Government

“Modest home in tony Hamptons trailer park asks a record-breaking $4.4M” was the breathless headline in the Aug. 28 issue of The New York Post. While the report focused on the modular structure’s asking price, it “drew the attention of” East Hampton Town's public safety officials, with its “interior photos depicting an attic-floor bedroom that was apparently installed without permits."

A new study by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology suggests that what is called “artificial light at night” could be affecting whales, horseshoe crabs, and other marine life. “Light is a key structuring system in marine ecosystems,” says the report, and the negative impacts of artificial light could point to a need to revise lighting codes.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork has scheduled four debates among candidates for East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island Town supervisor and town board, and for the Suffolk County Legislature’s Second District.

Under the new Community Housing Fund program, which saw a .5-percent real-estate transfer tax take effect in April to gather resources for affordable housing in four East End townships, money has been slowly — very slowly — coming in. Based on its glacial pace thus far, officials say, it will be some time before the money will have an impact on the availability and affordability of housing here. 

More than 600 “cobra-head” streetlights and around 10 historical streetlight fixtures will soon be converted to light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, reducing both costs and energy consumption in East Hampton Town by around 60 percent, the town board was told on Tuesday.

The East Hampton Town Board looked favorably on a proposal to install three small “stations” in coastal areas within the town that are meant to document site changes such as sea level rise and changing coastlines.

The outside counsel representing East Hampton Town in its long-running dispute with Duryea’s Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk asked a New York State Supreme Court justice last week to vacate a 2019 order allowing a certificate of occupancy for the restaurant. Recently posted photos showing indoor seating led to a charge that it has “illegally converted a limited outdoor food service establishment into a full-blown restaurant and event space.”

After opening its Sept. 13 meeting with a quote from a Grateful Dead song, the East Hampton Town Planning Board revisited three applications that they’ve discussed multiple times, making sure they were ready for a vote.

After two years of silence, the Springs Fire Department has filed updated plans to build a cell tower at its headquarters at 179 Fort Pond Boulevard. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in what has been, at times, an acrimonious battle over the tower. A lot has changed since July 2020, when it was ordered that the previous application for a 185-foot tower, which required 30 variances, needed to undergo an extensive environmental review.

An amended town zoning code that would reduce allowable house size, clearing of vegetation, and lot coverage will get a public hearing on Oct. 5.

The New York League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Ann Welker for Suffolk County Legislature in the Second District.

Long Island Rail Road officials have determined that the bridge over its railroad track at the western end of Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, which has been closed to all vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists since July 1, cannot be repaired and must be replaced.

The finishing work has been done on a management plan for what is to be called the Brooks-Park Historic Site, the 11-acre property on Neck Path in Springs that belonged to the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park.

The potential for American Cruise Lines, a newcomer to East End waters, to visit the village has created a buzz on social media louder than late-summer cicadas, leaving Mayor Thomas Gardella with more questions than answers. “Obviously they didn’t come to the board or make any applications, and the harbormaster didn’t know anything about it. Something of that magnitude will need permission. I don’t know how a 240-foot-long boat is going to dock on Long Wharf in May."

Hurricane Lee was unlikely, as of Tuesday morning, to have a significant impact in East Hampton Town, but residents should remain diligent in monitoring the storm’s path and expect rip tides and high surf over the weekend, the town's emergency preparedness coordinator said.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo made a case for the continued existence of the Maidstone Gun Club to the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee on Saturday, saying that his officers rely on it for training and that the training has never caused an incident such as bullets fired from the club hitting houses, an allegation that led to the club’s being shuttered by order of a New York State Supreme Court judge in December.

Tucked improbably between two yacht clubs in Sag Harbor is a wastewater treatment plant, its sizzling open-air pools of excrement a thing of beauty if you’re looking at them in the right way. Without the plant, which an treat 250,000 gallons of wastewater daily, Sag Harbor couldn’t support the diversity of restaurants and cafes that add to the village’s popularity and character.

The Sag Harbor Village Board will hold a public hearing on Oct. 10 to consider a new local law that would allow the 93-space “gas ball” parking lot to remain open to the public. The proposed law, if passed, would allow a parking lot as a principal use on a property, providing the lot always remains open to the public and is free.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will hold a public information program on East Hampton and Southampton Towns’ energy issues on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton.

East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby returned to Town Hall on Monday, four months after a medical event she experienced during a May 9 town board meeting. On Tuesday, she attended and participated in the town board's meeting for the first time since May.

Chief Robert Pharaoh of the Montauketts has been named grand marshal of East Hampton Town’s 375th anniversary parade, on Sept. 23. "I’d like to thank everyone for this honor," Mr. Pharaoh said. "It’s very, very important to us, because we are trying to get our recognition reinstated."

On Sept. 16, the so-called gas ball lot, home to approximately 93 parking spaces in the Village of Sag Harbor, will come under the control of Adam Potter’s 11 Bridge Street L.L.C. Unless the village works with him to keep the lot open, Mr. Potter said on Tuesday, he will “shut its gates” that day — the first day of the annual Harborfest celebration.

A project that has been germinating for nearly three decades, the removal of a bulkhead and the installation of runoff-absorbing rain gardens at a popular parking area that straddles Sag Harbor Village and Southampton Town, at Round Pond, is set to begin. It’s being called a huge win for the village, the town, the pond, and nearby residents.

In a final act before retiring on Aug. 30, Justice Paul Baisley Jr. of New York State Supreme Court, who has issued a series of rulings against East Hampton Town regarding both East Hampton Town Airport and a 4,000-foot stretch of Napeague oceanfront popularly known as Truck Beach, referred the attorney Daniel Rodgers to the Grievance Committee for the Tenth Judicial District for disciplinary consideration.

The Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, now predicts a 60-percent chance of between 14 and 21 named storms, of which six to 11 could become hurricanes, and two to five of them major hurricanes. “It’s important for the public to remember that we’re very vulnerable out here on the East End,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. “Everybody needs to take steps ahead of any event to make sure that you’re ready.”

Suffolk County is acknowledging there’s a traffic problem on County Road 39 — “the highway” that runs from Shinnecock Hills to Water Mill and transitions to Montauk Highway farther east — and is seeking innovative ideas for ways to solve that problem from civil engineers, commuters, community members, and other stakeholders. “All of the beauty that draws people here . . . also creates significant challenges,” said County Executive Steve Bellone in announcing last Thursday that Suffolk has put out an official request for proposals “for one of the largest traffic analyses and studies that the county has undertaken.”

East Hampton Town will soon put out a request for proposals for the 16 detached houses that it will build as part of its effort to create more affordable housing, Eric Schantz, the director of the town’s Office of Housing and Community Development, told the town board on Tuesday. But the board must assist in that effort by reaching a consensus on a number of details, Mr. Schantz said.

Over the summer, many homeowners who rent their properties on a short-term basis received letters from the Suffolk County comptroller alerting them that they may be in violation of the Suffolk County Hotel and Motel Occupancy Tax. While there is nothing new about the county trying to collect the tax, the holes in its net have gotten smaller and perhaps it’s caught a few more fish, in part because of a new partner, Granicus, a software company that scours rental registries and about 70 websites in search of property owners who might be ignoring the tax.

Adam Potter’s new plans for a mixed-use development in the heart of Sag Harbor Village — calling for a 299-seat theater, the exact size of the current Bay Street Theater, in a 16,144-square-foot building he’s calling the Complex — have finally been submitted to the village board.

Little by little, East Hampton Village's Herrick Park is changing. For some, the changes are a welcome evolution. But not everyone is thrilled with the way things are proceeding, and questions have been raised about the larger plan for the park and the connected Douglas E. Dayton Arboretum.