Plans for Park Expansion and Peter Marino-Designed 'Southampton Gardens' Unveiled at Southampton Village Work Session

Members of the Lake Agawam Conservancy on Tuesday detailed a preliminary proposal for a grand reimagining of just over 11 acres of land near the lake along Pond Lane that would preserve open space, expand Agawam Park and create a world-class public garden designed by renowned architect and landscape designer — and Southampton Village resident — Peter Marino.

Notably, the proposal by the conservancy — a private group founded in the summer of 2019 to restore the health of the polluted lake at the center of Southampton Village — includes closing the section of Pond Lane that runs alongside the lake to vehicular traffic, turning it into a walking and biking path. That proposal has drawn the ire of some community members and business owners who say the road is essential to the village and its business district.

Conservancy members Chuck Scarborough, John Paulson and Bob Giuffra presented their plans to the Southampton Village Board at its Tuesday night, August 22, work session. The presentation also included input and analysis from Dr. Chris Gobler, who serves as a consultant for the conservancy, and Carrie O’Farrell, a senior partner at the engineering firm Nelson Pope Voorhis, who presented the results of traffic and parking studies done in the area of Pond Lane to give context to what the potential traffic impacts from closing Pond Lane to vehicular traffic could be.

The representatives from the conservancy billed their proposal as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the residents of Southampton Village.

The seeds of the plan began to come together as far back as November 2021, when the Paulson Family Foundation bought both the 4.8-acre lot at 137 Pond Lane and the adjacent 3.6-acre lot at 153 Pond Lane — the former Wyman estate — for $25 million, with the intent of rescuing it from potential development and securing it for the public good.

Meanwhile, the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund had already purchased 2.9 acres at 111 Pond Lane, adjacent to the Paulson Foundation parcels.

The first step in the plan moving forward is for the CPF to acquire the lot at 137 Pond Lane from the foundation, which it is prepared to do, and Paulson has agreed to sell the lot to the town for the same price he paid for it.

Notably, the sale is contingent on an agreement to close Pond Lane to vehicle traffic.

The CPF would buy the lot as part of a “swap” that is required to allow for the installation of a large algae harvester — which will remove 3 million gallons of polluted lake water daily, pulling out 90 percent of the phosphorus and nitrogen from the water, before returning the clean water back to the lake — at another nearby CPF property, Doscher Park. That park sits on the other side of Lake Agawam at the back end of the parking lot that borders Agawam Park and has an entry point on Jobs Lane. The foundation will donate the other 3.6-acre parcel at 153 Pond Lane for the creation of the new park expansion.

The result would be just over 11 acres of preserved land for public access, that would include a quarter-mile of lakefront access for the public as well, and the jewel of the expansion would be the installation of Southampton Gardens, designed by Marino.

During his portion of the presentation, Marino shared his plans for what would be a four-seasons garden, to ensure “something beautiful to look at every month of the year,” he said.

Fifty percent of the garden would be evergreens, and other key features include a large gathering spot with a fountain, an open space that would serve as a great lawn — similar to Central Park but on a smaller scale, and potentially useful for gatherings and village events — and a small, dark green meditative forest. A rose garden and five separate color-themed garden zones, with walking paths weaved throughout, are also part of the plans. The presence of dogwoods, a reflecting pool, stone steps, and a gated entryway are part of the vision as well.

At the start of his presentation, Marino said Paulson was the one who suggested he design the public gardens, and he joked that Paulson presented it as a way to cut down on the high number of requests Marino said he receives regularly to visit the private gardens on his 12-acre estate in the village, which gained a new level of notoriety after the release of a book about them was published by Rizzoli, and they were the subject of a feature in Architectural Digest.

Marino has agreed to do the work pro bono for the village.

If completed, the new park expansion and gardens would be modeled on the Central Park Conservancy, where funds would be raised privately for the installation and maintenance of Southampton Gardens, as Marino’s creation would be called, but the village would still own the land in what would be a public-private partnership.

While the road would be closed to vehicular traffic, Giuffra, who is president of the Lake Agawam Conservancy, pointed out that the area for bikers and pedestrians would still be wide enough for emergency vehicles to access when necessary.

A lot will need to happen before any of those plans can be put into place, however.

Both Giuffra and Southampton Village Mayor Bill Manger repeatedly emphasized to the standing-room-only crowd at the work session that the plans were in their early stages, and that Tuesday night’s presentation was meant only to introduce the concepts to the public.

Because the meeting was a work session — where public comment is not allowed — Manger reiterated that members of the public will be given a chance to weigh in during the next board meeting, set for September 14, and both Giuffra and Paulson, who also spoke, said they are eager to have community input on the plans going forward.

While they could not speak at the meeting, many members of the public have already begun to weigh in, and at least a few residents in the village have expressed some opposition to the plan, mainly because of the proposed closure of Pond Lane.

A petition was created in the days before the meeting by a group called “Concerned Citzens,” and was circulated by the Southampton Village Chamber of Commerce. The petition stated that Pond Lane is “a vital street that has served the business district and downtown for centuries,” adding, “While we support the idea of a park, we feel strongly it can be built without closing a street that alleviates traffic congestion and also provides much-needed parking in the area.”

In making the argument for closing Pond Lane to vehicle traffic, Giuffra pointed to the NPV traffic study that concluded that closing Pond Lane would not create additional traffic flow problems, and would increase safety for the high number of pedestrians that already frequent the roadway.

He also pointed to the recent update of the village’s comprehensive master plan, which recommends considering the closure of Pond Lane to vehicle traffic, and creating a multi-use path for pedestrians and bikers, as part of an overall effort to increase pedestrian safety and expand the village’s bicycle route network.

Gobler pointed out that closing the road would also benefit the lake, with plantings and buffers that could be installed mitigating runoff, and he added that lake water could potentially be used to irrigate the gardens. “There’s no reason why this project couldn’t be a net negative load of phosphorus and nitrogen into the lake,” he said.

Giuffra, who is an outspoken supporter of the project and a key player in the effort to make it a reality, as the president of the conservancy, made several impassioned pleas to the community members gathered at the meeting during his time at the lectern.

“People think that East Hampton is beautiful?” he said, pausing, before adding, “We will blow them away when this is done.”

He addressed the concerns about the closure of Pond Lane but expressed his belief that the creation of the gardens, and what the preservation of land for the public could mean for the future, was worthy of support.

“There were people opposed to the Eiffel Tower, and the elimination of cars in Central Park,” he said. “Any good idea, there will be people opposed to it. But we’d really like to get the community on board.”