Southampton Town Board Will Consider Access Terms at Second Steinbeck Property Hearing

The Southampton Town Board will reconvene its hearing on the purchase of the former Sag Harbor home of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck when it meets at Town Hall on Tuesday, February 14, at 1 p.m.

More than two dozen people spoke in favor of the town using $11.2 million from the Community Preservation Fund to purchase the development rights to the property at the end of Bluff Point Lane at a hearing last month. The Sag Harbor Partnership has agreed to pay the remaining $2.3 million for the property itself.

It will turn the land over to a new nonprofit organization that will, in turn, lease the property to the University of Texas, which has pledged to provide a $10 million endowment, to run a writer’s retreat at the property.

When the board adjourned the initial hearing in January, the only details to be worked out involved public access, uses of the property and the nature of programming to be offered at the site.

This week, Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said he was confident that an updated access plan would pass muster.

The access plan has been tweaked to allow public access to the property on Saturday afternoons from noon to 4 p.m., almost all year-round. Visits will be suspended between November 15 and December 1 and from December 15 through January 1 for the holiday season. They also will be limited to two Saturdays a month during June, July, and August.

Open houses, when Steinbeck’s cottage will be open to the public, will be offered between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on three-day holiday weekends marking Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day.

Last fall, Sag Harbor Mayor Jim Larocca pitched the idea of allowing limited boat visits to the site, perhaps through the village launch service. A provision for that has been included, should the village decide to go forward with such a plan.

A limited number of people will be allowed on the site at any one time, and traffic will be kept to a minimum on Bluff Point Lane, a narrow cul-de-sac.

“They are still subject to change but form an appropriate basis for the public hearing,” Schneiderman said of the terms of public access. “We’ve been trying to balance public access with historic preservation and creating a quiet setting for a writer’s retreat.”

The management plan also includes a provision requiring a one-day writing class for high school students from across Southampton Town and other outreach programs operated by the University of Texas’s Michener Center.

The property owners will also be required to attempt to have the property named a state and national historic landmark and must keep the property cleared enough to provide people can see Steinbeck’s writing gazebo from Bluff Point Lane.