Shippy's Owner Asks Planning Board To Waive Public Hearing on Site Plan Approval

The Southampton Village Planning Board is considering waiving a public hearing on site plan approval for renovations and expansions to the first and second floor of Shippy’s Restaurant on the south end of Windmill Lane.

The restaurant is owned by John Betts — the brother-in-law of former Southampton Village Administrator Charlene Kagel-Betts — who purchased Shippy’s in June 2023 from Nick Nielsen, who ran the restaurant for years after taking the helm from his father, Ed Nielsen. The elder Nielsen purchased the restaurant from its namesake, William “Shippy” Casgrain, who first opened the doors for business in 1954.

Betts also runs the popular summer concession stand at Coopers Beach in Southampton Village. He was awarded that three-year contract in the fall of 2022, beating out former concession stand operators Binh Douglas and Lauren Mallor after a 3-2 vote by the Southampton Village Board.

Since reopening under Betts’s ownership, Shippy’s has been busy, and Betts has publicly stated that he wants to continue expanding and renovating the space to accommodate more customers and enhance the overall dining experience. Before reopening, the building underwent an extensive remodel, and now Betts wants to embark on the second part of what he considers a three-phase process. This second phase, which he refers to as “Shippy’s 2.0,” includes an expansion that would push the bathroom area out toward the outdoor biergarten space, creating better flow indoors, making a larger kitchen and expanding an employee area/takeout space.

At the June 3 Planning Board meeting, Betts and Lisa Zaloga, the architect for Shippy’s, asked the board to waive a public hearing based on the fact that they placed ads in The Southampton Press for several weeks alerting the public to their plans. Those ads, which, Betts and Zaloga pointed out, ran in all four editions of The Express News Group newspapers, included a short description of the proposed changes and highlighted blueprint drawings showing where those changes would take place, including a QR code that directs to a Google form seeking guidance and suggestions, which the form states will be shared with the Southampton Village Planning Board, Zoning Appeals Board and Architectural Review Board. It also offers free breakfast or lunch for two for “10 lucky signers” of the form.

The site plan, which has already been approved by the ZBA, was submitted to the Planning Board last month, and Zaloga and Betts said they were asking for the board to waive the public hearing because they were eager to finish the expansion work before the busiest part of the summer season.

Betts said that he placed the ads in The Press and has been trying to get the word out about the plans and the expansion for that reason.

“I thought if we had a complete submission and could do things to help give a little enthusiasm from the public and the community that we respectfully could ask for a waiver on public notification and be allowed to get things done to make it functional,” he said, adding that “everybody has been on board” with the plans, and that they have not thus far received any negative feedback.

The site plan was actually missing a few small details, but Zaloga said at the meeting that she’d be able to address those issues and have it completed within 24 hours.

Planning Board attorney John Bourquin said that the code states that once an application is deemed complete, the board is technically allowed to waive the public hearing, and when board member Amanda Grove Holmen asked him to opine on whether it is advisable or common to waive a public hearing, he said simply that it’s “a judgment call” for the board.

Planning Board Chairman Mark London said that because the site plan was still missing a few details, the board would adjourn the hearing and wait until the Monday, June 17, meeting to make a determination on whether to waive the public hearing, but he did not shut down the possibility of waiving the hearing if the application is complete at that time.

“I personally agree that the public has been noticed to death about this,” he added later. “If you don’t know what’s going on at Shippy’s, you’ve been in a coma.”

He added that he was “personally open minded” to waiving the hearing, but wanted to make sure the application was fully complete before bringing it up for a vote on June 17.