Back to drawing board on affordable housing in Sag Harbor after court nixes measures
Village Hall on Main Street in Sag Harbor. Credit: John Roca
Sag Harbor Village plans to hold a community workshop to discuss affordable housing initiatives after two measures from last year failed to survive a legal challenge.
Mayor James Larocca said the village board decided not to appeal the April 10 decision by Suffolk State Supreme Court Justice C. Stephen Hackeling rejecting the legislation.
The judge, citing an "incomplete environmental review," overturned a pair of laws that changed zoning in the business and office districts to allow high-density housing.
The board instead will start from scratch by inviting the community “to talk to us about the program we had and failed and what proposals the community would like to make going forward,” Larocca said at Tuesday’s village meeting.
He previously told Newsday the legal pushback to the measures revealed a “fault line” between established homeowners and the “next generation" in the village. The mayor, who isn't seeking reelection in June, also had said he was disappointed "well-heeled people comfortably living in homes that are affordable to them" acted "so aggressively" to halt the initiative.
Larocca on Tuesday pushed for the workshop to be held next month to jump-start the process, but board members failed to reach an agreement. Trustee Aidan Corish lobbied for the discussion to begin after a new mayor takes office.
“I’d prefer to get it right this time than get it fast,” Corish said.
Planning for new affordable housing initiatives comes after the organization Save Sag Harbor and seven village residents filed a lawsuit in October.
It claimed the zoning change approved in June would increase traffic, noise and stormwater runoff, reduce the property values of nearby homes and “irreparably alter the character of the Village."
The judge's decision put on hold, at least temporarily, a proposed 79-unit, mixed-use development plan that was proposed immediately after the board approved the new laws.
Kathryn Levy, one of the petitioners in the lawsuit, told the board Tuesday that a “rushed” approach to the earlier laws led to the problems and “a lot of wasted time.”
She also urged the board to wait until after the election for the workshop.
“I can’t tell you how many people I know who are talking about really innovative affordable housing solutions that will work for this community and on the periphery of the community,” Levy added.
Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.
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