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East End Hospice is pushing forward with plans to build an eight-room inpatient facility on land it owns on Quiogue, though it could still be months before the organization receives the final green light from Southampton Town.
The Southampton Town Planning Board deemed the site plan application for the new facility complete at its meeting on December 20 and scheduled a public hearing, during which community members are invited to share their thoughts or concerns, for Thursday, January 24, as the next step in the process. After the hearing, the board will accept written comments from the public for a period, and will then consider making changes to the site plan based on the feedback.
Kerri Meyer, the senior clerk of the planning department, said the finalization of the site plan could still take several months, or even up to a year, if the board suggests changes that require East End Hospice to update and resubmit the document.
Once it breaks ground, the organization anticipates construction to take between 12 and 16 months.
East End Hospice provides home health care for the terminally ill and bereavement counseling for families who have lost loved ones. The inpatient facility would provide patients who cannot stay at home at the end of their lives with the care and services they require around the clock, Priscilla Ruffin, the organization’s CEO and president, said.
The plans call for an 11,951-square-foot facility with eight patient rooms, a cafeteria, bathrooms and an office, as well as 15 parking spaces. The facility will be built on 4.8 acres at the corner of Meeting House Road and Hampton Street, and bordering Aspatuck Creek.
But Ms. Ruffin explained in an interview last week that more than half of that property, including land along the water, will be preserved under a conservation easement. The entire property was donated to East End Hospice in the will of Elmo Monfrede, who was a good friend of the founders of the organization, Ms. Ruffin said.
There is an existing single-family home on the property, which will remain on a subdivided 27,500-square-foot lot. An old antiques store that also sits on the parcel and has been overgrown with vegetation will be demolished during the building process, according to the site plan.
“It really is going to be a beautiful piece of property,” Ms. Ruffin said. “This is sorely needed by the community. It’s going to meet an incredible need for the people of the East End.”
Quiogue residents whose homes border the property have expressed concern that the lights and traffic at the facility will disturb an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Ms. Ruffin said the architect in charge of the building plans, Roger Ferris, has taken care to minimize the impact on the surrounding environment. She also said Southampton Town has strong ordinances in place to reduce light and sound pollution, and added that the organization will do “whatever it can to be a good neighbor.”
“We see things changing and people need more and more help, and this is going to provide them with that help,” she said.
