Letters

As a member of The Southampton Association, I applaud its goal of “inform[ing] homeowners of issues affecting the general welfare of Southampton Village.” Unfortunately, a recent email to its members regarding the Gin Lane plantings does the opposite.

The association’s email stated, “While there has been some last-minute discussion over the process, the Lake Agawam Conservancy received approval from the [Department of Environmental Conservation] and the Village Board and followed all the requirements as then in place.”

Leave aside that the discussion was “last-minute” only because there was never any presentation of the landscaping/planting plan to the public; I and many homeowners only learned about it at the last minute.

More troubling are substantive errors in the email.

The conservancy did not receive a permit from the DEC; the Village of Southampton did. That permit, issued in April 2020, approved plans by Nelson Pope Voorhis dated February 3, 2020, that were neither presented to any village board nor appear in any minutes.

Next is the claim about the Village Board. While it did pass a resolution in November 2021 approving plans “prepared by [NPV] dated 9/23/21, as updated by the plan prepared by L.K. McLean, titled ‘Village of Southampton Lake Agawam — Gin Lane Drainage Improvements’ dated 10/21 and attached hereto,” those plans were primarily drainage/engineering plans, and were never presented in any public meeting or minutes.

Additionally: The plans referenced in the board approval are different from the plans approved a year and half earlier by the DEC. The board plans do not provide any details or characterization of the plantings

The board plans were never presented at any Village Board meeting; the public has never been told what plantings were planned, nor allowed to comment.

Notwithstanding the resolution’s statement that the board’s plans were “attached hereto,” they were not. No plans were included in the board packet or minutes.

Lastly, the conservancy did not follow “all the requirements as then in place.” Since 1989, our code has required that any landscaping work or change of appearance in the historic district receive a certificate of appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation. Members of the conservancy were advised verbally of this requirement in 2019, when they reportedly considered appealing the 2019 denial by the Village Board of the only planting plan ever presented publicly for this location. Yet they never applied for a certificate of appropriateness.

Our village code and meetings exist for a reason. Our process must respect the public and follow the letter and spirit of state open meeting laws.

It would be nice if The Southampton Association championed these principles instead of choosing to weigh in to defend those who ignored them.

Rob Coburn

Trustee

Southampton Village