Affordable Housing? Not In This Backyard

By Debbie Tuma

Affordable housing on the East End has long been a political football that is tossed around through different boards, with different people having different points of view. Some people see the need to keep their young families here after they have been educated in East End high schools, so they don't have to move away to afford to live. Some also say that although the East End is fast becoming a land of the elite with second homeowners, these homeowners still need working class people - carpenters, landscapers, cooks, and other service people - to maintain their estates, and these people need affordable housing.

There are others who tout the need for affordable housing, yet when it comes to having these properties in their neighborhoods, they shout the "not in my backyard" message. And there are still others who blatantly say they feel that the Hamptons is not the place for affordable housing at all.

The Town of Southampton, like its neighbor the Town of East Hampton, has been grappling with this issue. Most recently, it came to a head when a group of Sagaponack neighbors showed up to question and downscale a proposed 10-unit affordable housing plan on Merchants Path, north of the Highway off Sag Road in Sagaponack. The property in question belonged to developer John Leonard, who initially obtained permission from Southampton Town to increase the density of his subdivision from six to ten lots, of which he would sell eight.

At first, the Town of Southampton heard and welcomed a proposal by the non-profit Southampton Business Alliance Housing Initiative Corporation to provide five single family houses, each with an accessory apartment, for a total of ten units on two 1.5-acre lots.

But surrounding neighbors of Merchants Path had other ideas, and one resident, Gregg Saunders, decided to meet with Ann LaWall, Executive Director of the Southampton Business Alliance, and Diana Weir, Executive Vice President of Long Island Housing Partnership. Ms. Weir's organization, based in Hauppauge, builds affordable housing, provides technical assistance to developers and municipalities, and educates homebuyers.

"Originally, we thought since this property is three acres, that we could put at least five to six units of affordable housing on each, but then after meeting with the Health Department, they said we could only put three houses with three accessory apartments in them, for a total of six units," said LaWall. "This was to meet the groundwater allowance, among other things."

LaWall said Saunders was concerned that her group would put many units on this property, but they assured him the most they could do was six.

Saunders, a developer himself, said, "My concern was that in our area, most of the homes are on two to five acres, and I saw that at first they were looking at putting ten units on three acres. I'm all for affordable housing, anywhere, but my first concern was density. I just wanted it to blend into the area, not to change the character of the neighborhood."

Then, at the December 11 meeting of the Southampton Town Board, about twenty Sagaponack residents showed up for the public comment portion, objecting to the six units and arguing for only one house on each lot.

One resident went so far as to say he was concerned about losing the ranking of Sagaponack's zip code as being one of the most exclusive in the country. Others worried that affordable housing would bring down the value of their homes.

"The agreement we finally made was to have one home with an accessory apartment on each acre and a half lot," said LaWall. "This was not allowing affordable housing to the degree we wanted, but we decided not to fight attorneys and to tie up the project in litigation. So our whole board voted to go with this downscaled compromise."

She said the board of the new Southampton Town Business Alliance Housing Initiative Corporation (which is an arm of the Southampton Business Alliance), includes builders, planners, landscape architects, and a former Health Department official.

"Our new board went to the Town of Southampton and asked to build affordable housing, and around October they gave us this piece of John Leonard's land as a first initiative," said LaWall.

Diana Weir, who is also a former East Hampton Town Councilwoman, said, "I think it's unfortunate we couldn't put in as many units as the Health Department allowed, since we could have housed up to six families on these three acres."

She said that she herself lives on two-thirds of an acre, and that most houses in her Wainscott neighborhood are on half-acre parcels.

"It's very sad that we couldn't get that third house and accessory apartment, so that two more families could be helped out," Weir added. "It's not often that you get the cost of the land eliminated by the cost of living, but we'll have to work with what we have."

Referring to the Sagaponack neighbor who worried about his zip code rating, Weir quipped, "North of the Highway outside the village here is not as exclusive as people think. And people should understand that you can't have an elite community without working class people to service these luxury homes."

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