adjacent to one of the busiest intersections, traffic-wise, on Route 27. Many said that the applicant had downplayed the project's environmental impact.
For the next two years, Wainscott Commercial and the East Hampton Town Planning Department met and traded documents, while pausing the New York State timeline on its environmental review process.
In March of this year, despite protests from the applicant, the planning board decided that a second, supplementary environmental impact statement was required. The supplemental statement was to cover five topics: stormwater management, traffic, subsurface environmental conditions, noise impacts, and wastewater, groundwater and nitrogen impacts.
At its Oct. 8 meeting, the planning board briefly acknowledged receipt of the 3,361-page document. The next step is for the planning board and Planning Department to determine whether the new study is adequate and if it is ready for public comment.
"There are two possible outcomes to this review," Eric Schantz, a principal planner with the town, told the board.
If the board finds the supplemental statement is inadequate, it will need to identify its deficiencies and present them in writing to Wainscott Commercial. If the board finds that it is complete, it will have to schedule a public hearing and comment period.
"I know many people are interested in this application and where we stand with it," said Ed Krug, the board's chairman.
The Wainscott Commercial Center is by far the largest subdivision application in front of the town.
It's been with the Planning Department since January 2018, when its principals first sought preliminary subdivision approval. In September 2018, the planning board issued a "positive declaration" per the New York State Environmental Review Act, triggering a lengthy environmental review, and four iterations of a draft environmental impact statement, before one was accepted in November 2022.
If it is eventually approved, Wainscott Commercial estimates total buildout could take at least several years, and possibly decades.
