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With only a dozen seats to be had at the March 25 East Hampton Town Trustees meeting, Lazy Point residents crushed into the corners of the small conference room while others stood in the hallway to voice their concerns to the board, all in an effort to support keeping homes in the small Amagansett neighborhood in the families that own them.
The effort seems to have succeeded: One official said the outcry proved that a proposed hike in lease rates, meant to target the next generation of residents, “isn’t going to work” and would be reconsidered.
On March 13, the Town Trustees sent a letter to all Lazy Point residents notifying them that their annual fixed lease payment of $1,500 per lot would increase by 1,200 percent if the lease were to be transferred—making the payments at least $1,500 per month instead of per year. The Trustees own the waterfront property and have traditionally leased the land at a low rate, allowing houses to be built there for a fraction of what a waterfront lot would typically cost. But in recent years, the opportunity has been discovered by a broader range of potential buyers.
The process, according to the letter, means that even if the lease were to be given to another family member—a spouse, child, grandchild, etc.—the new lessee would have to pay the new price. The current leaseholders would not see a change in rent otherwise.
“Many of those houses are situated on more than one lot,” Lazy Point resident Greg Mansley said in a phone interview. “When they got the lease 40 years ago, or whenever it was, some of them are on at least a lot-and-a-half,” he said, noting the lease payments could essentially soar to as high as $3,000 a month.
Because the letter had been mailed so recently, said Lazy Point resident David Seeler, who spoke on behalf of the community, it is not “possible or practical for the leaseholders to express concerns, given the timeline.” Furthermore, he added, “generations of families of modest means,” many of whom are now senior citizens, couldn’t keep their homes within their family, because the new lease would be “wildly unaffordable.”
The Trustees’ attorney, John Courtney, said he could not speak to the proposed lease increase, and board member Brian Byrns declined to comment.
“The goal, I believe, was to try and have new tenants understand the value of that property,” East Hampton Trustee Clerk Diane McNally commented during the meeting on the Trustees’ lease renewal letter. “Not just monetarily but the importance of that area to the community. Unless there’s a monetary value attached to it, some people don’t respect it, and it was our intent to get the respect for that land with new tenants going forward.”
Ms. McNally said while she was apologetic for not further considering the impact that the new lease would have on the senior citizen community, the letter stemmed from the increase of wealthy buyers from outside the local area.
“Obviously this isn’t going to work,” said Ms. McNally of the Trustees’ lease decision. “We definitely need to discuss this further with you,” she told the Lazy Point residents.
Ms. McNally could not be reached for further comment after the meeting.
Going forward, Mr. Seeler said he would form a committee of residents to work with the Trustees on how the new lease terms could be written to satisfy both parties.
“I think that by the end of the meeting, the Trustees understood everyone in our community,” Lazy Point resident Dianne Ryan said on Wednesday. “They’ve been a trusting group of people for us to work with. This has been the first real shocker, and they backed down. I think everyone was very pleased.”
on Mar 31, 2014