Sagaponack Property Owners With History Of Ruffling Feathers Seeking Inclusion In Agricultural District

The owners of a property in Sagaponack Village whose development proposal was rejected by village officials last year—and who lost a legal battle in State Supreme Court over that decision—will go before a Suffolk County board on Thursday seeking to have their parcel included in an agricultural district.

The County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board will consider whether to include a property on Daniels Lane—jointly owned by Marc Goldman, Michael Hirtenstein and Milton Berlinski under Sagaponack Ventures LLC—in an already-existing agricultural district in the village. Under state law, such inclusion protects farmers from nuisance complaints that stem from agricultural practices, and it could also provide property tax breaks depending on income generated from products grown at the farm, according to Peconic Land Trust President John v.H. Halsey, who sits on the county board.

In January 2015, Sagaponack Village officials rejected Sagaponack Ventures’ proposal to build a 12,000-square-foot home on the northwestern portion of the 43-acre property, citing a desire to keep the land open and visible from the road. The LLC filed a lawsuit that March to challenge the decision, citing bias and an unfair review of the application. State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Santorelli dismissed the suit in December.

Shortly after filing the suit, the owners planted thousands of sapling Christmas trees on the property, screened by a perimeter of larger evergreen trees tracing the boundary of an agricultural easement on the property—and blocking the public's view. The trees were believed to be an act of retaliation, but Mr. Goldman, who owns a majority of the land, denied that in an opinion piece in the Observer that July, saying he had always intended some kind of agricultural use of the land. The trust had made an agreement with the LLC's property owners about maintaining scenic views and determined that the trees did not violate the terms of that easement.

Sagaponack Ventures had applied to the county board for district inclusion last year, but Mr. Halsey—who had to recuse himself from the Agricultural and Farmland Protection board’s discussion because of his involvement through the Land Trust, as did Village Trustee Lee Foster, who also sits on the county board—said he believes it was rejected because there was no evidence of an agricultural operation on the property.

This time around, however, there are the Christmas trees on the property. Mr. Halsey said if the owners are seeking to create some type of agricultural operation, then applying for the inclusion makes sense. The owners could not be reached for comment.

If, on the other hand, the application for inclusion has something to do with the house, which had been proposed near the perimeter where the trees were planted, Mr. Halsey said he doesn’t know what the thinking would be.

“I just don’t see that there would be any relationship between being in an [agricultural] district and” getting approval for a house, he said. “If the applicants see a connection, I don’t see it.”

A secretary at the office of Sagaponack Village attorney Anthony Tohill said Mr. Tohill did not wish to comment on the application.

The public hearing on the inclusion application is scheduled for the Suffolk County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board meeting on Thursday, April 28, at 7 p.m. at the Kermit W. Graf Cornell Cooperative Extension building on Griffing Avenue in Riverhead.