Gardella Pitches Affordable Housing at Sag Harbor Municipal Site

When Sag Harbor Village officials last year hired H2M Architects + Engineers of Melville to undertake preliminary design work for the eventual replacement of the Sag Harbor Firehouse and Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters at Brick Kiln Road and Columbia Street, there was casual discussion about perhaps being able to find space to build a handful of affordable apartments at the site.

This week, Trustee Tom Gardella, who serves as the board’s liaison to the village’s emergency services providers, proposed going a step further: Why not move the village’s Department of Public Works, which shares the property with the fire department and ambulance corps, to village-owned land at the Long Pond Greenbelt, and use the space that would become available for additional affordable housing? he asked.

He estimated that up to 12 apartments in total could be developed on the site.

“I want to make it very clear that whatever goes there has to fit the area,” he said. “It would have to be part of the neighborhood and not stick out.”

Without even so much as a budget in place to replace the firehouse and ambulance barn, which he estimated could easily cost $30 million, Gardella said he realized his proposal is just that, a proposal. But it’s one that he says deserves careful consideration.

Gardella, who initially hoped to have a plan for a new firehouse complex ready for referendum as early as June’s election, said he had asked Adam Post of H2M to instead focus on the feasibility of moving the DPW to the greenbelt as part of the overall plan.

“You can say you are for things,” he said of the general clamor for more affordable housing. “But when an opportunity comes up, you have to put your money where your mouth is.”

Gardella said for the idea to move forward, it would require input from local, town, and state officials, as well as residents of the neighborhood and environmental groups, including the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt.

The Friends have opposed any number of development proposals for the greenbelt, from the village’s construction of a vehicle impound lot to a recent PSEG Long Island effort to bury a cable under its power line easement bisecting the greenbelt.

But this time might be different.

“He has included us from the start. He wants to sit down and talk about this,” said Dai Dayton, the organization’s president, of Gardella’s overture. “It’s such a change from being blindsided all the time with decisions that have already been made.”

The village owns about 25 acres, including the Southampton Town transfer station, at the greenbelt, and Dayton stressed that her organization’s goal “for years and years has been to get that land preserved.”

But she said if a way could be found to build a new DPW garage while simultaneously guaranteeing the protection of the remaining property, her organization might be willing to compromise.

Dayton said it would certainly be better than what’s going on at the site now, where the village has allowed PSEG Long Island to use a portion of its property as a staging area for a cable-laying project. “Drive by today,” Dayton said. “It’s horrible.”

Trustee Bob Plumb, who is charged with overseeing planning issues for the board, said he has had only preliminary discussions with Gardella. “This is a pretty big plan, a pretty bold plan,” he said. “But it shows that people can work together.”

Both Mayor Jim Larocca and Trustee Aidan Corish said they had yet to discuss the proposal with Gardella in depth and wanted to wait to weigh in until he makes a formal presentation to the board. Trustee Ed Haye was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

“It’s in its early stages, but it is worthy of discussion,” said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

Gardella said any affordable housing component would require a source of funding. He said he thought it would be the kind of project that Southampton Town’s newly created Community Housing Fund would be willing to support. He also said he would bring his proposal to the Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust, which was established in lieu of providing affordable housing at the Watchase condominiums.

For now, he said, all ideas are on the table.

Emergency services leaders have called on the village to upgrade their facilities for years. They cite overcrowded garage bays, the lack of proper meeting and training facilities, inadequate storage space, and a host of other problems, including garage doors that are not tall enough to accommodate new ambulances. H2M has prepared plans for a number of different options, Gardella said, although they have not yet worked out a budget.

Dee Yardley, the village’s superintendent of public works, said he wouldn’t necessarily mind moving his department to the greenbelt property, if it meant getting a better garage, but he said he wasn’t holding his breath.

“I deal in reality. I don’t deal in fantasy,” Yardley said. “By the time they finish with this, it could be a $30 million, $40 million project. I’ll probably be pushing up daisies by the time that happens.”