An East Hampton Village property purchased in 2017 for $57 million does not have adequate access to the beach, and so the owner, Lee Fixel, has applied for a permit to build an elevated walkway through the dunes that would connect with an easement that leads to the beach.

New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, last Thursday struck down a permit that the State Department of Environmental Conservation had awarded in March 2019 to the Sand Land mine, a business in Noyac that predates the Southampton Town law prohibiting mining.

Ending two years of concerted effort, the Southampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to approve the use of community preservation fund money to buy the development rights for the John Steinbeck house on Bluff Lane in Sag Harbor Village, to turn it into a writers retreat.