Residents Still Split On Whether To Turn Over Meadowlark Lane In Bridgehampton To Town

A small road in Bridgehampton has caused waves in the hamlet, as neighbors remain split over whether it should become town-owned or stay private.

The condition of Meadowlark Lane—one of 577 unimproved private roads in Southampton Town—has worsened over the years due to damage from construction vehicles, tough winters and simple lack of major repairs since 1994.

Since there is no homeowners’ association to manage Meadowlark Lane, it has not been fully maintained since its creation in 1967, according to Carl Benincasa, the assistant town attorney. In theory, the town could accept the road into the highway system, but improvements need to be made first, including widening the road and cutting back plantings, he said.

John LaRosa, the assistant Southampton Town engineer, recently revealed at a public hearing on July 25 that a full repaving project—to put in 3,000 feet of asphalt, widen the road to 25 feet and install new catch basins—would cost an estimated $897,000, which would be billed back to the 29 homeowners of Meadowlark Lane before the road could be turned over to the town. That would mean more than $33,000 per homeowner, which could be paid via a special tax over a 15-year period. With interest, that would mean roughly $4,000 a year.

The roughly 30 Bridgehampton residents at the public hearing were split on the idea—17 sent in letters in support of making the road public, although two of those letters were rescinded by one of the homeowners. That’s important, because under town law, 51 percent of the homeowners on the road must be in favor of undertaking the expense of bringing a road up to code so it can be adopted into the town’s highway system.

Longtime Meadowlark Lane resident Cynthia Conigliaro argued that rather than making the road public or remaining private and making repairs through a homeowners’ association, there was a third option: to collect money through a limited liability corporation whose sole responsibility would be road improvement. She cited an estimate from a local paving company, who told her they could resurface the road and install 20 new drains for $350,000.

“We have a realistic, viable alternative,” she said. “We’re not an insignificant number of people. We can accomplish the same thing if we can all just sit down together and make it happen.”

Councilwoman Christine Scalera posed another option as well: Widening the road to only 20 feet instead of 25 feet, which may cost less for the homeowners if the road were made public.

Town Board members adjourned the discussion until the board’s September 26 meeting, with Supervisor Jay Schneiderman noting that he would like to get feedback from other town officials before making a final decision on whether to make the road public.