Public Weighs In on DEIS for Sag Harbor Development Proposal by Adam Potter

After questions were raised about the draft environmental impact statement filed by Adam Potter for a proposed mixed-use development on Bridge Street on Tuesday, the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board, which has been leading the review of the project, agreed to keep the hearing open for additional comment until its next regular meeting on May 27.

Board members also cited another obscene Zoom bomb — the second at a village meeting in a month — which briefly disrupted the hearing and led to some listeners being permanently cut off when the village disconnected the Zoom link for several minutes afterward.

Potter has been trying to develop property between Bridge and Meadow streets for nearly three years, and his current plans call for the construction of a three-story building totaling 81,257 square feet on just under an acre at 7 and 11 Bridge Street.

The building would have 48 condominium units, 28 of which would be market rate and priced at between $1.9 million and $2.4 million. The remaining 20 would be marketed as affordable/workforce units that would be priced at $312,275 to $507,625.

There would also be approximately 8,576 square feet of “service-oriented” commercial space and a 16,554-square-foot garage on the ground level that would have 44 parking spaces. Another 93 spaces would be provided in the neighboring gas ball parking lot on which Potter holds a long-term lease.

After toiling several months in relative obscurity, the Planning Board found itself facing a full house, as the Potter application has encountered heavy opposition each step of the way.

Attorney Jeffrey Bragman, representing the civic group Save Sag Harbor, presented a laundry list of concerns, starting with the size of the proposed development, which he said, would require a number of variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals to be allowed to cover almost the entire lot.

“What the variances in this case show is when you can’t fit the building on the lot, you have to fit the lot to the building,” he said.

Among other things, he said the code would only allow five apartments on the property. While that restriction could be waived for the 20 affordable units, it would still apply to the 28 market units proposed.

He also said that the need to use the gas ball lot for overflow parking would reduce public parking, and he said a requested variance from a six-foot flood zone elevation would require “extreme hardship.”

Bragman said the environmental study stated the variances were needed “to achieve a desirable residential density with a commercial component.”

The Planning Board’s responsibility is “to ask desirable for whom?” Bragman said, adding that it favored the developer over the community or the environment.

Bragman said there were questions about how the workforce housing would be managed and maintained and said the code would not allow a house at 7 Bridge Street, which is considered a “contributing structure” to the village historic district, to be demolished without good reason.

Bragman cited concerns about drainage, saying the plans called for the bottom of its containment structures to be only six inches above groundwater.

He also said the plans did not discuss whether the village would be willing or able to hook up a site that should be generating only 67 gallons of sewage a day to the sewage treatment plant when the DEIS estimated it would produce more than 11,000 gallons a day.

He also cited an effort to remediate toxins from the site that are left over from the days in the 19th century when the area was used to manufacture natural gas. That work is being overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, but Bragman said the Planning Board needed to make sure the work was being done properly.

“My position on behalf of Save Sag Harbor and the public is that we are entitled to comment based upon empirical facts, not guess work, not surmises, not assurances that the applicant has it covered at the DEC,” he said. “That’s not enough.”

“Planning means know before you go,” he concluded. “You don’t drive in the dark without a map.”

Residents of the Harbor Close Condominiums at 18 Bay Street, which are across the street from the proposed development, also spoke against the proposal.

Richard O’Brien repeated many of the same concerns Bragman raised. He also cited concerns that pile driving work would cause “excessive vibration” that could damage the condominium building and said an estimated 172 dump truck trips to and from the site over 17 and a half months of construction would also have a negative impact.

Henry Birdsall, the president of the condos’ owners association, cited concerns that more construction would lead to more flooding in an area that is already prone to it. He also said the development would bring more cars to the already crowded streets and parking lots, including the small lot at the condos, which, he said, is often used by outsiders.

And Paula Raflo, a condo resident, said the Potter development would contribute to the neighborhood being transformed into “a concrete jungle.”

“I just think this is a heinous money grab on the part of the developer at the expense and the integrity of Sag Harbor,” she said. “People are flocking to Sag Harbor because it’s charming. This is not going to be charming. This is going to be a mess, an environmental mess.”

Peter Ginna, a member of the Save Sag Harbor board, limited his comments to the fate of the historic house at 7 Bridge Street.

Sag Harbor’s status as a historic district and its efforts to preserve older buildings are one of the things that make it unique, he said.

“It’s special. It’s irreplaceable,” he said of the house at 7 Bridge Street. “Once you knock one of these things down, you can’t put it back up. It’s gone.”

Ginna said he saw a “bitter irony” in the promise to document the building before it is razed. “That will really make us feel good when this building is gone,” he said.

Douglas Newby also commented, echoing concerns raised by Bragman about DEC oversight of remediation work, saying it was important for the Planning Board to be aware of all “the moving parts.”

He also said the DEIS raised the possibility of state funding for the affordable housing. That could open those units up to a statewide lottery and there would be “no guarantee that any of the affordable housing units will actually be available to any of the people who currently live or work in Sag Harbor.”

Potter, who was present with his attorney, Tiffany Scarlato, did not speak, and Scarlato only spoke briefly.

However, three people did speak in favor of the application.

Antonio Todaro, the manager of the Harbor Shop, a convenience store opened by Potter in the space formerly occupied by 7-Eleven, said he had been “priced out” of the local real estate market and said the development would provide needed apartments as well as a much-needed environmental cleanup of the area.

Katenyna and Yevhenii Surovets, refugees from Ukraine, who live at 7 Bridge Street, also supported the project for creating affordable apartments and cleaning up the environment.