Government

A public hearing on the proposed Wainscott Commercial Center, a 70-acre mixed-use development, is set for Wednesday at LTV Studios, at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.

With a 16-unit affordable housing development in East Hampton, the town hopes to put measures in place that ensure the houses there remain affordable well into the future, including a cap on the size of houses and accessory structures and a prohibition on pools or playing courts.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to deny a second request by Farrell Builders for a natural resources special permit that would have allowed the developer to demolish a beach cottage at 175 Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett and build a new 3,240-square-foot residence, pool, and accessory structures in the dunes abutting the beach parking lot.

Last Thursday, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. reintroduced a bill that aims to “address the statewide affordable housing crisis and incentivize property owners to construct accessory dwelling units where such units are permitted,” formally known as the Accessory Dwelling Unit Incentive Act.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. sounded optimistic last week as he addressed a crowd in the Sag Harbor Cinema, saying he’s looking forward to a change five years from now in the East End’s affordable housing landscape.

The East Hampton Town Board has three public hearings on the schedule for this week's regular board meeting on Thursday at 2 p.m. -- new fees for projects in urban renewal areas, the acquisition of a Gerard Drive property with money from the community preservation fund, and a hearing on easements granted at a Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road property. 

At 6 a.m. on Jan. 27, three hours before East Hampton Village opened in-person sales of its nonresident beach parking permits to town residents, 20 people in lawn chairs were already waiting at the Emergency Services Building for their chance at one of the coveted $500 passes. By 6 p.m., they were sold out.

Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island will receive $600,000 from Suffolk County over the next three years for opioid abuse prevention work among young people, the group announced Friday.

Ongoing litigation in federal court between East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village over the use and storage of controversial firefighting foam at the town airport by the village’s Fire Department remains in limbo even as the State Department of Environmental Conservation “continues to oversee the town’s remedial investigation” at the site, the agency said this week.

Those interested in preserving John Steinbeck’s Sag Harbor home as a writing center must have been buoyed on Tuesday afternoon as the proposal coasted through a public hearing during a Southampton Town Board meeting, with nary a single comment against it.

East Hampton Village sent out approximately 2,000 surveys to village residents asking three questions: Are you in favor of installing pickleball courts in Herrick Park? Are you in favor of Wiborg’s Beach being protected by lifeguards? Are you in favor of having a dog park in Herrick Park? The results are in.

Money from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed last March, will be deployed to Montauk’s commercial fishing fleet to assist with the onshore storage of their gear.