Some Southampton residents view the town’s proposal for a former motel site as a “pick your poison” scenario: Town officials want senior housing or a condo complex.
Residents want a park.
The drama is playing out at 20 Shinnecock Road in Hampton Bays, once the site of the Bel-Aire Cove Motel. Despite public opposition, the town has scheduled a public hearing on redeveloping the site, 27East reported.
One resident, Daria Roulett, last week started a petition calling for the land to be preserved. She has garnered more than 600 signatures and expects to top 1,000 signatures in the coming weeks.
Residents typically prefer parks, which require tax revenue, to development, which generates it. For those reasons, town administrators often take the opposite position.
It looks like an uphill battle for the resistance, though. Town Supervisor Jay Scheiderman has long been a proponent of redeveloping the property, which the town purchased in 2019 for about $1.1 million. On Sunday, Scheiderman said a public park is “off the table.”
Residents wanted the town to use Community Preservation Fund money to buy the property, which would ensure public use and potentially water access. The town pulled money from a different source, though.
The plan was for the town to buy the 1.5-acre property and sell it to a developer to get it back on the tax rolls. When Scheiderman announced that idea in 2018, luxury condos were envisioned.
A recently surfaced report from four years ago shows the Suffolk County Planning Commission disapproved of the town’s purchase, which had not yet happened.
At one point, three residents also sued the town to nullify the adoption of the Hampton Bays Waterfront Resort Revitalization Plan, which included the Bel-Aire Cove site, claiming further environmental review was needed. The suit was dismissed in 2020.
Two development plans are expected to be discussed during the public hearing on March 29. GMRC Modular proposes 16 senior housing units — each 600 square feet — across three buildings. Three units would be income-restricted. There would also be a pool, solar panels and a new bulkhead with room for up to 10 boat slips.
The other proposal comes from First Dunes, a custom home builder based in Great Neck. It wants to build a 12-unit condo complex with the caveat that residents could rent out the units. Amenities would include a pool with a gazebo, pickleball courts and a new bulkhead.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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