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Southampton Village is still searching for consensus on a new master plan for the future of the village business district.
At the village Planning Commission’s latest public forum on the master plan, held Thursday, October 2, the commission heard suggestions and criticisms of the draft vision planners presented to the public last month. Some residents are concerned the plan may be pointed in the wrong direction. Others suspect a good plan might sit on the shelf.
Martha McLanahan of Gin Lane said she has had a house in the village for 45 years, and in that time there have been three master plans. “In all those years, those master plans have not been followed,” she said.
Ms. McLanahan, a board member of the Southampton Association, a local citizens group, questioned how residents can be assured this master plan will take root.
“It’s only going to be implemented if you insist,” said Stanton Eckstut of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, the firm the village commissioned to design the master plan based on community input.
Ms. McLanahan said the village is too fragmented to guarantee a plan will be followed.
“That’s what we’re trying to overcome through this process,” said Siamak Samii, the Planning Commission chairman.
Mr. Eckstut said many residents are getting caught up looking at the tools that will be used to achieve the village vision rather than concentrating on identifying problems and on what the overall vision is. “Architects can make elegant solutions to all the wrong problems,” he quipped.
Some attendees resented Southampton Village’s status as a resort community.
“I don’t know what purpose this village serves anymore,” lamented Margaret Logan, a member of the Toylsome Lane/Post Lane Neighborhood Association. “It’s a place where people come and play in the summertime.”
Some forum attendees challenged Mr. Eckstut and the Planning Commission’s assertion that the village absolutely needs a wastewater treatment plant.
Mr. Eckstut pointed out that the village business district could not be built today without a treatment plant.
Sewage treatment in the village has been met with resistance by some who see it as a Pandora’s box because it could lead to bigger buildings and denser development.
“You could have overbuilding. The village could go in any kind of direction,” admitted Planning Commission member Edward Simioni, though he said the master plan will be designed to stop undesirable development.
“We cannot put a stop to change,” Mr. Samii said, offering that all the village can do is control it.
“Can it really be controlled after you put it in?” Southampton Association member Eldon Scott said of a treatment plant.
In addition to allowing for new restaurants and second-story residences above Main Street and Jobs Lane shops, Planning Commission members also said sewage treatment would reduce pollution to Lake Agawam. But Southampton Association members maintained that storm water runoff is the real problem, not lack of wastewater treatment. “There’s no evidence of septic contamination of the lake,” association member Deborah Bates said.
Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University Southampton, who has studied the lake for five years, has said that cesspools, septic tanks and the history of farming in Southampton have all contributed to nutrient loading in the lake through the groundwater. He has also said that while a sewage system could help, the positive effects on the lake would be years off since the ground is so saturated with nutrients.
Mr. Scott was also concerned that the draft master plan called for expanding the village, but Mr. Eckstut said it does just the opposite. His said the draft plan calls for a walking village, so visitors and residents can walk from one side to the other of the business district in just 1,200 feet, or 300 steps.
Mr. Eckstut also said the village probably has too many retail shops and his plan doesn’t call for adding any more.
Another element of the draft vision that met some resistance was the prospect of building a parking structure in the village, perhaps in the lot behind the movie theater on Hill Street. “It would be multi-level,” Mr. Samii said, though he pointed out most of it would be underground.
The parking garage was presented as a measure to consolidate parking in a convenient and out-of-sight location.
Zach Studenroth, an architectural historian, came to the master plan forum to advocate for Southampton Village Hall staying put. At a previous meeting, Mr. Eckstut suggested the village sell the headquarters at 23 Main Street and use the proceeds to build a new Village Hall near the Windmill Lane firehouse. He also suggested moving that fire station to the north of the police station on Windmill Lane.
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