ROSS SCHOOL SELLS 90 ACRES TO EAST HAMPTON TOWN

The Ross School has decided to sell the 90 acres of land donated to them by Courtney Sale Ross in order to expand the South Fork Special Groundwater Protection Area and to ensure the future financial stability of the Ross School. The school’s upper and middle school campus will then encompass the same 22 acres in East Hampton on which it has resided since its inception in 1991. This land sale has halted rumors that the Ross School’s expansion plan, which began in January of 2006 with the opening of the Ross Global Academy in New York City and the Ross Lower School on the Bridgehampton campus of the Morris Center (formerly the Hampton Day School), was to include further expansion of the East Hampton campus.

The 90 acres will be a joint purchase involving the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County and East Hampton Village. Suffolk County and the Town of East Hampton will purchase 71 acres, while East Hampton Village will purchase 19 acres. Both parcels will be combined with 365 acres of previously preserved land to create one of the largest greenbelts in the area, protecting the area’s groundwater, wildlife habitat and open spaces from development and contamination.