Framework of Environmental Study for Potter Development Will Be Aired by Sag Harbor Village Planning Board

The Sag Harbor Village Planning Board, at a special meeting on Monday, scheduled a June 12 public hearing on the proposed outline for an environmental impact statement that the board has required for Adam Potter’s proposed 11 Bridge Street LLC mixed-use development.

The board ruled it would require the detailed environmental study when it reviewed at its April 23 meeting a checklist of the potential environmental impacts of the project that is required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

At that meeting, the board issued a positive declaration, which in the language of SEQRA means the project could have one or more negative impacts on the environment. The purpose of the environmental impact statement is to address those potential impacts and provide ways to mitigate them.

As part of the process, Potter, as the applicant, was required to submit a “draft scope,” which is essentially an outline for what will be included in the environmental study.

Potter’s consultants were apparently expecting the board’s decision because P.W. Grosser Consulting Inc. submitted an 18-page document dated April 26, just three days after the board’s decision.

The board, in turn, to meet SEQRA requirements for a timely review of an application, gathered Monday to schedule a public hearing at 5 p.m. to solicit public comment on the draft scope document. The board also agreed to extend written comment until June 21 and will, at its next regularly scheduled meeting, on June 25, issue a final scope, or outline, for the environmental impact study.

Since the summer of 2022, Potter has proposed a series of mixed-use developments for approximately an acre of property he owns between Bridge and Rose streets. Initially, the plan called for 79 affordable apartments and approximately 30,000 square feet of commercial space, but after intense public opposition and a successful lawsuit that overturned new village laws making it easier to develop workforce apartments, Potter has gone back to the drawing board several times.

His current plans call for an approximately 61,292-square-foot, three-story building on the site of the current Collette Consignment store, with 44 apartments, 16 of which would be earmarked as affordable and 28 which would be rented at market rates. The first floor of the building would have approximately 7,935 square feet of service-oriented commercial space and a 16,388-squre-foot interior garage, which would provide 44 spaces. Additional spaces would be provided at the neighboring gas ball parking lot, which Potter has recently sublet to the village.

The development requires site-plan approval and special exception permits from the Planning Board, as well as a number of variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals.