Neighbors Object To Permitting Food Pantry At Former Ambulance Barn

The Southampton Village Board agenda called for the approval of a code amendment last Thursday, August 12, to allow for food pantries in residential districts, which would allow Heart of the Hamptons to relocate from Hill Street to the former village ambulance barn on Meeting House Lane, but after a number of neighbors objected strongly, the matter was tabled.

The Village Board had originally approved the code amendment in May, but there was a mistake in the amendment’s language on the part of Village Attorney Kenneth Gray that meant it had to be redone with a new public hearing. Several neighbors are taking the opportunity to urge the board to rethink or outright reject the plan.

The nonprofit signed an agreement with the village last year to lease the former ambulance barn for 30 years as its new headquarters for serving the needy, but turning the village-owned facility into a food pantry also necessitates a code change.

When Meeting House Lane resident Joann Hale addressed the Village Board, she said Mayor Jesse Warren had told her he regrets signing that 30-year lease and she questioned why anyone would sign such a long agreement.

“And what is Southampton getting out of this?” she asked before offering an answer. “Nothing,” she said.

She said the village is not getting anything positive out of the deal and is not collecting rent. She questioned why the village didn’t put the property to another use or sell it.

She said the Village Board members would be ruining the lives of everyone on the street. “I will do everything possible to undo this,” she added.

Jim McFarland, a Wyandanch Lane resident who owns properties on Meeting House Lane, said that the amendment was originally rushed through during the COVID pandemic when no one knew what was happening.

“The Heart of the Hamptons … is a privately owned philanthropic organization,” Mr. McFarland said. “It serves who? I don’t know. But I can’t think of anybody that I know — and I’ve been through this village street by street, house by house — who would ever be in such an unfortunate situation as to need anything of the pantry. But that’s not the issue. The issue is zoning our village for us and what we are going to have.”

He said the location is on the main route to the hospital and not an ideal location for the clients to visit. He urged the board not to pass the law and to demand that Heart of the Hamptons meets with his own engineer, who he said he hired at his own expense to identify a better site.

“I’m actually very grateful again for your mistake because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the effects of the food pantry being placed in a residential area,” Meeting House Lane resident Rose Stewart Dickson told the board.

She raised concerns about traffic on Meeting House Lane, the noise of the food pantry’s outdoor freezers, banging dumpster lids, delivery trucks, and proposed office space with windows looking toward her family’s yard and bedrooms.

“As a resident, I just wish you to consider my family’s life, and I hope that you’ll consider our family’s happiness and quality, as we are residents, and how it directly impacts the residents,” Ms. Dickson said.

Molly Bishop, the executive director of Heart of the Hamptons, said she applauds the board for making a priority of caring for the most vulnerable. “The commitment you have made to Heart of the Hamptons is a wonderful example of local leadership,” she added.

Ms. Bishop said the nonprofit serves more than 4,000 local residents in need and served more than 194,000 meals last year. “So far this year, we are on track to do even more than that,” she said. “Our community is desperately struggling to get back on their feet and to be able to maintain living here in such a high-price community.”

Though Heart of the Hamptons has a high impact, it has a low imprint, she said, and has never had a complaint from a neighbor in its 40 years on Hill Street. She said the organization is trying to be as accommodating as possible to the neighbors and has site plan changes on the Planning Board agenda this month to address Mr. Dickson’s concerns. However, she urged the board not to subject Heart of the Hamptons to any more hurdles “that are being pushed by people who want to see this fail.”

Meeting House Lane resident Dinah Maxwell Smith also had questions about the noise, activity and the traffic that would be created by having 4,000 people served there.

“Why does it have to be in a residential neighborhood?” Ms. Smith asked the board. “Those people who are coming don’t live here. They don’t even live in Southampton. Why should it have to be in Southampton? So it seems unnecessary, the wrong place.”

Attorney Anton Borovina, who was hired by some of the neighbors, told the board that he is amazed that the code amendment applies to every residential district in the village rather than accommodating a food pantry with a special exception use permit. He envisioned a future board rationalizing a landfill or a gasoline station as a “general community facility use.”

Stephen Jones, a planning consultant from Bayport brought in by Mr. Borovina, told the board that the code amendment contradicts the village’s comprehensive plan and zoning code. He said the comprehensive plan calls for maintaining the character of existing single-family zones and that new proposed uses must fit in with existing patterns of development.

“Please look at your planning documents and your zoning codes and try to do the right thing and make it reasonable and orderly and safeguard all of your village residents,” Mr. Jones said.

Dr. Joseph Soufer, another Meeting House Lane resident, said no one is against the food pantry, but they are asking the board to consider another location. “We do want to have a food pantry that serves the community as best as possible,” he said. “That is not the issue. It’s the location. And if you would listen to us as residents, we’re more than willing … to get the survey to show where the best location is.”

Village resident Lane Brettschneider said the opposition is an example of a “not in my back yard” attitude, and he stood up for Heart of the Hamptons and the organization’s clientele. “They are a not-for-profit group,” he said. “They take care of people. I don’t really care where they come from, they are in need, and they’re feeding them.”

He always questioned how food-pickups at the ambulance barn would be a problem when ambulance corps meetings and parties formerly held there were not a big deal.

The board voted to table the code amendment for further consideration and more time for public feedback.