At the March and April Board of Trustees meetings, the main topics of conversation were presentation on the state of our beaches by First Coastal Corporation and the unveiling of the architectural plans for the Southampton Center for the Arts (former Parrish Site). In addition, the design guidelines for the business district were adopted (after the Southampton Association raised concerns over parking and control of the Hotel/Motel use), the Village budget was passed and Association Board member Eldon Scott summarized for the Village Board the Robert Gibbs Retail study, which was completed in late March.
Aram Terchunian, President of the environmental consulting and marine construction company First Coastal, presented an overview of the health of the beaches in the Village, which he divided into 3 sections, or “reaches”. Reach 1, from the Inlet to Halsey Neck, is in good shape. Reach 2 extends from Halsey Neck to Wickapogue and is much more eroded. He believes a dune restoration program would be helpful in this area. Reach 3, which extends to the west of Water Mill and the Cut, has been dramatically impacted and needs significant restoration. He also touched on the Bridgehampton/Sagaponack nourishment project which is a public/private partnership costing approximately $25 million and primarily involved adding sand offshore in those areas. Following the meeting, Mr. Terchunian organized a visit to West Hampton Dunes for the Trustees and interested village residents to see the results of a major beach restoration project begun there in 1995.
At the former Parrish building, Machado and Silvetti unveiled a restoration of the original building combined with significant additions (at the back) and upgrades for the multi use facility. Square footage will grow from abut 19,000 to approximately 30,000, with the largest change being a 180 seat auditorium.
At the April 11th meeting, the Village approved the zoning guidelines for the central business district. The Association participated in the 4 years of study relating to the proposed changes and we were supportive of the broad goals. However, we continued to be concerned with the reduction in the parking requirements for new projects and want to insure the village is protected from an outsized hotel/motel project. At the April 23rd meeting, the Village budget was approved at $25.6 million, a $1.1 million increase. While the actual tax increase will be 5.6%, it is considered to be under the 2% state cap due to various required mandates – that’s government math for you!
Eldon Scott summarized the Robert Gibbs Village Retail study for the Trustees at the April 23rd meeting. The main points of the study are: keep highway zoning in place – no retail on County Road 39; prevent further loss of village anchors; encourage appropriate national retailers to anchor in the village center; and maximize and improve current parking. The study indicated that either proposed market (in Tuckahoe or Hampton Road) could be significantly detrimental to all village retailers (possible 10 to 25% decline in revenues.)
Subsequent to month end, the Citarella application was approved by the Planning Board for the mini-mall on Hampton Road.
May 8, 2013