Form And Function: Tuckahoe Center Is A Pandora’s Box

The big bad wolf, huffing and puffing and swearing by the hair of his chinny chin chin, is standing at the door to Southampton’s future. Unless the Town Board says “no” to his zone change application for the Tuckahoe Center shopping mall, this community should expect not only to encounter unrelenting problems for years to come but also the very real possibility that it may be eaten alive.Based on a predicted increase in population from new housing being developed in the Tuckahoe area, and the loss of two supermarkets in Southampton Village, it’s not difficult to understand the desire to have a new supermarket constructed nearby. However, this particular site in this particular location is logistically problematic in terms of its functionality, its aesthetics, its potential impact on the dendritic hierarchy of the existing street system springing off County Road 39, its threat to the viability of village businesses, its failure to address health, welfare and life safety issues essential for the protection of the public and last, but not least, its antiquated development model, which is out of touch with changing lifestyles.

The presentation materials displayed at last week’s hearing certainly duped those with untrained eyes. Representation, in the form of drawings and renderings, always involves abstraction. If shown a computer-generated aerial view of the project, the viewer will experience the project and its landscaping from the point of view of a bird, as opposed to the way a real person would see it from the sidewalk. The bird’s eye view didn’t reveal much at all, except for the arrangement of schematically designed structures facing County Road 39 with a 100-foot setback of heavily foliated greenery. The individual buildings along County Road 39, seen from above, exist in the same wall plane, punctuated by cliché-ridden, second-story gambrel cross gables all located above indiscernible first-floor façades.

The County Road 39 side has a bifurcated access and egress drive leading to a parking lot behind. Entering the complex from the east on County Road 39, without the installation of a traffic light causing more congestion, would entail a mad and dangerous dash across two lanes of oncoming traffic. Magee Street provides the only other access and egress point that could be used by westbound traffic. There was no view, however, of the project shown from Magee Street, which would also be visible on an angle coming from the west on County Road 39, or even a view of the buildings from the parking lot within, or for that matter the location of the loading docks for the trucks.

Also lacking were any elevations (straight-on views), drawn in scale, which would show the elevations extending beyond the property lines to include the facades of the adjacent properties—consequently allowing the viewer to easily understand the scale of this project in relationship to its neighbors. Without a site model, the public could see only manipulated imagery concealing far more than what was actually revealed. How this project could be sanctioned with such a paucity of visual aids available to the Town Board and the public is beyond comprehension.

Much of the discussion about the viability of the Tuckahoe Center has focused on the potential effect it will have on traffic, not just for the already congested County Road 39 but also on the tertiary streets that will be transformed into feeder streets. No one has to be a traffic engineer to understand what was pointed out in the 1999 Comprehensive Master Plan about “significant congestion” on County Road 39 “with left-turns posing a particular safety problem.” Choke points exist near hamlet centers and “the use of CR 39 and Montauk Highway for shopping, through traffic and local traffic creates a compounded traffic problem. … Residents, second-home owners and businesses that have been impacted by traffic along Montauk Highway and CR 39 are chagrined to see their quietude further disrupted by the volumes of cars that often speed along these rural streets.”

Traffic volume has more than doubled since 1999 and Dunne Engineering, in their recent traffic study commissioned by Southampton Town, noted that an additional 200 percent increase in traffic flow would result from Tuckahoe Center. Developer Robert Morrow’s traffic engineers contend that there would be only a minimal increase in traffic.

What no one seems to be taking into account, however, is the fact that County Road 39 is no longer just a choke point, but rather a point of strangulation. Last July, for example, the multi-day Art Southampton event at the Elks Lodge generated traffic gridlock on County Road 39. People who didn’t want to pay the $15 to park stashed their cars on retail lots along the highway and walked back to the lodge over unpaved ground. Despite having all the proper permits for the event and parking in place, this sort of thing happens frequently. In addition, golf tournaments, carnivals, tag sales, craft fairs, festivals and other special events held regularly already contribute to the congestion. If one adds a potential pedestrian accident (and there have already been too many of these) with the possibility that someone might not even be able to make it to the hospital because of gridlock, then we will have a confluence of events leading to a tragedy waiting to happen. Is any shopping mall worth this?

The Comprehensive Plan also advocates for increasing shopping in village centers. The current zoning designation of “highway business” on County Road 39 allows for businesses that don’t involve “in and out” traffic. The proposed Tuckahoe Center completely contraindicates intelligent design and smart growth principles, which are the hallmark of the Comprehensive Plan. Does the Town Board really want to go against the very document that has defined the vision for this community for almost 20 years? To say that the project will be great and represents “progress” because this blighted site is an eyesore doesn’t mean that Tuckahoe Center, a complex that celebrates the suburban paradigm, is the right solution for this property.

The supermarket shopping center is becoming an outdated planning model. The need for bricks-and-mortar grocery retailers like the one proposed at Tuckahoe Center is becoming obviated by the current digital revolution, according to the Food Marketing Institute. Ordering groceries online when the store is closed and having them delivered is a time and gas saver for working singles and busy young families as well housebound individuals and seniors, who can remain in their homes and age in place. This type of grocery delivery system actually keeps people off the roads while reducing the carbon footprint as well.

There are too many downsides to this project, least of which would be a precedent-setting zone change that could forever transform the character of this community. The Southampton Town Board needs to weigh the wishes of those who seek the immediate gratification of shopping nearby against the greater good for the greatest number of people.