Government

A process that began eight years ago came to a sudden ending last week, as the East Hampton Town Planning Board voted 5-to-1 to allow a 70-foot cell tower at St. Peter’s Chapel in Springs.

The Sand Land mine in Noyac has been an ongoing source of conflict between its owner and the community. In the last three weeks as the State Department of Environmental Conservation issued new violations, even as it allows the mine to operate under the terms of its 2013 permit, leading to confusion.

Mayor Jerry Larsen and the East Hampton Village Board finally got what they wanted: control of the operations of the East Hampton Village Ambulance via a newly created Department of Emergency Medical Service that was voted into existence at Friday’s village board meeting.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to address a statewide housing shortage by building 800,000 new residences over the next decade has been removed from the state’s 2024 executive budget. Widely panned here, it would have effectively eliminated “decades of work put into creating our own local zoning, building, and environmental regulations,” an East Hampton Town planner told the town board last month.

End Citizens United has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s First Congressional District, his 2022 campaign for Congress, his campaign treasurer, and his 2020 State Senate campaign violated the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act and F.E.C. regulations.

A couple who lives next to Herrick Park in East Hampton Village is seeking to stop the village from building lighted pickleball courts in the park and making other improvements there. Meanwhile on Friday, the village board agreed to amend the village code regarding pickleball courts and impose a six-month moratorium on conversion of tennis courts and other playing courts on residential property to pickleball courts.

On Wednesday, when the East Hampton Town Planning Board holds a public hearing concerning site plan approval for Rita Cantina, a restaurant near Maidstone Park in Springs, the public may be a bit frustrated, because the hearing concerns only parking and the legalization of an existing fence.

The petition, in the form of an open letter to the East Hampton Town Board, calls for a reduction in allowable house size and clearing, review and amendment of the zoning code, and a moratorium on large construction. As of Wednesday morning, 300 people had signed it.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has temporarily closed multiple waterways on the East End to the harvesting of shellfish and carnivorous gastropods because shellfish there have tested positive for saxitoxin, a neurotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP, high levels of which can cause severe illness and death. To date, East Hampton Town waterways have not been affected by the neurotoxin.

Despite a petition in opposition with over 500 signatures from nearby residents, AT&T is moving ahead with plans for construction of a 70-foot cell tower next to the historical St. Peter's Chapel in Springs, and there is not much the East Hampton Town Planning Board can do about it.

Nobody wants to live next to a nightclub, but apparently nobody wants to live next to a mixed-use building with a market, offices, and apartments either. At least that was the vibe at a public hearing before the East Hampton Town Planning Board last week, where residents sounded off on a proposed change of use to a building at 44 Three Mile Harbor Road.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark Long Island’s first municipal solar-plus-battery-storage project happens on Thursday on the East Hampton Town Hall campus.

The house in question, once known as the Apaquogue, is “the best-preserved 19th-century East Hampton hotel, or boarding house,” according to a report compiled by Robert Hefner, the village’s former director of historic services, but it has no historic protections. Its new owner wants to add dormers, not only to restore it to its original appearance, but also to make the fourth floor more accessible.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee will launch its 2023 campaign next Thursday at the Clubhouse, giving people a chance to meet candidates including Gretta Leon for supervisor and Scott Smith and Michael Wootton for the town board.

The nearly 10-year tale of a communications tower at the Springs Fire Department took a turn last week when the department offered the East Hampton Town Planning Board a new preliminary plan for a shorter pole in a different location on its property. In a powerful change of script, the two sides appeared aligned.

In a letter delivered to Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s First Congressional District on April 3, more than 200 constituents complained that he had yet to hold a public “town hall” event. The letter said its signers had hoped Mr. LaLota would “a different kind of representative” than his predecessor, Lee Zeldin, who was largely inaccessible to the general public. Perhaps in response, the congressman scheduled a virtual town hall on Wednesday night.

A new East Hampton Town senior citizens center on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett took another step toward reality on Tuesday when the architects selected for the project presented updated plans to the town board. Design development and construction documentation will continue for another six months, with hopes of putting the project out to bid in the first half of 2024.

New signs offering visual depictions and greater specificity have been installed alongside text-only signs at the East Hampton recycling center on Springs-Fireplace Road, and a new brochure on recycling is being distributed with new permits to use the center.

The East Hampton Village engineer, Vincent Gaudiello of the Raynor Group, declared the village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street unsafe for public assembly last Thursday afternoon after a condensation leak exposed a structural problem in the roof.

A couple who live next to Herrick Park in East Hampton Village filed an Article 78 petition in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Sunday seeking to stop the village from building lighted pickleball courts in the park. They also say plans for an ice-skating rink and a "concert venue" in the park as part of a later phase of construction would violate both the procedural requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the covenant language in the deed to the park.

A famous surf break in Montauk known as the Ranch may soon have to be called the Ranches if an applicant gets approval for a 3,591-square-foot residence overlooking it. The break is at the base of a cliff in the heart of the moorlands, a dwarf forest habitat that doesn’t exist anywhere else in New York State.

Nearly a month after an explosive public hearing on the creation of a new East Hampton Village Department of Emergency Medical Services to take control of the ambulance association, the corps is experiencing a shortage of volunteers to cover overnight shifts and its chief is asking the village to hire a paid emergency medical technician to fill the gaps.

Save Sag Harbor and a group of village residents scored a victory against the village this week when Justice Stephen Hackeling of Suffolk Supreme Court ruled in their favor, striking down two village laws that allowed for Adam Potter’s proposed 79-unit affordable housing and retail complex. Justice Hackeling agreed with the petitioners that the village had failed to comply with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act when it crafted the laws.

The Suffolk County Legislature voted 14-to-3 last week to raise its hotel/motel tax from its current 3-percent rate to 5 1/2 percent. The increase starts on June 1, just in time for the season. Legislator Bridget Fleming was one of the three who voted against the hike, along with Al Krupski of Cutchogue and Anthony Piccirillo of Holtsville.

A groundbreaking ceremony for a long-awaited aquatic center at the Montauk Playhouse is planned for July, Sarah Iudicone, the president of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation’s board, told a delighted East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

The East Hampton Town Board last Thursday voted to promote Eric Schantz, the assistant planning director, to director of housing and community development, making him the fifth new town department head appointed since late December, following the retirement of several longtime key officials.

Opponents of a new spring turkey hunting season pleaded with the East Hampton Town Board to opt out of the program until the last minute, but on Tuesday the board, as it had previously indicated it would, voted only to prohibit hunting during a five-day span around Memorial Day weekend.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to extend the time that developers of the South Fork Wind farm have to complete the restoration of Beach Lane in Wainscott, from April 30 to May 22.

Sag Harbor Main Street is scheduled to be repaved from Monday morning through approximately Wednesday, weather permitting. According to the village's Department of Public Works, no street parking will be permitted from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. until the work is complete.

The owners of a historic timber frame house on Montauk Highway in East Hampton Village appeared before the village’s design review board on Tuesday to seek a retroactive certificate of appropriateness after gutting the house during renovations.