Letters

At the last Southampton Village Board meeting, Trustee Roy Stevenson called traffic “a disease eating away at the fiber of what makes Southampton such a special place” [“‘Common Sense Answer’: Residents Urge Return of No-Left-Turn Rules To Ease Southampton Traffic,” 27east.com, August 22]. With all due respect, Mr. Stevenson, traffic is not the disease — it is the symptom of 25 years of poor planning and unchecked development. And you have been part of it.

For almost a decade, you sat on the Planning Board, approving subdivision after subdivision. Twenty-five years ago, Mayor Bill Manger served two terms as a trustee. Then-Police Chief James Sherry told him, “If you don’t act, there will be gridlock.”

The result is what we see today: overdevelopment with no meaningful preservation strategy. Opportunities for farmland preservation and larger-lot zoning were squandered, leaving us with congestion, sprawl and the erosion of Southampton’s character.

Now, the board leans on Building Department revenue to balance the growing $37 million budget, driving even more density into our small village. Why approve a subdivision instead of saving a farm? Why allow a 48-unit development on Hill Street that provides eight so-called “affordable” units — units still out of reach for working people like me?

And now we have Manger’s so-called “workforce housing” plan, which I will address in greater detail in a later letter. The reality is this: The majority of those units will be market-rate or luxury housing. This policy should be rejected outright at the very next board meeting.

Yes, the Comprehensive Master Plan was completed in 2022, but it came far too late. The damage was already done. Just look at the Village Latch site — once a historic hotel with open space, now $3 million luxury townhomes approved under Mr. Stevenson’s watch. Crying about traffic now is hypocrisy.

For decades, activists like Evelyn Konrad sounded the alarm, fighting to stop the sprawl, while people like Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Manger dismissed and laughed at her efforts. Today, she’s living in New York City — and I imagine she’s laughing at you men.

Jessica McNerney

Southampton