Government

A proposal to expand what has been dubbed a community oyster garden, which was launched in Three Mile Harbor last year, to Hog Creek is a step closer to reality, the director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery told the East Hampton Town Trustees at their meeting Monday.

Frans H. and Dalal Preidel, who own a small cottage on a dune at the beach terminus of South Edison Street in Montauk, got a Valentine’s Day gift Tuesday night from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, which informally agreed to allow them to remove an outdoor shower and deck and replace it with a shed.

Moody’s Investors Service, which evaluates municipalities, schools, businesses, and other entities on their ability to repay short-term debt, has affirmed the town’s AAA rating, the highest level possible.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday a proposal to accelerate the use of renewable heating and cooling technologies to stimulate the clean energy economy.

Several baymen insisted before the East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday, often loudly, that Accabonac Harbor must be dredged, and quickly, to allow them to maintain their livelihood.

Two small lots with summer houses on them were before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday.

A South Fork railroad service that could accommodate those commuting into East Hampton Town for work, a service that has long been discussed and was instituted for a short-term trial in 2006, is feasible, Long Island Rail Road officials agreed at a meeting last week with the East End’s state, county, and local government officials. Agreement on new services and train schedules, and a plan for their implementation, could be finalized as soon as next month, with a target start date of 2018.

The 2016 pilot program in which individuals and families participated in a community oyster garden in Three Mile Harbor should be expanded to Hog Creek, the director of East Hampton Town’s shellfish hatchery told the town trustees on Monday.

The Peconic Land Trust will likely get approval from the East Hampton Town Planning Board for a 2,800-square-foot equipment barn at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. However, it may not get the access to the barn it had hoped for.

The fight over whether PSEG-Long Island, the utility that provides electric service here, should be subject to East Hampton Town’s zoning laws will continue in a Brooklyn courtroom on Monday.

Several applicants cancelled their public hearings before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday, resulting in an abbreviated meeting that proved time well spent for one applicant.

Parking along Landing Lane in Springs, which leads to an Accabonac Harbor access used by paddleboarding and kayaking businesses, could be restricted to those with town parking permits, both resident and nonresident, according to an East Hampton Town Board discussion this week.

The owners of a 2,529-square-foot vacation house on Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, which is on a lot identified by the East Hampton Town Planning Department as “pristine dune land,” sought a permit Tuesday before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals to add another 1,464 square feet plus decking.

In an unusually lively first meeting of the year, the East Hampton Town Trustees heard an appeal from Sara Davison, executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, for permission to conduct a survey of the pond’s marine life.

East Hampton Town

Building Code Revisions

After holding hearings on changes to the town building code, the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday approved several revisions, including one that would reduce the size of houses that can be built throughout the town.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee and an owner of the Hampton Country Day Camp in East Hampton, who had challenged the East Hampton Town Code’s limits on the number of people sharing a house as unconstitutional, lost his motion to dismiss a town case against the camp in State Supreme Court, Riverhead, last month.

The filming permits issued by East Hampton Town to producers, filmmakers, and still photographers seeking to use local sites for TV shows, movies, and ads are expected to take center stage before the town board in the coming days of this new year.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee will celebrate the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump and Mike Pence as president and vice president of the United States with a party at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

Guests can “feel free to dress in formal attire,” according to an invitation. Tickets to the celebration, which will take place from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. the day of the inauguration, cost $50 in advance and $60 at the door.

A request from the owners of one of the last undeveloped beachfront parcels on Marine Boulevard in Amagansett to add a second story to an already approved one-story residence was denied on Dec. 13, at the year’s final meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals.

With the new year approaching, East Hampton Town officials have looked ahead to the $4.6 million they estimate the town will receive annually from the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund for water quality improvement, or $152 million over the life of the program.

A rally hosted by environmental groups, elected officials, labor unions, and civic organizations drew more than 100 people to the Long Island Power Authority’s headquarters in Uniondale on Tuesday.

A 25-acre tract of land in the Buckskill area of East Hampton will be purchased and preserved by East Hampton Town, and could become a recreation destination, according to a vote of the town board last Thursday.

East Hampton Town

Organizational Meeting

The East Hampton Town Board will hold its 2017 organizational meeting at Town Hall at 10 a.m. on Jan. 3, just before a work session.

Seeking a Perennial Garden

A small step toward curtailing the use of methoprene, a mosquito larvicide, in the Town of East Hampton was taken this month when the Suffolk County Department of Public Works agreed to work with the town trustees and other town officials to that end.

The East Hampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force, concerned about what its members say appears to be an increase in young adult and high school suicides that may have been related to gender identity and to bullying, is seeking support for increased mental health services here.

In a presentation last week at an East Hampton Village Board meeting, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who is the town board’s liaison to the committee, summarized the task force’s recent activities and said its members believe the town faces “a bias issue.”

The creation of year-round housing in outbuildings on lots of an acre or more, to be rented to permanent residents at prices within affordable housing guidelines, got the go-ahead with a vote of the East Hampton Town Board on Dec. 1.

After a hearing on revisions to the town housing code that evening, the town board voted to allow, for the first time, the creation of accessory dwellings in detached structures, but only on acre-sized properties. 

The East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on Dec. 7, which included public hearings and site plan reviews, was unusually contentious.

The removal of more than 55,000 pounds of macroalgae from Georgica Pond last summer is likely responsible for a substantial reduction this year in levels of toxic blue-green algae, and should be repeated next year, the East Hampton Town Trustees were told on Monday.

The $8.6 million purchase of more than 25 acres of woodland in East Hampton’s Buckskill area will be the subject of a hearing at the Town Board’s next formal meeting tonight at 6:30.

East Hampton Town is to become the first “small community” on Long Island to be certified as a clean-energy community by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, an agency that provides financial incentives for smart-energy usage to municipalities, homes, businesses, and other entities.