Letters

We have all been thrilled that our beloved Bay Street Theater, an important cultural anchor of the village, will be staying here in Sag Harbor, but the presentation made Tuesday, April 6, omitted critical points.

For instance, the Ferris-designed building looks elegant, but important questions remain. Its height is pictured, and was described, as being considerably lower than the adjoining Bialsky properties, and yet the buildings must be 39 feet to account for “fly space” for a theater. The buildings pictured appeared to be well short of that, but at 39 feet they should have been about the same height as Bialsky’s complex.

Nor do we know who the backer for Adam Potter, Friends of Bay Street’s representative, is.

But most importantly, the brevity of their presentation amplified the fact that the village does not have a comprehensive master plan in place that can stop a land grab by a developer that can spend apparently limitless funds buying up our village. So far — and let’s call them what their original name and intent was — “Sag Harbor Redevelopment” has already purchased all the buildings on Rose Street, the Dodds and Eder building, and the one house on Bridge Street, and have leased the “blue ball” parking lot, parking much needed for employees who work on Main Street. None of this was mentioned in the press conference, and yet it’s integral to their apparent development plan, and has been in the works for months and months. The purchases may be legal, but this obfuscation seems like duplicity and makes our beloved Bay Street seem like a distraction from a larger land grab.

The latest we have heard is that in order to acquire and then demolish the building complex from K-Pasa to Espresso etc., Mr. Potter and whomever he represents would need to acquire even more properties to compensate for lost rental income. To this end ,the next land acquisitions they are said to be eyeing are the Laundromat, White’s Pharmacy, and even what is now People’s Bank (formerly Suffolk County National Bank), with rumors of Apple Bank also being potential targets for their design on our village.

Welcome to Pottersville.

We hope that everyone who loves Sag Harbor will step up and demand answers about what the developers’ actual plans are. We would hate to have Bay Street Theater played as a Trojan horse for what is really a land grab that will forever change the village without heed to its character, history and needs.

April Gornik

Eric Fischl

North Haven