Community Housing
In his Jan 3, 2022 State of the Town address, Supervisor Van Scoyoc announced the creation of the “ALL HANDS ON HOUSING” initiative to immediately advance solutions to the housing crisis, assigning tasks toward a solution to each member of the board.
- In March 2022, The town board voted to amend the code to increase the allowable number of single-family residences per acre in affordable housing overlay districts from two to four.
- 286 and 290 Three Mile Harbor Rd in East Hampton. The Three Mile Harbor project, scheduled for completion in 2024, is expected to feature five townhouse-style buildings with around 50 units of one, two, and three-bedroom rental apartments for moderate and low-income residents.
- 395 Pantigo Rd-Seven acres will be dedicated to housing, and five to open space. Detached houses, on the southern portion of the property, will be offered for sale.
- The Town acquired property at 776 and 780 Route 114 in the Wainscott just outside of Sag Harbor Village, consisting of two lots totaling around 6.5 acres. The Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust owns the two-acre parcel at 782 Route 114, and the plan is to develop the entire 8.5 acres. The plan here is for 50 to 60 apartments of modular construction, primarily one-bedroom units, for people of median income who live and work in the town.
Councilwoman Cate Rogers has been searching for town-owned properties that could be dedicated to affordable housing. As of early May 2022, eight properties of one acre or more have been identified as potential sites for community housing.
See the Press Release from the Town,
Community Housing Fund
This November 8, as part of the town’s comprehensive plan to address housing affordability, voters in East Hampton will have the opportunity to approve a 0.5% real estate transfer fee, the proceeds of which will be exclusively dedicated to a Community Housing Fund (CHF). Although the Town of East Hampton leads the region in the creation of housing options, we are still far from meeting the ever growing and urgent need. The proposed Community Housing Fund has the potential to truly be a game changer, providing a significant, ongoing source of revenue for East Hampton Town to create housing for members of our local community.
Where will the money come from?
A new state law allows East End towns to create a Community Housing Fund that would receive the proceeds of a new, half-percent (0.5%) real estate transfer tax, if authorized by local voters.
Who will pay this tax?
Only those who are purchasing real estate – and not first-time home buyers purchasing houses within a maximum purchase price limit, whose incomes are also within maximum state limits. Because the first $400,000 of the purchase price would be exempted from transfer taxes – including the existing 2-percent Community Preservation Fund tax, which is used solely for land, recreation, historic preservation, and water quality projects– buyers of homes valued at less than $1 million will pay less transfer tax than they do currently.
How will the money be spent?
The fund will be used to buy land and build houses and apartments for rent and for sale. Some will be built by the Town, others will be public/private partnerships. Qualifying homebuyers will be able to apply for up to 50% down payment assistance for homes up to roughly $1 million.
What happens next?
East Hampton Town has prepared a Community Housing Fund Plan, and will adopt changes to Town Code to set up the housing fund, so that the money raised for affordable housing can be utilized shortly after the November vote, provided voters approve the proposition on the ballot.
Cell Service/Emergency Communications
- East Hampton Town has nearly completed a town-wide upgrade to its emergency communications system, which is used by EH Town Police, EH and Sag Harbor Village Police, and the EH, Amagansett, Montauk, Springs, and Sag Harbor Fire Departments, along with other town and village departments.
- The $12 million project replaces an antiquated analog system with a digital service. The new system integrates fully with surrounding emergency and public safety systems and provides reliable communication among emergency responders.
- The project required updates or additions to towers, monopoles and equipment in Montauk, East Hampton, Wainscott, Amagansett, and Noyac. It includes the addition to the system of three new communications sites, at the so-called “GATR” site in Montauk, in East Hampton at the former Northwest Road brush dump, and in Springs.
The power is on at the GATR site in Montauk and will be “on air” once radios are installed.
A temporary communications tower, COW—short for “cell on wheels”—has recently been erected in the East Hampton Town parking lot on Gann Road in Springs, providing a boost to emergency communications. The tower will improve communications between fire department, police and ambulance personnel and dispatchers.
A permanent 185-foot emergency communications tower for Springs is to be erected at Camp Blue Bay on Flaggy Hole Road, owned by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. This project is ongoing.
https://ehamptonny.gov/617/Emergency-Communications-System
Renewable Energy and Sustainability
Climate change poses a threat to our planet, especially to coastal communities like East Hampton. In an effort to mitigate the impacts of climate change through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable energy consumption, the East Hampton Town Board, in 2014 unanimously adopted a goal to meet 100% of the Town’s annual community-wide electricity consumption with renewable energy sources by the year 2020, and furthermore to meet the equivalent of 100% of annual community-wide energy consumption such as electricity, heating, and transportation with renewable energy sources by the year 2030.
East Hampton was the first municipality in the State to adopt such progressive energy sustainability goals. The Town of East Hampton is committed to advancing its energy sustainability goals through energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The Town has:
- Adopted a 100% renewable energy goal, among the first communities in the U.S. to do so
- Benchmarked energy use in all town buildings
- Improved electric vehicle infrastructure by installing charging stations throughout the town
- Replaced older gas powered fleet vehicles with electric vehicles
- Installed LED street lighting in Montauk and throughout town buildings and ballfields
- Installed first megawatt scale solar farm on the South Fork, repurposing an abandoned brush dump
- Completed the first utility scale battery storage facility on Long Island. The 5MW facility can meet peak demand of 5,000 homes for 8 hours. A second battery storage facility has now been completed in Montauk
- Negotiated over $29 million dollars in Host Community Benefit funding for East Hampton, ensuring clean renewable energy from New York’s first offshore wind farm to the South Fork, meeting the Town’s 100% renewable energy goal by 2024
- Adopted a Fleet Efficiency Policy, drafted by the Department of Natural
- Resources and Energy Sustainability Committee, for the procurement of electric, hybrid and
- fuel efficient fleet vehicles.
- Entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the solar PV + battery energy storage
- system at the Town Parks Department. Construction expected to be completed in 2021.
- Voted to adopt the authorizing legislation for CCA (Resolution 2020-1026), allowing the Town to proceed with exploring the potential for procuring renewable power
- from an alternative supplier on behalf of the community.
- Passed legislation banning the seasonal use of gasoline and diesel-powered leaf blowers, which pose a serious threat to the environment and public health.
https://ehamptonny.gov/382/Energy-Sustainability
Water Quality
Since its inception in 1999, the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund (CPF), a two-percent real estate transfer tax for land acquisition for open space, farmland, and historic preservation, as well as recreational purposes, has raised over $1 billion to protect over 10,000 acres of land on the East End of Long Island. In November 2016, a referendum was passed in the five east end towns of Long Island to extend the CPF through 2050 and to allow up to 20 percent of its proceeds to be used for water quality initiatives annually.
The primary purpose is to improve water quality and preserve community character by implementing best management practices, restoring degraded habitats, improving stormwater management techniques and upgrading conventional sanitary systems with innovative alternatives to reduce nitrogen loading within priority watersheds. The need for improvements stem from both the designated impairments in local watersheds and from local and regional initiatives to reduce pollutant inputs to our surface and groundwater. These initiatives emphasize the need for local management of target pollutants within the watersheds of East Hampton in order to improve water quality and restore beneficial uses.
The Town of East Hampton intends to use its CPF resources wisely and to systematically approach the nitrogen problem and other pollutants of concern in high priority areas by concentrating first on Reduction tactics (upgrading of systems to require treatment before disposal into the ground) and then considering Remediation(treatment in groundwater) and Restoration tactics (treatment in waterbody), where such projects are reviewed and found to be appropriate and cost effective. These components represent the best use of CPF funding to improve water quality in East Hampton. Funded projects will address existing sources of pollution and will not promote new development to achieve a net reduction in pollutants entering surface waters.
https://ehamptonny.gov/640/Clean-Water-East-Hampton-Program
Coastal Assessment Resilience Plan (CARP)
This Coastal Assessment Resilience Plan (CARP) is an important first step to reduce the Town of East Hampton’s vulnerability as a coastal community and adapt to the changing climate.
The CARP evaluates key coastal risks our community currently faces, and points to a drastic increase in severity of those risks. Ways to reduce the Town’s vulnerability include planning initiatives, changes in regulations, emergency response to storms and other events, public works projects, public education and consensus building, and new funding sources.
http://ehamptonny.gov/574/Coastal-Assessment-Resiliency-Plan
Senior Center
After a long and exhaustive search, the Kabbaz property on Abraham’s Path near the Terry King Ballpark has been chosen for the new home of the senior center. The property is approximately 7 acres in size. In addition to accommodating the current and future needs of the Senior Nutrition and Adult Day Care programs, the new building, which will be fully handicapped-accessible, will allow for multiple other activities to take place simultaneously and will provide a permanent home for the East Hampton Food Pantry. It will provide space for additional wellness programs, such as yoga, dance, meditation and health screenings; allow for more enrichment programs, such as healthy living lectures, and provide comfortable spaces to hold book clubs, card games, art classes, movie screenings, and more. They are looking to do a net zero energy facility with a low nitrogen wastewater system. The Town has hired the firm, R2 Architecture, to design the new center.