The unceremonious bulldozing of roughly four semi-wooded acres on Marsden Street was a shocking sight to Sag Harbor residents earlier this month, though plans to develop the property have loomed — and sparked controversy in the village — for decades.
The lots, on the corner of Marsden and Division Streets in the village’s historic district, across from Pierson High School, were purchased by Pat Trunzo Jr., a local builder, in the mid-1970s, along with a smaller lot on the opposite side of Marsden Street. The land had previously been the site of an unofficial village dump, and was a popular hangout for teenagers when Mr. Trunzo cleared it in January of 1975 to make way for a residential development.
Neighbors were quick to voice their concerns.
In a letter to The Star titled “Rape on Marsden St.,” dated Jan. 20, 1975, Thomas Ickovic, who lived next door, wrote that the clearing had “not only raised truckloads of broken glass and debris, but also a lot of questions and fears.” He wondered about the impact it would have on local wildlife. “Where were the watchguards of our ecology
Mr. Trunzo’s son, Pat Trunzo III, submitted an application to the village board in 1985 to create a four-lot subdivision on the property. The street is in a low-lying area of the village prone to flooding, and there had been concerns that construction would cause additional water runoff to surrounding areas, but the board ultimately approved the plans after the younger Mr. Trunzo agreed to an easement on the corner of the property and a new draining area.
The land sat undeveloped until December of 2018, when Mr. Trunzo brought up plans to build houses on his lots at a meeting of the village’s historic preservation and architectural review board. After preliminary designs were criticized for their grand scale and for imitating historical style, Mr. Trunzo presented revised plans in 2021, but withdrew his applications from review in 2022, after the school district proposed to buy the lots to build an athletic field.
The initial idea was to fund the deal with $3.325 million from the school district’s capital reserve and $6 million from Southampton Town’s community preservation fund. Village residents approved the district-funded portion during a referendum in November of 2022, but negotiations with the town to use community preservation money never came to fruition.
A group of residents who own houses adjacent to the lots also filed a lawsuit against the school district in February of 2023, alleging that the district had failed to undertake a proper environmental review of the land before moving forward with the plans.
The school district then proposed a $6 million, 20-year bond, along with the release of the reserve fund, in an attempt to buy the property without the town’s assistance. The plan, on the ballot as Proposition Two at the district’s budget vote in May of 2023, was narrowly rejected by residents, receiving 1,081 votes in favor and 1,156 against.
After the results were announced, Mr. Trunzo said he would resubmit his development plans to the village. “I was in favor of the school acquiring the property,” he told The Star after the vote. “I think it’s a loss to the community that it didn’t go through. It would have been a long-term benefit to Sag Harbor for the school to have more room.”
In March of 2024, it was reported that Mr. Trunzo had sold the four contiguous Marsden Street lots to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed sum (they had been listed for $9 million). He had also received approval from the architectural review board to build a 5,000-square-foot house on the fifth, separate lot on the other side of the street, which had not been included in the sale.
The Marsden buyer was revealed to be Matthew Pantofel, the owner of BJC Custom Builders, when his initial plans for the lots were introduced to the architectural review board during a June 2024 meeting. The designs, presented by his architect Lori Fontana, were widely criticized for an “outsized” scale and suburban appearance, which would remain points of contention as Mr. Pantofel and Ms. Fontana returned to present revised plans over the following 11 months.
The meetings included extended public comment segments, with future neighbors of the proposed houses (including those who had previously sued the school district) regularly weighing in with aesthetic concerns for the character of the historic district, and questions about a lack of environmental review. Others encouraged the board to approve the plans, suggesting that the size of the houses would not be out of place on the street considering the relatively large size of the lots.
All four houses underwent extensive aesthetic changes and height reductions, and comprehensive revegetation plans were added to each. The board approved one of the houses in January, a second in March, and the final two in May — including 7 Marsden Street, which Mr. Pantofel said he plans to keep as a personal residence in Sag Harbor for his family.
Approval by the architectural review board was the final hurdle forestalling development. The property had undergone an environmental impact assessment under the State Environmental Quality Review Act when it was subdivided in the 1980s, and because the lots are now being developed as independent properties they do not require additional review (though they will be under construction at the same time, by the same developer).
The clearing this month left mounds of dirt and piles of hewn logs where the tangles of trees had been throughout recent memory. After a village board meeting on Dec. 9, Mayor Thomas Gardella said that his daughter, a traffic control officer, had been working at the school when it happened. “She went down to the lots and showed me the pictures of it. She was horrified,” he said. “The terrible thing, she told me there were maybe 50 squirrels running around panicking because their habitat had been destroyed.”
“The thing is, the school, that’s a lesson learned,” Mayor Gardella said. “The school vote came up, the school lost. What was the alternative? What did you think was going to happen when the land got sold?”
