Our 2023 Wish List

The new year is typically seen as a time of renewal. A time when we, individually or collectively, take stock of where we are and look to the coming months as an opportunity to commit — or recommit — to change, to making things, or ourselves, better.

While individually that often comes in the form of uninspired platitudes about losing weight, going back to the gym or quitting smoking, there is an opportunity for us to come together as a community and pledge to take action to improve our lives and our community.

In the spirit of the new year, The Express News Group has formulated a “wish list” of resolutions our local leaders and community members can adopt to ensure that the East End continues to thrive and flourish in the new year, and beyond.

We wish, that with the official recent voter approval of the Community Housing Fund (CHF) in both Southampton and East Hampton towns, that real and comprehensive steps are taken this year to develop workforce housing solutions in an effort to create inventory for the people who actually keep this place humming along. We’re not talking about the unilateral imposition of some outside developer’s vision of what they think we need, and what they want to put into place (and let’s be honest, now that the CHF has been approved, there are likely plenty of opportunistic developers eagerly circling the East End) — we’re talking about a true community effort here, one chock full of idea building and creative solutions.

We wish that homeowners and their landscapers would voluntarily move away from the nonstop use of leaf blowers, be they battery or gasoline-powered, while simultaneously reducing the amount of toxic chemicals they dump on the average lawn. Leaf blowers are annoying, and fertilizers and pesticides are dangerous because they find their way into the groundwater and surface water and kill many nontargeted insects, which contribute to biodiversity.

We wish that for once, when a regular house changes hands, it be modestly renovated and sold to a middle-class family instead of being razed and replaced by a McMansion.

We wish that as town officials in Southampton continue to struggle to find solutions to the South Fork’s relentless traffic — which is still bad even with the tourist season in the rear view mirror, they’d consider a feature to add on to the popular blinking light program. The program called for flashing the lights yellow at key intersections during the busy morning trade parade commute. We’d also like to see them add sensors to the light in Water Mill. Set at a normal schedule, that light can stop traffic all the way west to the signal at the terminus of County Road 39 and, at times, all the way east to the Bridgehampton Commons. It was designed to allow access from Station Road and shops nearby. But off season, there’s little need for the light. Sensors installed could allow for the light to change only when a vehicle on Station Road is waiting to turn onto Montauk Highway.

We wish the Community Preservation Fund program could be tweaked to allow for the costly maintenance of historic structures that are purchased by the fund, but soon fall into disrepair because of the town’s neglect. The successful CPF program has meant the preservation of an array of historical buildings in Southampton and East Hampton towns. Trouble is, CPF will pay to buy them and for some improvements, but when it comes to maintenance, the towns are on the hook for that expense. That means some buildings originally preserved with an eye toward community use, sit neglected and deteriorating.

We wish that Governor Kathy Hochul would rethink her veto of the proposed hunting ban on land adjacent to the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays. Hunting in such close proximity to the center is simply a dangerous situation that could have tragic results for volunteers and visiting children alike.

We wish that state lawmakers would take up, support and pass Karilyn’s Law, designed to allow families to visit their elderly loved ones, even if their guardians object. The legislation, sponsored by State Senator Anthony Palumbo, is named after Karilyn Montanti, a senior who advocates say is a victim of the involuntary guardianship system.

We wish the State Public Service Commission does the right thing and nullifies a lease between National Grid and a for-profit LLC owned by Adam Potter for the gas ball parking lot on Bridge Street and Long Island Avenue. The PSC has already requested National Grid continue its temporary lease with the Village of Sag Harbor, which has used the property for parking since 2016, with the village petitioning the body to annual the deal inked between National Grid and Potter in 2021, when it was outbid for the lease. Public utilities can and should be required to entertain public benefit when deciding on lease agreements — clearly the public benefits significantly more from the Village of Sag Harbor leasing that land for public, free parking, than it does when that property falls into the hands of a private, for-profit entity, that understandably would use it to support its own development projects.

We wish the Village Board of Trustees in Sag Harbor would reconsider and abandon the authority it granted itself early last year to issue special exception use permits for developments larger than 3,500 square feet in the waterfront district. Boards of trustees traditionally do not have regulatory power to review developments and for good reason — to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest during a planning and review process. This is why elected bodies appoint members to their regulatory boards they trust to see out their vision and empower those members with legislation that protects the community. As conflict has now arisen between the Village and Adam Potter — a developer who is an owner of several properties in Sag Harbor and connected to many others — over the former gas ball lot on Bridge Street and Long Island Avenue, the ability of the Board of Trustees to fairly review most any project helmed by Potter could easily be questioned. The power of the Village Board to control and shape development should happen through legislative action. It should fall to the village’s planning, zoning, and historic preservation and architectural review boards, as well as the village Harbor Committee, to tackle the review of any project in Sag Harbor, big or small.

We wish we will finally see plans and understand the scope of what a new Bay Street Theater means for Sag Harbor Village. Bay Street Theater is a cultural icon with deep roots in this community. The silence on its future here has been deafening while many other development projects have sprung up around the proposed site for the new theater — the former 7-Eleven property on Long Island Avenue. The nonprofit theater’s vast number of supporters — and the community at large — deserve an update on what is one of the most highly anticipated projects on Sag Harbor’s waterfront.

We wish Westhampton Beach Village officials continued success in the reenvisioning of their village, which began with its Main Street improvements three years ago and continues on to a sewer district project recently completed. With the sewer project will come great growth for the village, as expanded business and housing opportunities will become evident. We trust that officials have a solid plan as to how to shepherd in that new growth.

We wish East Hampton Town officials, along with groups both opposed to and in favor of proposed new restrictions at the East Hampton Airport, could find some common ground, rather than let the debate play out in court. The airport is a great resource for the town, but changes need to be made to limit its disruption to the lives of the town’s residents. Officials seemed to have a legitimate plan to find the middle ground. We hope a solution can be found that will satisfy both sides, and that a permanent closing of the facility isn’t the eventual result.

We wish members of the Shinnecock Nation luck as they roll out recreational cannabis sales on the Southampton territory and also wish that Southampton Town officials finalize rules and regulations concerning where and how cannabis will be cultivated and sold within the township once given the green light by New York State officials. We also wish that a portion of the proceeds from sales, both on the Shinnecock Territory and in town, will go to help right some of the wrongs that the decades-long targeting of cannabis laws had on low-income and minority communities.

We wish local school boards and school district residents, faced with the ever-growing inability to hire and retain employees due to the ever-increasing cost of living on the East End, would see the light and finally begin conversations about consolidating smaller districts into larger districts that would be better able to face inflation and provide housing assistance for potential employees, as well as greater educational opportunities for local children.

We wish that as signs of climate change continue to show themselves across the East End — think sea level rise and fast-eroding beaches, shrinking shorelines and sunny day flooding, an elevated water table, and declining water quality — the need for local municipalities to work together in addressing this global issue is only growing. As our Residence series “The Rising Tide” explored last year, coastal communities up and down the eastern and western coasts struggle with the same problems, some collaborating — with varying degrees of success — to come up with solutions. As public discourse shifts away from apathy and toward action, this much is clear: To protect our future, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done. And it is up to us, and our local leaders, to make a stand and take action.

We wish that someone, anyone, would find some way to improve cellular phone service pretty much everywhere east of Southampton Village. Local elected officials say that there’s nothing they can do. We don’t buy it. The towns and villages own public property where cellular towers can be installed. It’s hard to fathom that if a municipality said here’s a spot, put up a pole and put antennas on it NOW, that every cellular provider out there wouldn’t jump at the chance. Employees of tower companies said it would take them no more than 90 days to install antennas on an existing tower. Whether it’s temporary installations or permanent ones, this should be something that is addressed before next summer.