East Hampton Moves To Preserve 28 Acres Around Lake Montauk

East Hampton Town is in position to purchase two of the largest undeveloped, residentially zoned tracts of land remaining in Montauk — including one with more than 600 feet of waterfront on Star Island.

The Town Board has proposed the purchase of the two parcels — one 8.6 acres the other nearly 19 acres — to protect them from future residential development using about $9 million from the Community Preservation Fund

The Town Board on Tuesday, June 21, authorized the $4.25 million purchase of an 18.8 acre parcel of land off East Lake Drive, known as Highland Meadows, from its longtime owners.

And the town will hold a public hearing on July 7 on the proposed purchase of the last undeveloped slice of Star Island, at the opposite end of Lake Montauk from the Highland Meadows parcel.

The lots are the latest acquisitions in the town’s push to preserve land around the edges of local water bodies, especially Lake Montauk and the three tidal embayments in Springs, by seeking out the owners of vacant parcels or properties listed for sale and making bids through the CPF.

“A 19-acre property at the south end of Lake Montauk — of course this was on our Montauk outreach list,” said Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition and management, during a public hearing on the Highland Meadows purchase on June 2.

“The property is made up of moorlands habitat with extensive wetlands on the lower portions,” he added. “There are tiny streams, marshy areas, wetland habitat areas, whose hydrology directly connects to the lake. As you walk up that parcel through the dense vegetation to the higher elevations more of Lake Montauk is exposed for view.”

Wilson said the property is being sold to the town by the surviving member of a partnership that has owned it for many years, Carol Andrews.

Rick Whalen, the vice president of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, offered some history of the land, which was part of one of the first tracts of land sold off by developer Arthur Benson. The buyer, John Prentice, built a hunting lodge on the land, which would later be destroyed by fire — the remnants of which remain somewhere amid the dense vegetation on the property, Whalen said is his understanding.

The Highland Meadows property is in a 5-acre zone and could have been subdivided into as many as three building lots, though wetlands encumbrances would have significantly hemmed in the buildable areas.

The Star Island property is subdivided into two building lots, each about 4 acres. The property totals 8.58 acres of land, which is entirely undeveloped and heavily wooded except for a mowed access path. It has 610 feet of west-facing shoreline on Montauk Harbor, adjacent to the Snug Harbor marina.

The town has reached an agreement with the owners to purchase the land for $4.5 million.

The lots are currently listed for sale for $5 million, or $2.5 million each. Listing broker Kieran Brew described the deal as a “win for the town.”

“To protect 610 feet of waterfront on Lake Montauk, especially in the heavily developed harbor area, not only maintains open space and water vistas, it reduces pressure on the already stressed resources there,” he said this week. “It’s consistent with the town’s climate change goals, since this land is highly susceptible to sea level rise.”

The property is owned by Black Canyon Investments LLC, which bought the two lots that make up the property in 2016 for $3.6 million.

Councilman David Lys said that the two acquisitions will boost the effort to help protect Lake Montauk, which has suffered in recent decades from poor water quality, especially at the southern end, largely caused by nitrogen in human waste leaching out of septic systems at homes in the neighborhoods that surround the lake. The town has sought to reduce development and push homeowners to upgrade existing septics with modern nitrogen-reducing systems.

“With these and other purchases,” Lys said, “The board is making good inroads to secure the long-term water quality of Lake Montauk.”