On August 23, I attended the Southampton Village Board meeting to hear the presentation of the new village master plan [“Residents Offer Thoughts On Master Plan; Officials Explore Plans To Upgrade Southampton Village Hall,” 27east.com, August 24]. I was surprised to see only about 20 attendees in the audience for the unveiling of this important initiative.
Where were all those residents who were so vocal about the state of the village during the last election cycle? The master plan is supposed to be a blueprint for the future of the village, yet only a handful of residents seemed interested enough to show up.
With this sort of apathy, it is no wonder the direction of our village is at a crossroads.
The master plan is an important document for a municipality to reference in making decisions about future development and land use, as well as, one would hope, to help preserve the character of this historic village.
There is a desire by this current administration to redevelop the business corridor of Nugent Street and Windmill Lane with more shops and restaurants. While many would agree this area is in need of face-lift, the rendering done by the consultants proposes a very overdeveloped site.
If you look around, many storefronts are still empty or starting to close for the season. Why add more volume to the village center when we can’t handle what we already have? The traffic is getting worse and is unsustainable, especially during the months of July and August.
What is long, long overdue is an improvement to our village infrastructure. Without a new sewer system and a reliable and valid traffic study, nothing in the master plan can come to fruition. Where are we on those things? For years we have heard about a traffic study and a new sewer — and then nothing materializes?
How dangerous would it be to add bike lanes without a traffic study to determine traffic flow and car volume? Roads are already congested with landscape vehicles, construction crews and speeding cars. The time has come to stop kicking the can down the road.
All village administrations are well meaning, but mistakes have been made in the past. I would hope this administration would honor the wishes of its residents and not just cherry-pick items as pet projects or suburbanize the village with parking meters.
We were bestowed this beautiful upscale village by previous generations — it is our responsibility to protect it for future generations.
Laurie Cameron Carson
Southampton Village
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