Many Residents Voice Opposition to Proposed Pond Lane Closure at Southampton Village Board Meeting

Southampton Village residents packed the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane on Thursday night, September 14, eager for their first chance to weigh in with their thoughts about a proposal to close Pond Lane to vehicular traffic in order to create an expansive waterfront park and Peter Marino-designed public gardens along Lake Agawam.

For nearly the entire first hour of the meeting, Lake Agawam Conservancy President Bob Giuffra had the floor. He gave an updated presentation on the plan, including new renderings from Araiys Design that outline existing conditions along the portion of Pond Lane that borders the lake, and proposed improvements that could be done there to mitigate stormwater runoff if the road is closed to motor vehicles.

Earlier this month, the conservancy outlined a plan to make an 11-acre extension of Agawam Park by combining a parcel of land on Pond Lane already set aside by the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund with two adjoining properties owned by John Paulson, who bought the parcels to prevent them from being developed. Paulson has said he plans to donate one parcel to the town CPF and sell the other to the CPF for the same price he paid for it. The sale of those parcels, however, is contingent on closing Pond Lane to vehicular traffic.

Both Thursday night’s presentation and the initial presentation put forth by the conservancy at the last Southampton Village Board work session have not seemed to sway a contingent of residents who remain adamantly opposed to the closure of Pond Lane.

While several residents spoke in support of the project, the majority who took their turn at the lectern expressed opposition. Many said they were not opposed to the creation of the gardens but did not want to see the gardens created at the expense of closing the road.

They said Pond Lane was a key thoroughfare not only because of its location in a historic area but also because it is another driving option in a village that has been plagued by traffic issues for years.

Ann Yawney is a resident of nearby Culver Street, which would absorb diverted traffic from Pond Lane if that road was ultimately closed. She voiced her opposition to the plan to close Pond Lane, imploring the Village Board to put it up for a vote and let the residents decide its fate.

“Why not put this up for a referendum in June and let the public make a decision?” she said. “What’s the rush to approve this? Maybe three nice houses would’ve been better — then we could’ve collected the tax dollars. We do not need a new park to mimic Central Park.”

Another resident, Laurie Carson, called the closing of Pond Lane “one of the most polarizing and divisive plans to come before the community in my lifetime.”

She said she took issue with the way the conservancy went about presenting the plans to the public.

“It’s clear the conservancy has been working on this plan for more than two years, and yet no one in the greater Southampton community knew about it,” she said, accusing the conservancy of failing to reach out to local businesses and other residents while it was in the planning stages of the proposal. “I ask, where is the transparency in that?

“Pond Lane is not just any street,” she continued. “It is part of the fabric of our downtown. It also provides a critical north-south thoroughfare and helps to alleviate traffic congestion in the village.”

Representatives from engineering firm Nelson Pope Voorhis were on hand again, as they were at the work session, to go over results from traffic studies that were conducted both during the offseason and during the busy Memorial Day weekend.

The studies concluded that Culver Street and nearby roads would be able to sufficiently handle any diverted traffic due to the closure of Pond Lane. They also concluded that closing Pond Lane would enhance safety for the pedestrians on the road, particularly in the area where it makes a 90-degree turn onto Ox Pasture Road and into the estate section.

Members of the conservancy have pointed out several times that, many years ago, a 16-year-old boy was killed in an automobile accident at that turn.

Erin Meaney, a lifelong resident of the village who owns Topiaire Flower Shop on Jobs Lane, said she believed that “greed, political deals and financial gain” were the real reasons behind the push to close Pond Lane, and she reminded the board that a petition circulating to prevent the closure of the street had collected “well over 1,500 signatures.”

“As our elected officials, I feel that you are obligated to respect this petition and the community’s input with regard to Pond Lane,” she said.

Some residents did speak in support of the plan, saying that preserving open space was a worthwhile endeavor, and also adding that closing Pond Lane will enable more to be done to clean up the lake, which is one of the most polluted water bodies in the state.

The village is also hoping to put a $10 million algae harvester, which it was able to buy with several local and state grants, at nearby Doscher Park. Because Doscher is a CPF property, another piece of land would need to be “swapped” in to allow for the harvester to take up the preserved space at Doscher. The parcels that Paulson wants to sell would satisfy that requirement.

The harvester has been billed by many experts, including Dr. Christopher Gobler of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, as a key component for cleaning up the polluted lake, because it would remove, on a daily basis, the buildup of nitrogen and phosphorus that feeds the harmful algae blooms that have choked out the lake for years.

The other main critical component in cleaning up the lake is the creation of a sewer district in the village. Village officials have tried for years to find a suitable site for a sewage treatment plant, a necessary component in creating a sewer district.

One speaker on Thursday, Mackie Finnerty, said she did not understand why keeping the road open took precedence over the health of the lake.

“When is America going to put the environment first?” she said. “I hear person after person defending the road. This is a great plan for the environment.”