Government

The East Hampton Town Board has appointed an advisory committee to review potential affordable housing initiatives and make recommendations to the town board, following the town’s recently adopted Community Housing Opportunity Fund Project Plan.

For at least 50 years the property at 44 Three Mile Harbor Road has operated as a nightclub — Leo, Philippe, SL East, NV Tsunami, way back when a place called the Jag, and even before that Mellowmouth — but its owner wants to convert the 5,000-square-foot one-story stucco building into a mix of retail, office, and affordable housing units. The town planning board will hold a hearing on the proposal in April.

Representative Nick LaLota of the First Congressional District has formally proposed legislation to declare Plum Island a national monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act. His bill, known as H.B. 1584, emphasizes the need for “ecological conservation, historical preservation, and the discovery and celebration of our shared cultural heritage.”

The effort to impose restrictions on aircraft at East Hampton Town Airport took another incremental step forward on Tuesday when consultants presented the town board with the scope for a draft environmental impact statement that reflects input from the public and the board.

East Hampton Town and New York State would like comments from residents 60 years of age and older for a comprehensive survey of older adults, the director of the town’s Human Services Department said on Tuesday.

The New York Housing Compact, the governor's plan to address a housing shortage by building 800,000 new residences over the next decade, is a heavy-handed approach that would be wholly incompatible with East Hampton Town, according to the town planning director. Another planner described it to the town board as an “all sticks and no carrots” approach to solving the housing crisis.

In the wake of the federal government’s announcement last week that utilities will be required to reduce levels of toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water to almost zero, residents of Wainscott are using that news to press opposition to both the South Fork Wind farm and the proposed Wainscott Commercial Center.

A boisterous group of 40-plus ambulance volunteers, many from the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association but some "mutually aided" from nearby departments, showed up at the East Hampton Village Board meeting on Friday to speak out against a plan that would have the ambulance association come under village control.

Most waters under East Hampton Town Trustee jurisdiction were usually healthy in 2022, the trustees were told on Monday, but the consequences of land use continue to impair some water bodies in the form of excessive nitrogen via ground and surface water runoff.

Nearly a quarter of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association’s volunteer corps has resigned since the East Hampton Village Board introduced a plan on March 2 to create a new Department of Emergency Medical Services to oversee the ambulance service.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board was left with two bad options for a cell tower at the tiny St. Peter’s Chapel in Springs, and a litigation-imposed mandate to choose one by April 24. Cingular Wireless, operating as AT&T, requires approval of a special permit from the board to go ahead with construction.

The East Hampton Town Board will not vote on a resolution regarding a May turkey hunt before April 6, the board said on Tuesday.

The East Hampton Historical Society is seeking a special permit and several variances from the village zoning board of appeals to bring 2023-level technology to a new barn at the Mulford Farm that would house its growing collection of historical artifacts.

History is repeating itself on Montauk’s ocean shoreline, where erosion has once again prompted officials in East Hampton Town’s Land Management Department to recommend a landward rerouting of bluff trails in Shadmoor State Park and the adjacent Rheinstein Nature Preserve.

The proposed Wainscott Commercial Center has had a series of setbacks in recent weeks, most recently and perhaps most importantly on Tuesday night, when the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals was unanimous in its decision that a special permit was required for the planned industrial park proposed for the spent sand mine.

East Hampton Town is about to solicit participation in a public survey regarding the town’s goal to derive communitywide energy needs through renewable sources by 2030.

After two stop-work orders were either ignored or slow-rolled earlier this year, the Town of East Hampton is suing The Landings in Montauk, a marina-condo complex located at 408 West Lake Drive, alleging that the complex has exceeded construction-related approvals and committed other violations of the town zoning code.

Richard Whalen, an Amagansett attorney and the founder of the Coalition for Hither Woods, told board members the group will continue to support the town in its efforts to improve Montauk’s environment, but will oppose any encroachment on the hamlet’s parks.

Three weeks after the East Hampton Town Board heard from residents urging it to opt out of the May turkey hunting season announced last year by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, some 30 people were in the main meeting room at Town Hall Tuesday, many of them applauding speakers who urged the board to opt in.

Owners of one of the two dozen 1700-1850 timber-frame landmarks in East Hampton Village have been called to task after making renovations affecting protected aspects of the structure. “It’s egregious, and they knew what they were doing, that’s the most upsetting aspect of this," the mayor said.

Lee Zeldin, who represented New York’s First Congressional District from 2015 through 2022 and was the Republican Party’s nominee for governor of New York in the November election, has launched a political action committee to support Republican candidates “who are committed to advancing" his "efforts to grow the diverse coalition of first-time Republican voters” who helped to make the race for governor so close in 2022.

The long-planned improvement to the navigational channel in Montauk Harbor remains on track for completion this fall, representatives of the federal Army Corps of Engineers told the East Hampton Town Board, but a delay to fall 2024 is possible.

Legislation introduced at last week’s East Hampton Village Board to create a standalone Ambulance Department “to provide a municipal paid and volunteer general ambulance service in the village and contracted-for areas of the Town of East Hampton” so alarmed a faction of the ambulance corps that it scheduled an emergency meeting. The law will be the subject of a public hearing on March 17.

The rough road near the Rough Riders Landing housing complex in Montauk has a smooth future ahead of it: Last week the East Hampton Town Board approved the issuance of $285,000 in bonds to pay for improvements to Tuthill and Fort Pond Roads.

The East Hampton Village Board is seeking ideas for the future management of the 13 Sea Spray Cottages at Main Beach, and has already received several submissions, including one from a West Palm Beach, Fla., company, and others from current tenants.

The long-awaited completion of a town-approved plan to rehabilitate the commercial fishing dock on Star Island in Montauk, which has been beset by delays and add-on costs, took a step forward last week as the East Hampton Town Board voted to amend two contracts and allocate additional money.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board had one clear message for the owners of Rita Cantina at its March 1 meeting: Clean up your act before the season begins.

While it’s still a mystery as to who actually founded the organization Political Transparency — which has been running ads in The Star and on social media that are highly critical of the current East Hampton Town Board — a spokesman for the related StopEHTownBoard.com did offer some insight into the organization and its goals this week.

Marcos Baladron, who has served as East Hampton Village administrator for just over two years, will receive the Hon. Paul F. Rickenbach Distinguished Service Award from the Suffolk County Village Officials Association next month. If he weren’t so modest, he might admit to feeling vindicated.

In their deliberations to date over proposed new special permitting rules, town board members had emphasized the recent uptick in outsize parties taking place at town beaches and how to rein them in while not spoiling the sun-soaked fun for would-be revelers. But one caterer wondered if such parties were a concern at more isolated beaches.