Farmers Applaud Wainscott Preservation Effort

Farmers and their advocates last week applauded East Hampton Town’s proposal to purchase a package of “rights” off a Wainscott farm, making the land available only for the growing of food crops in perpetuity.

Without efforts to remove a broader number of possible uses from land that has already been preserved from housing development, actual farms will fade away almost entirely from the South Fork, supporters of the proposal said at a public hearing on Thursday, July 20.

“A food production farmer cannot afford $180,000 or $300,000 an acre, or whatever it will be in the future,” said John v.H. Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, a Southampton-based farmland advocacy group that worked with the town and farmer Peter Dankowski on the deal now under consideration.

He added, “We would like to thank the Dankowskis. They’re the first. It’s always hardest to be the first. I think they’re here because they believe in what their family has done for generations.”

The proposal would have the town pay Mr. Dankowski $4 million. Under the agreements reached, a number of covenants and restrictions would be placed on the 29.5 acres of farmland he owns and tills off Wainscott Hollow Road in Wainscott, mandating that it could be used only to raise food crops, that no new structures could be built on it, and that, regardless of who owns it, it may not be left fallow for more than two seasons.

The land was preserved from residential development in the 1970s by Mr. Dankowski’s father, Henry Dankowski, and uncle, Paul Dankowski, for only about $17,000 per acre, but currently could still be used for an equestrian operation, a landscape nursery or converted to lawn and merged with neighboring residential lots. By removing those rights, the land would be worth just $25,000 an acre—a value that the Peconic Land Trust has identified as a rate that working farmers can afford to pay while making a profit in the long term.

“There’s no way for someone to grow crops on land for $384,000 per acre,” said Billy Babinski, also a Wainscott farmer, referencing the value that Scott Wilson, the town land management director, had said some lands have fetched that were ostensibly preserved for agricultural uses only. “If we want to keep farms in East Hampton, we have to do something like this,” he said.

Mr. Babinski and Mr. Halsey both nodded to the motivation that drives many farmers who intended to keep farming to sell their land: taxes. Inheritance taxes can hamstring a family when land values in places like Wainscott climb into the millions of dollars per acre. Selling housing development rights was long seen as a way to bring down the value. But demand for land, even land preserved for agriculture but still open to horse farms or private lawns, has driven values upward again.

“When they sold their rights years ago, they did it to protect themselves from federal and New York State inheritance taxes,” Mr. Halsey said. “And they are right there again. They have seen their value go up 10 to 20 times.”

There was a smattering of criticism of the proposal, including from within the farming community.

“I’m opposed to anything … that will eliminate horse farms, tree farms or vineyards and any other agricultural use,” said Vicki Littman, who runs Vicki’s Veggies farm stand in Amagansett. “You are essentially eliminating any new horse farms from our community.”

Mr. Dankowski objected.

“I do not care to have horses on my farm,” he said. “If someone else wants to have horses, they can talk it over with you.”

Ms. Littman’s mother, Elaine Jones, suggested that the town should also have the soil on the property tested for chemical contamination before buying the rights.

Mr. Dankowski objected.

“There’s no better land in the world,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with Wainscott land and East Hampton land. It’s too bad we lost everything down on Further Lane and Middle Lane, because that was prime.”

“I don’t think anybody can really understand the type of person you are dealing with when you are dealing with a farmer—it comes from your soul,” said Maryann Dankowski. “Peter could sell those same acres for hundreds of thousands an acre and walk away, but that’s not what’s in his soul.”

The board could vote to approve the purchase as early as August 3.