Quiogue Affordable Housing Hearing Draws Neighbors, And Advocates

Rather than focus on the precise purpose of the two Southampton Town Board hearings seeking input on the potential environmental impacts and the zone change to allow a large affordable housing project on Quiogue on Tuesday night, February 22, speakers opined more broadly about the project as a whole, with a number talking about the need for affordable housing generally.

If approved, The Preserve at South Country would comprise 104 apartments on 17.5 acres bordered by South Country Road, Corwin Lane, East Lane and Montauk Highway on Quiogue. There will be eight two-story residential buildings, a clubhouse, open space with a walking trail, 148 parking spaces and an onsite sewage treatment facility. Large wooded buffers are proposed to maintain the scenic quality of the roads, with access only from South Country Road.

The NRP Group, a national multifamily housing developer, seeks a change of zone from single family, 1-acre residential zoning to Multi-Family Planned Residential Development. MFPRD is a type of multi-family cluster that, according to a report by Southampton Town Assistant Planning Director Clare Shea, “has more stringent design requirements and open space set aside than any other category.”

The project is designed on two parcels — one is vacant and the other is home to Strebel’s car wash and laundry. A request to split the Strebel’s operation out of the total acreage is running in tandem with the zone change application. The site’s neighbors are the Suffolk Pines Mobile Home Park to the west, J&V Auto Salvage to the northwest and single family homes on the other borders.

Tasked with the review of the zone change, the Town Board made the determination regarding the project’s potential to pose an adverse impact on the environment.

On January 24, the board determined the project has the potential to create a significant adverse environmental impact. Against that determination, the developer will have to compile an Environmental Impact Statement.

The process toward an EIS kicks off with a public scoping session where community members can list items they want to see covered in the EIS.

The two hearings Tuesday night focused on scoping and the zone change.

In advance of the hearings, the Planning Board provided its comments.

Members asked the developers to verify the number of kids they expect to see joining the Westhampton Beach School District, as well as other districts that offer special services.

At the hearing, housing advocate Michael Daly, a founding member of the group Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY), said the developers employed a commonly-used method created by Rutgers University to determine the number of school children the development would house. “Thirty three is the number,” he said.

“I don’t think they’re being honest about the effect on schools and traffic,” Lisa Beth Meisel, a Quiogue homeowner, said. “I’m not saying don’t build it. Don’t build it this size.”

Other speakers echoed Meisel’s concern about the size of the project and its impact on traffic.

Kathryn Biddinger, who lives near the site, said it’s hard to imagine the size of the project. People need to understand just how enormous this project is, she asserted.

She likened the traffic to the specter of all the cars that can park on Main Street in Westhampton Beach leaving for work at the same time.

Daly countered that individual “as of right” homes would have a greater impact on traffic. He agrees with the developer’s traffic study that asserts that the project would not degrade the level of service at the intersection.

But what about its regional traffic impact? Eastbound traffic jams begin in Westhampton, Biddinger said. “Traffic starts where we are,” she said.

“We all go to the east to make money,” David Celi informed. Traffic congestion causes him over two hours a day in lost productivity. He agreed the size of the project is too much for the community. Western sections of Southampton Town take “the brunt” of affordable housing efforts, he said. The proposal is too much for the hamlet. “You can’t put 10 pounds of stuff in a 2-pound bag. We are a 2-pound bag,” he said.

David Schreier echoed the comments of other speakers. There’s no question there’s a need for affordable housing, he said, “it just can’t be by me.”

Speaking to the traffic, Schreier said people are all going east to work. “The people who are going to be living there are the people who are going to be using the leaf blowers you talked about for two hours before this,” he exclaimed.

He suspected there could be an environmental impact associated with the historic dry cleaner use on the land. “Where did their PERC go?” he asked, making reference to the solvent perchloroethylene. “Where did all their schmutz go? You want to put lower income people on top of an environmental disaster.”

“We can’t just say we want it, but we don’t want it near us,” Steve Giuffre offered. He believes affordable housing should be allocated per school district.

“On the East End, wherever we put multifamily housing, it’s going to be difficult for the people who live near,” retired teacher Janet Grossman made note. A supporter of the project, she said, “It isn’t fair that unless you have an awful lot of money, you can’t live here.”

Another housing advocate and East End YIMBY member, Bryony Freij, acknowledged neighbors will be affected, but asserted, “We have to do this.”

“We cannot have the East End just be for the wealthy elite and have all the workforce that we care about having to drive out here from western Suffolk every day,” Anthony Hitchcock stated. Inclusiveness makes America strong, he said.

In addition to providing jobs and boosting the economy over the two-year construction timeframe, the project will help the town meet its affordable housing goals, Daly said. The new zoning designation is an important step in providing necessary housing stock to foster a sustainable community.

The comments will be folded into the project’s scoping document. When the final scope is adopted by the Town Board, the process of compiling the Draft Environmental Impact Statement commences. There will be a combined hearing on the zone change and the DEIS both in the future.