Developer Unveils Plans For Senior Living Community In Amagansett

The new owners of Oceanview Farm, the former Principi property in Amagansett, rolled out an ambitious plan to create an environmentally sustainable residential community for people 55 and older, called 555, at a meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday night.

Sixty-three cottages and 26 apartments with garages, a fieldhouse with a dining room and library, a pool and fitness center, tennis courts, a pond and a windmill would be arranged around three “park-like greens” connected by walkways and tree-lined streets “reminiscent of the nearby Amagansett lanes,” according to two speakers and a brochure passed out at the meeting. The privet-fenced, non-gated community would be cooperatively owned, with units priced from $850,000 to $1.8 million.

An application was filed with the East Hampton Town Planning Board three weeks ago, along with a proposal, drafted by attorney Richard Whalen, for the town to establish a new district dedicated to senior housing in general, which would have to be approved by the Town Board before the Planning Board could approve the project. At the moment the 23.5-acre property is zoned for one- or three-acre residential lots, with business or affordable housing overlays on certain sections.

The development would be geared to “the post-World War II generation moving into their silver years,” as there is a need for an “active senior living facility” without 24-hour medical care, Francis P. Jenkins III of the development group Putnam Bridge told the audience. The site is north of Montauk Highway between Bunker Hill Road on the east and a former restaurant on the west, wrapping behind the V&V gas station. Mr. Jenkins said it is well-situated in its proximity to Amagansett’s stores and restaurants as well as the train station, post office, medical offices, library and other amenities.

With “the age group in mind,” the living space in each two-story, two-bedroom shingled cottage would be confined to the first floor, and the space inside each of the one-bedroom apartments would be on one level, with two floors of apartment buildings connected by elevator. Jaquelin T. Robertson of Cooper, Robertson & Partners, the project’s architects, said it would be “a place where people can live comfortably until they die.”

“The Town of East Hampton has made strides in providing affordable rental housing for low-income seniors, but there are currently no age-restricted housing options for seniors whose assets are above the threshold for affordable housing funded by federal low-income tax credits,” the developers’ brochure says. The St. Michael’s apartments for senior citizens, which have income limits, are across the highway just a bit west of where the 555 community would be built.

According to Mr. Jenkins, East Hampton Town has a larger proportion of seniors, demographically, than other towns in Suffolk County.

Responding to questions from the audience on Monday, Mr. Jenkins said an average of 1.5 people is expected to live in each apartment or cottage, and that taxes paid on the property could be expected to rise from $40,000 to $1.9 million annually. The developers said the project would be a zero-sum game in terms of energy use and wastewater production, with solar shingles, geothermal and solar thermal heating systems, dark sky-compliant lighting, a sewage treatment plant and the reuse of wastewater as well as using trees and hedges to block and capture breezes to control temperature.

“555 will be not only the first environmentally sustainable age-restricted adult active community in New York State, but it will also be one of the greenest residential developments in the entire United States,” the brochure stated.

Many in the audience had questions, but ACAC’s chairman, Kieran Brew, asked them to save some for a future meeting, as another speaker, East Hampton Town Police Captain Michael Sarlo, was scheduled to make a presentation on Indian Wells Beach as well.

“This is a long process and we know that and respect that,” said Mr. Jenkins, who made another presentation for the Amagansett School Board on Tuesday morning. He and his partners were looking for input, he said Monday, adding, “We’re an open book.”