Liberty Gardens Developer Sues Southampton Town, Accusing Officials and Residents of Discrimination Against Veterans and the Disabled

The nonprofit housing group that was denied permission in June to build a 50-unit rental housing complex dedicated in part to military veterans and people with disabilities at the Full Gospel Church on County Road 39 has filed a federal lawsuit against Southampton Town.

It accuses the current Town Board of discriminatory conduct and violating the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans With Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law for its reversal of the support of the project by the previous board.

The group, Concern Housing, says in the lawsuit filed on October 9 that it invested more than $2.5 million over five years in the design and planning of the project at the behest of the town itself, and secured some $30 million in funding from county and state grants that can only be used at the church property, before a change in the make-up of the Town Board majority abruptly derailed the project.

The lawsuit accuses four of the five current board members — Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, who voted in favor of the project, excepted — and the dozens of Southampton residents who spoke out in opposition to the project, of discriminating against the disabled, the poor and military veterans.

Objections, it says, were “rooted in discriminatory views about the disabilities of its prospective residents,” veiled in concerns about water quality and traffic impacts that would be generated by the project, which was to be known as Liberty Gardens.

“Defendants blocked Concern’s housing because many of the units would be set aside for veterans and others with mental heath disabilities and would provide support services for them,” the lawsuit reads. “Because of their disabilities, many of Concern’s prospective tenants are unable to work and therefore have incomes far below the median.”

Concern had said the Liberty Gardens apartments would be rented for between $550 and $1,371 per month.

Ralph Fasano, the longtime executive director of Concern Housing, said the group had tried to work with town officials to allay concerns and find a path to advancing the project.

“The town left us no other option,” he said on Wednesday, October 9. “We had hoped to come to some agreement over the current site, but we were not able to. We had no opportunity to offer any more input to the new board. They cut off communication with us.”

The housing group had been specifically sought out by the town in 2017, Concern claims, because of its track record with other facilities it has developed and operates across Long Island, the closest of which is in Riverhead.

The project was officially brought to the town in 2019, originally proposing 60 units with an access road to the property connected to Hillcrest Avenue, which itself drew outrage from the residents of that modest, traditionally Black neighborhood on the northern edge of Southampton Village.

Concern filed its application for a required change of zoning on about half of the 9.5 acre property, which the Full Gospel Church had offered up specifically for affordable housing development, with the Town Board — which must approve zone changes — to allow up to 12 units of housing per acre. The board agreed to accept the application on the condition that the Hillcrest Avenue connection be eliminated from the plan and ordered an expansive environmental review of the project.

Over the 18 months of debate about the project, it was trimmed down to 50 units, spread over five two-story buildings, and the access to the property was left only directly onto County Road 39.

In December 2023 — at a special meeting called shortly after Christmas — the Town Board had voted by a narrow majority to accept the final environmental assessment for the zoning change. Three days later, two of the three board members who voted in favor, then-Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Councilman John Bouvier, left the board, having not sought reelection because of term limits.

They and Councilman Rick Martel, who had voted against accepting the assessment with Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, were replaced by Supervisor Maria Moore, Councilman Bill Pell and Councilman Michael Iasilli — all of whom had been critical of Schneiderman for pushing for the vote before he and Bouvier left office.

After months of putting off a decision, the three new members joined McNamara in voting to reject the zoning change this past June. Schiavoni is the only member of the current board to vote in favor of the project both times.

The board based its rejection of the project on concerns about the septic systems for the development and impacts on groundwater and on the amount of traffic the property would add to the already overstuffed County Road 39 corridor.

But the lawsuit says the findings that the board used to justify its vote were wholly inconsistent with the facts and statistics laid out in the far more exhaustive environmental review of the project approved in December and the lawsuit additionally accuses the Town Board of violating state review process law.

The lawsuit asks the court to find that the town has violated the Fair Housing Act, the ADA and other state and federal laws and that the town be ordered to approve the Liberty Gardens zone change and pay compensatory damages for the undue costs incurred by Concern.

Town officials said they have tried to work with Concern to find another location for the project that is not on County Road 39 and will continue to be willing to do so.

Supervisor Maria Moore said that the allegations in the lawsuit “are without merit” and that the town would vigorously defend the lawsuit.