Sag Harbor Village Considering Eminent Domain For Ferry Road Property

The Sag Harbor Village Board is considering exercising the right of eminent domain for the waterfront property on Ferry Road that is currently slated to be used for condominiums.

According to Village Attorney Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village is “very serious about it.”

At a meeting on Tuesday night, the Village Board agreed to hire attorney Saul Fenchel to advise its members about the process of eminent domain, although Mr. Thiele said the village has not yet taken any serious steps toward condemning the property at 1, 3 and 5 Ferry Road.

Eminent domain requires that the village pay fair market value for the property and that the property must be used for a public purpose. There is an inherent risk in eminent domain, Mr. Thiele said, because the village can never gauge what a court would determine the fair market value of the property to be.

The fair market value could be much higher than the appraised value of the property, Mr. Thiele said.

The tract at 1, 3 and 5 Ferry Road is adjacent to a triangular piece of property the village already owns, just south of the Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter Memorial Bridge. The village hopes to transform the land into a larger public park.

Last year, the village offered to purchase the property from the owners with CPF money, but they were not willing to sell, which is a requirement for using CPF money.

The developers and owners of the property, Greystone Development and East End Ventures, currently have an application before the Planning Board for the condominiums and are in the middle of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, process, Mr. Thiele said.

He stressed that the Village Board can have absolutely no influence on the Planning Board in its review of the application, and cannot delay the process at all.

“There basically has to be a wall between the Village Board and the Planning Board,” Mr. Thiele said. “The Village Board cannot attempt to influence the Planning Board in any way, shape or form.”