Letters

I rarely attend the meetings of the Southampton Town Planning Board, but, boy, am I glad that I attended the one held on September 8.

To my astonishment, I learned that one can increase the size of any addition to their home after the application has already been approved. I already called my architect to change my current renovation plans.

After all, I am not changing a free-standing clubhouse previously approved at 6,000 square feet to 90,000 square feet, so the Planning Board definitely will not even notice — just as they didn’t notice or concern themselves with the significant changes made by Discovery Land’s Lewis Road Planned Residential Development project.

In addition, I can add a kitchen and make the space an accessory living space — again, without alerting the Planning Board — and earn some cash, which seems to be the only green about which Discovery Land is concerned.

While I admit to taking advantage of the negligence of this board whose job it is to plan for and protect the future of our community, I feel that as a longtime taxpaying and voting resident, I, too, should reap the benefits of their misguided generosity, just as the Discovery Land Company is doing with their current, ever-changing PRD application. Why shouldn’t you too?

Be sure to attend the next Planning Board meeting on September 22 so that you can learn how to slip your project by the Southampton Town Planning Board and its staff without getting “neutralized,” and to your satisfaction.

Susan Kearns

East Quogue