Questions Swirl Around Fate of Marsden Street Properties

Since a proposal to purchase properties on nearby Marsden Street, with plans to expand Pierson Middle-High School’s footprint, was rejected by voters on May 16, many residents in the community have been wondering what’s next for the 4.13 acres of land on the short residential street, which have been vacant for decades.

It was an issue that activated the entire community, as evidenced by extremely high voter turnout. More than 2,000 votes were cast on the proposal, which was a proposition on the school budget vote, and it failed by just 75 votes, reflecting how divisive the proposed purchase had become in the community.

In the eight months since the district first announced that it was interested in purchasing the property, with an initial plan to develop the land into an athletic field, there was a lot of back-and-forth about how it would get the deal done. Initially, the district planned to purchase the property jointly with a $6 million contribution from the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund. When that partnership fell apart, the district pursued the purchase on its own, until its demise in the May 16 vote.

Sag Harbor residents who led the effort to reject the proposal, many of whom live on or near Marsden Street and who organized into a group called Citizens of Sag Harbor, have made it clear that they would like to see the town use CPF revenue to purchase and preserve the land, turning it into a “passive” park, now that the vote for the district to acquire the property failed.

But that could be an uphill battle, at least right now.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman has said many times, in comments made publicly and to the press, that the town would not pursue a separate purchase of the property as long as the district was interested in buying it.

He reiterated that stance the day after the vote failed. “My position has not changed,” he said on May 17. “If the school asks us to involve ourselves again, we can have that conversation.”

Currently, the town is pursuing the viability of purchasing development rights with CPF money at Mashashimuet Park, where Pierson athletes practice and play most of their games, which is in need of a multimillion-dollar upgrade. The district had been on the cusp of a vote on a $13.5 million upgrade plan there in September but put that plan on hold when the opportunity to buy the Marsden properties came into play.

If the town ends up buying development rights at the park, it could potentially cover the cost of capital improvements there, which would save the district from having to float a bond to pay for the upgrades.

In the meantime, the owner of the Marsden properties, Pat Trunzo III, who is behind Marsden Street Properties LLC, is moving forward. Trunzo said earlier this week that he is setting his sights on building homes on the property.

Several years ago, Trunzo submitted plans for luxury homes that got a cool reception from the Sag Harbor Village Architectural Review Board. He was a willing seller and had voiced public support for the district’s plan to purchase the land, and has also expressed his opinion that the property is not suitable for development as a passive park.

“My plan is to pursue building permits again,” he said late last week. “I’ve been pretty up front about that for a while now.

“The notion that this property is parkland is very uninformed,” he added. “This property is not in its native state anymore, and it hasn’t been for decades. It’s been actively used, including as an informal dump site. It’s been cleared and filled and is mostly inhabited by invasive species, so I really don’t see where it’s appropriate for a park.”

Several residents disagree with that take.

Sag Harbor resident Emily Toy, who was an outspoken critic of the district’s plan to acquire the land, started a petition on change.org titled “Preserve the Wooded Lots on Marsden Street.” As of earlier this week, it had more than 1,300 signatures. It is not necessary to be a Sag Harbor resident to sign the petition.

On the petition’s website, Toy outlined the reasons for advocating for either Sag Harbor Village or Southampton Town to acquire and preserve the land, rather than allowing for development. She said the lots are some of the last wooded parcels of land in the village historic district, and pointed out that the land sits in a natural basin on the street, which she said could create flooding and stormwater drainage challenges. She added concerns about disruption of plant and animal species.

While the town has said it is not currently considering making an offer to purchase the property outright, Sag Harbor Superintendent of Schools Jeff Nichols said that Schneiderman did reach out to him in the days after the vote to see if the district would be interested in collaborating with the town on a purchase again, this time with a passive park in mind.

That’s not something the district is interested in, he said.

“I told him nothing has changed,” Nichols said. “We don’t have an interest in collaborating on something that won’t address the [district] facility needs.”

Kathryn Levy, who opposed the district’s plan to purchase the land, said that she and many fellow residents support the idea of the town purchasing the land and turning it into a passive park, which she said could benefit the community, including district students, in many ways.

“Several of us are talking to environmentalists and community leaders about preserving the land, and hope to convince our political representatives in Sag Harbor Village and Southampton Town that many residents support this alternative for the properties,” she said. “I also continue to hope we can have a constructive dialogue with members of the school community about how a passive park could benefit all the young people of Sag Harbor, for generations to come. At the very least, we need to find a way to heal the divide of the past several months. Virtually everyone I know wants that.”

Trunzo said he is intent on selling the property soon, although he did not go into much detail when asked why.

“We’ve held it for 50 years,” he said. “We need to capitalize on the investment at long last. We were never in a hurry to build on it, but with other things in consideration, we decided it was a good time. The market was very good, so we said maybe this is the time to finally either build on it or cash it in.”

Trunzo said last week that the LLC is in the process of making final revisions to plans for the first house that would be built there and would be aiming to submit those plans to the village in June.

When it comes to what might happen next, Nichols said the district doesn’t have much to say right now.

“The vote was only 11 days ago,” he said. “The School Board is still processing the results. We’re just in the process of processing.”