Letters

When I first looked for a year-round rental in Sag Harbor as a single woman in 1980, the pickings were nearly nonexistent. I ended up sharing a home with the owner who would be mostly in New York City. Our arrangement was only for the winter.

A little more than 10 years later, I led a revolt on the Zoning Board of Appeals against the chair to allow three apartments — not two — in the building at the corner of Madison and Jermain. The long-standing ZBA chair had been determined to keep the riffraff who might rent apartments out of Sag Harbor. He quit the board in disgust that evening, and I became the chair of the ZBA.

Today, no one doubts that the Hamptons need housing for the nonwealthy. Children from families who have been here for generations are leaving or have already gone. Workers to build, repair, clean and staff the houses of the wealthy who have largely taken over the Hamptons must drive hours daily to their jobs.

But to fix the problem of not-wealthy housing by plunking down a ginormous structure — 106,000 square feet — on reclaimed swampland is a fool’s errand, and the generations to come in Sag Harbor will pay the price for this ill-conceived plan.

Current residents in that location, behind Rose Street toward the water, know that the area floods easily. On top of that, the land is close to the major pollutant in the area, the now-gone blue gas ball. Is that land truly cleared and safe? We do not know.

The current scheme for Sag Harbor involves 79 apartments, that is true, but it also has 34,000 square feet of retail space — all this in an area where there is not enough parking now, and the only solution appears to be a parking garage that will hover over downtown like an ugly scab. Furthermore, there is no plan to give each of the 79 apartments even a single parking space; only some will be so lucky.

I live on the edge of the village, nearly two miles away from the proposed structure, so I can hardly be accused of not wanting this housing in my backyard. More than many, I am aware of the aching shortage of living spaces for ordinary folks.

The Village Board needs to take a breath, and take a bolder but obvious step and order an environmental impact statement for the land in question before further discussion.

It may take only a year for the structure to be built, but residents will feel its impact for decades.

Until it falls into the sea.

Lorraine Dusky

Sag Harbor