Springs Houses Demolished For Preservation

The Nature Conservancy demolished two houses this week on Squaw Road in the Springs that are the subject of a lawsuit by a neighbor over the Conservancy’s plans to sell the land to East Hampton Town for preservation.

The razing of the houses was a condition of the agreement between the town and the Conservancy for the transfer of the two properties, which were given to the preservation group by the estate of their former owner.

The two lots comprise 1.6 acres and more than 300 feet of waterfront shoreline on Three Mile Harbor. The town would pay the Conservancy $2.6 million for the two vacant lots, according to the sale agreement, with money from the town’s Community Preservation Fund.

The town has not released an official management plan for the property but has said they would be left largely unimproved after the land is restored to wetlands and scrub pine uplands native to the harbor shoreline before housing development.

Richard Levin, who lives next door to the two lots, objected to the planned sale at a public hearing last fall, saying he feared the properties would become a nuisance to neighbors if owned by the town because they would attract people and car traffic to the quiet residential street.

After the East Hampton Town Board approved the purchase, Mr. Levin filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to block the sale, saying their purchase and the town’s plans for them did not conform to the requirements of the CPF bylaws because no management plan had been prepared.

Mr. Levin, and some other neighbors, said that selling the lots privately and letting new owners renovate or rebuild the existing houses would be preferable because it would be less disruptive.

Other neighbors applauded the purchase and said they worried that new owners could turn the houses into summer rentals, which could be disruptive to the quiet neighborhood.

Town Board members tried to assuage concerns about the town’s ownership, saying they were not going to let the properties become bathing beaches and noting that other town-owned properties along the same shoreline are very lightly used.

Mr. Levin claimed in the lawsuit documents that he offered to buy the lots from the Conservancy for more than the town was planning to pay.

The town is not expected to complete the purchase until the lawsuit has been concluded.