East Hampton Town Board Candidates Clash Over Affordable Housing, Zoning Laws in Express News Group Debates

To East Hampton Town Councilwoman Cate Rogers, this November’s election is a referendum on the Town Board’s recent moves intended to curb overdevelopment.

The political campaigns reached their apex this week, as the three candidates for Town Board met for two debates — one hosted by The Express News Group on Monday, the other hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and the North Fork on Wednesday, October 15.

Incumbent Democratic Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte and Councilwoman Cate Rogers are seeking to hold on to their seats against a challenge from Republican J.P. Foster. A three-way race, the two candidates with the most votes get seats on the Town Board.

At The Express News Group event, candidates sat down for a live and in-person debate at LTV Studios. Preceding the Town Board debate, the candidates for East Hampton Town clerk, Michael Hansen, a Democrat, and Jeff Miller, a Republican, met for a clash of their own.

In his nearly two years on the Town Board, Calder-Piedmonte has sought to carve out a space for himself as perhaps the Town Board’s fiercest advocate for affordable housing — and that’s on a board that’s motto is “All Hands on Housing.”

Rogers, meanwhile, is often the first to bring up the natural environment, and how any potential code changes might impact it.

Which leaves Foster, the Republican challenger. Foster has frequently cited his 11 years as East Hampton School Board president when attacking town leadership on employee retention issues. His campaign has focused on a partial reversion of a March law that curbed maximum house size — hence, Rogers’s comments on the referendum.

Enacted in March, the law capped maximum house size at 7 percent of the size of the lot it is built on, plus 1,500 square feet, down from the previous number, which was 10 percent of lot area, plus 1,600 square feet. The original suggestion was for 7 percent of lot size, plus 1,300 square feet, but the Town Board ultimately moved forward with the less drastic move.

“We’re losing what makes East Hampton, East Hampton,” Rogers said at The Express News Group debate. “And if we’re going to increase density for affordable housing, which I’m completely in favor of, then that use has to come from somewhere.”

That is, as the town’s stock of affordable housing depletes, Rogers believes that limiting house sizes will redirect the use from luxury homes toward affordable housing.

“We’re an ever-changing community,” Foster said, discussing his stance that the Town Board was too drastic. “We’re always going to be so. So take a small step, take a baby step. It’s not going to hurt you to do that. And that’s my point.”

Foster has indeed called for a less drastic change, but not a full reversion to the previous code. However, he said he would support a partial reversion, specifically citing 8 percent of lot area, plus 1,600 square feet, as a number he favors.

In the campaign, Calder-Piedmonte has charted a different path. He was the sole outright “no” vote in March, and he has since said he would be open to rethinking the law, but he has not suggested a number of his own. Calder-Piedmonte has noted that he was actively engaged with the process of crafting the law, including supporting specific changes, such as exempting basements, that ultimately made their way into the final draft.

“I voted against it, and I think everybody who voted for it had all the best intentions,” he said. “I voted against it because we were allowing a garage to be constructed on a small lot, and I heard from several constituents who felt that this was going to hurt them. We were allowing something in the same footprint — to have a garage — but not an extra bedroom for your fourth child or whatever.”

As for whether he would be open to changing the law, Calder-Piedmonte signaled the affirmative. “I believe that the code is living code, and we should always try to make it better,” he said. “So, of course — but that doesn’t mean repeal and do away with it.”

Eventually, Rogers spoke up, saying she views the election as a referendum on the change, which drew some of the most robust feedback in the history of the town.

“I’m the candidate, but really what this is a referendum on is whether we’re going to protect the neighborhoods, protect the character of our neighborhoods, protect our natural resources, our diversity, protect what’s always been the character of East Hampton, or we’re just going to look at it from an economic point of view,” she said.

Foster said he disagrees. The election, he said, has several key issues, and he had mentioned them at the debate.

Foster took aim at the process by which the law was enacted. The drafts, he said, were done during the day, when many with a stake were at work.

“Anyone who wants to have a voice at the table for any major change we’re having in this town will get it,” he said, speaking of what he would bring to the table as a councilman. “And, as a matter of fact, if we can’t accommodate them during the day, well, let’s do it at night when they can come.”

In response, Rogers reiterated that the vote was the culmination of a robust process that took 22 months. The public comment received, which was extensive, was 4-to-1 in favor of the change, per the town’s numbers.

Earlier in the debate, Express News Group Executive Editor Joseph P. Shaw, who moderated the debate, segued from a conversation on affordable housing into the discussion of maximum house size laws.

East Hampton Town has around $21 million in its Community Housing Fund — a pool financed via a half-percent tax on most real estate transactions within the town. Asked what to do with that money, Calder-Piedmonte, the liaison to the Housing Department, spoke first.

“It seems like a lot of money, but I’ll tell you, once you get on the inside, it doesn’t go nearly as far as you think,” he said. “That’s why, I think, we can’t only rely on that, we also have to do creative legislation to open the door for other people to help us.”

For instance, Calder-Piedmonte mentioned a recent move to incentivize private property owners to help with the affordable housing crisis, the First-Time Homebuyer Downpayment Assistance Program, and a program that is still pending, loans for accessory dwelling unit construction.

Foster suggested a policy: Priority housing for first responders. This would see those who volunteer for fire departments or EMS services move to the top of the housing list — but Calder-Piedmonte later said it might not be that easy.

“All due respect, it’s just not that simple,” Calder-Piedmonte said. “There are fair housing laws.”

Laws like the one Foster suggested are being challenged all over, Calder-Piedmonte said. He is wholeheartedly in support, but he would want to ensure that it is done in a legal way, so if the law gets challenged, it is upheld.

Rogers combined the two issues, house sizes and affordable housing, which she sees as interconnected.

“In my mind, when you’re crafting a solution, you just can’t look at how you put things back into the system,” Rogers said. “You have to look at what the causes are. You have to evaluate why we’re at this point, why our kids can’t afford to live here, why teachers and police officers can’t afford to live here. Right now, the average house price in East Hampton is $1.6 million.”

That path is not sustainable, she said. Thus, cooling down the market for short-term rentals and luxury homes should be viewed in relation to the affordable housing issue.

“The idea that you solve something by creating new things, but not looking at the reasons why this is happening to begin with, kind of defies logic to me,” she said.

In response to this claim — that reducing house sizes legislatively will boost affordability — Foster said he would like to see a study in 10 years to see how much it lowered costs: “Does anybody here think our prices are going to lower if you change the size of the house?”

Another issue that has gripped the town at the height of political campaign season is staffing at Town Hall. Retention issues have been highly publicized, especially the sudden, yet otherwise unrelated, departures of four department heads earlier this year. Rogers suggested the issues don’t constitute a mass exodus.

On staffing, Rogers went through the Town Board’s recent record. During her tenure, the Town Board has instituted remote work policies and raised salaries each year, she said.

“I’ve supported all of the raises, over-and-above raises for our unions, and really appreciate the difficulty that it is to work here,” she said. “I also want to put a plug for the town again: Out of 316 positions, full-time, year-round workers, we have 10 openings. I don’t know what ratio that is, and I don’t know how that compares to other municipalities, but I don’t think it’s a massive exodus from the town. We also have one of the best health care policies that anyone could possibly have.”

Relatedly, the Building Department has been plagued with issues stemming from lawsuits, staff turnover and shortened public hours, but Calder-Piedmonte said the department is headed in the right direction. Specifically, a handful of recently-hired building plans examiners will take the workload off the building inspectors.

But Foster said the Town Board needs to keep the measures coming.

“Don’t take your foot off the gas,” he said. “Keep it going — because to keep up with the private sector, to keep up with our surrounding towns, to keep up with your competition, you need to keep on that.”

After Foster went on the attack and suggested that the Town Board members need to step out of their offices and see their employees, Calder-Piedmonte spoke up.

“I go all the time where employees are, and talk to them,” he said. “When people resign or retire, I invite them to talk to me, to ask what I can do better, what we can do better as a board.”

The most recent issue that has been swept up in the campaign is the new senior center, which the Town Board recently elected to make into more of a community center, intended for use by the wider community. This came on the heels of a legal dispute between the two architectural firms working on the center.

Foster, first, said he supports the Town Board’s decision to hit pause, but that he wished the public knew about the spat between the two firms back in February or March, when it first began. He also took aim at how long it has sat in limbo.

“You weren’t there for the whole thing,” he said to the incumbents, “but you guys started the senior center when we started our transportation hub, right around the same time,” Foster said, referring to an East Hampton School District project. “We just graduated our first two-year vocational ed program for auto mechanics this past June.”

As School Board president, Foster oversaw the facility’s construction, and in the last part, he is referring to a program that allows students to learn auto repair at the building.

Calder-Piedmonte, who abstained from a vote to move forward with clearing the senior center site, said the plan was fairly well-developed when he was appointed to his position on the Town Board.

“At the end of the day, I abstained from that vote because I have a great deal of respect for the input that went into that and the work that was done before my time,” he said. “But I’m an independent thinker. I’m not a rubber stamp. And I didn’t support that plan, and I wasn’t part of the process. I abstained because I also don’t think you can start from scratch every time a new board member comes on.”

Rogers acknowledged that the Town Board made a mistake with the new senior center, but she said the mistake was focusing on the structure and not the services it would provide.

“I appreciate a bus depot,” she said in response to Foster, “but this was not just a senior center. It houses the Human Services Department and the kitchen that provides over 24,000 meals a year for folks both in the Grab and Go program and the Senior Program. Meals on Wheels is housed there. 12 Step programs are housed there.”

Prior to the marquis event, the town clerk candidates, Hansen and Miller, met onstage for their own debate.

In his closing statement, Miller thought back to what a friend told him when he announced his run: “It’s funny you’re coming out with this message now, because myself and all of our friends knew that you were suited for this role when we were kids. Whether you win or lose, you’re not the loser. If you’re not the clerk, East Hampton Town is the loser.”

Hansen has frequently cited his background as a technology consultant when campaigning. This came up at the debate when Miller called himself a “people person.”

“It definitely is a partnership, and you’re collaborating with groups, but this is an information management job. Information comes in, information is stored and information is disseminated, like FOIL requests,” he said, referring to the Freedom of Information Law.