Letters

If the Sag Harbor School District loses the vote on May 16 to purchase the Marsden Street lots, what will happen? The present owner will be left with five lots in a marshy valley that present some real challenges to build on.

One thing seems certain: The chances of McMansions ever being built on this site are growing slimmer by the day, partly because the village’s Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review withheld approval at two successive hearings for over-scaled houses on Marsden. Plus, in the last few months, concerning information, in the form of consultant reports, has been published on the school’s website about environmental conditions on the land, and this information will be available to any prospective buyer.

While it’s clear that the town will not undermine the school’s chances of purchasing the property before the results of the May 16 vote are known, if the vote does not go the school’s way, it would be appropriate for the town to step back in with the Community Preservation Fund.

This is one of the specific functions of the fund: to preserve undeveloped land. The town has the counsel of the fund’s advisory board, which is made up of environmental and land use experts. In a stunning rebuke to the Board of Education’s original plan to convert the lots into playing fields and parking, the letter from the chairman of the fund said, “The proposed use is out of character for the property and the natural constraints of the site,” and that there is “value in the acquisition of the land in its natural state.” The advisory board specifically recommended that “the alternative option as a passive park for the land should be pursued.”

Hopefully, voters will consider the unbiased recommendation of the experts on May 16.

Karen Arrigoni

Sag Harbor