By Robert DeLuca
Liberty Gardens is not just a binary debate between an established community and a “density incentive” development proposal.
Rather, it is a symptom of the checkered history of development approvals throughout Southampton. For decades, developers, providing little or no meaningful social value, have brought the town’s infrastructure, environment, and public trust to its knees, by overpromising and underdelivering. Having reaped the benefits of this system for themselves, future proposals, worthy or not, exist alongside the consequences of a history of indifference, and the public has simply had enough.
Aided and abetted by an army of consultants (for whom there is no consequence in getting it wrong) assigned to find truth in the context of a client’s needs, the review process has frequently descended into a relative theater of the absurd. Today, too many consultants are willing to assure decision-makers that virtually any project can be constructed without impact to roads, water quality, community character and environment, and yet here we are.
Every impact is simply explained away, and decision-makers can find cover beneath the pages of information carefully massaged to always favor the interests of the developer. These same consultants have also been caught recommending that public opposition be “neutralized” when confronted. Not a good look.
When it comes to Liberty Gardens, the developer’s consultants would have us believe that 50 units of new residential development providing right and left turns directly onto one of the worst stretches of County Road 39 (without a light), will not have a significant traffic impact. How can this be believed? How can it even be said with a straight face?
The consultants also tell us that the town’s own related studies and zoning recommendations (focused on trying to reduce traffic impacts on County Road 39) are not relevant because the property does not have direct frontage on this road. Of course, they forget to mention that the proposal exists as a set off from a larger parcel that fronts directly on County Road 39, and that the project itself proposes access directly onto County Road 39.
And on it goes, no defined plans for handling sewage, absolute refusal to consider the future development potential of the project’s immediately adjacent property, etc., but from their perspective the project should be good to go.
If the complicated challenges of future planning, housing and development issues facing the town are ever to be resolved, it is unlikely to come from developers who have worked this game for decades. Rather, it must start with a commitment within the town’s elected, appointed, and professional leadership to hold consultants accountable, ask the hard questions, recognize that public opposition is largely based on longstanding experience, and a fundamental lack of trust in the process.
It is only through trust that the public will ever come to accept more flexible planning, zoning, and design requirements, and we are headed in the wrong direction.
I have no doubt about the scale of this challenge, but while there is still something left to save, and serious planning issues still to be resolved, it’s time for those in leadership, or seeking leadership, to step up and make a difference, and it starts with getting the poorest plans off the table now and rebuilding the public trust.
Robert DeLuca is president of the Group for the East End.
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