001Marching on towards Christmas had a surgery. One one East Hampton Board, you are live. >> Great. Thank you, LTV. Good morning everyone and welcome to the East Hampton Town Board work session of Tuesday, December 9th, 2025. Carol, if you could please read the roll call. >> Council member Flight >> present. Council member Lee >> present. >> Council member Rogers >> present. >> Council member Cal Pemont >> present. >> Supervisor B Gonzalez >> present. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So this morning we open with public comment. We ask you to please kindly keep your comments to three minutes.
002And then we have four topics for today. CPF water quality RFA grant program proposed modifications to septic funding guide by Melissa McCarron and natural resources. Melissa will also be presenting the town of East Hampton water quality improvement program overview. That'll be followed by a uh discussion about modifications that we're making to the requirements for ADUs presented by our deputy town attorney Britney Taladano and followed by a discussion of the revised affordable multiple residence legislation which we had already gone to public hearing on. We needed to make some changes and Britney and Eric Shance will be discussing that. That'll be followed by liaison reports and then we have a few resolutions. Uh and I'd like to say want to thank Mont Talk Library. This is um our last meeting here for the year. We'll be back
003in January, but you know they've always been so accommodating here and we're very grateful. Okay, so now we're going to um have the folks that have signed up to talk. First up is Dorene Niggles. Welcome, Dorene. >> Good morning, members of the board. My name is Dorene Niggles and I'm here to speak about 152 ThreeMile Harbor Road. >> Could you just make sure you're talking into the mic? Get it a little bit closer. I appreciate that. We want to make sure that LTD can pick it up. >> Okay, no problem. Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. My name is Dory Niggles. I'm from Wayne Scott. Um, I'm here talking wanting to talk about 152 ThreeM Harbor Road, the condominium complex for the proposed 79 units on 7 acres. Um, attempting to
004change zoning on any particular slice of East Hampton land is an affront to all local residents whose families have toiled away generation after generation to make East Hampton what it is. This 10th generation neighboring tissentennial working farm is the last vestage of what is right about living in East Hampton and caring for the East Hampton land. They've held on and gotten through by hard work and grit through good times and bad. And the town is now about to slash and burn this muchloved area of Freetown and all it represents to us as East Hampton residents. Where's the preservation when it comes down to the real dirt? This family has done more land preservation and protection just by keeping a working farm going in the spirit of the first settlers who were farming, fishing, and working
005both the land and the sea over hundreds of years and spend time valuing the people who actually live here and pay taxes here. The words housing crisis seems to be a buzzword that everybody likes to use. A crisis is a one-off event. The stock market crash is a crisis. That's a financial crisis. Having a heart attack is a healthc care crisis. They're oneoffs. Bouncing a check is not a financial crisis. The supporting all of this is crazy. Affordable housing is a permanent issue. It's the state of play everywhere, not just here. All over Long Island, all over New York, all over the country. Affordable housing is an issue. Um, you can't just scream crisis as a as a politician because it's a worthy issue that you think you're going to actually solve. A crisis is
006not in perpetuity. This is this is a situation that is just a state of play. It's a challenge. So, you work hard, you save your money, you buy a house. I did it. It was challenging. I had to sacrifice a lot. I had a commitment to live here. And that's why I worked so hard to do that. The government never stepped in. They never said, "Oh, wow. You're attempting to do something really hard. let us chip in and make it smooth and easy ride and we'll rearrange zoning to make it a better investment for LLC's to build you a house. They never did that. I never wanted them to do that. Sorry folks, but caring more about transient workforce by throwing up condos so businessmen can make more money, get more tax breaks, and use
007government grants by creating affordable housing is gaslighting all of us. They're doing it for profit. This is an LLC financial scheme dressed in tax credits and government subsidies and grants to make money for their LLC and private businesses while we subsidize their workers working for them. It's eroding the fabric of this neighborhood and other neighborhoods. If they want to become compli if you want to become complicit in the scheme, perhaps pay higher salaries, include benefits for people rather than their profits and bleeding the public of their tax dollars to invest in this scheme. Business owners keeping their workforces in line. This is a 19th century plantation mentality. Uh workforces get they're they're chained to them financially in the real estate they offer them to live in. They have to keep working for them. This is
008just it's a scam. The board should not be the psy for venal gains for a few private LLC's at the zoning expense of many local hardworking people. No is a word and you need to say it and you need to say it quickly. Full-time residents who work hard, save money and buy a house and remain here should be your first and foremost priority. No aspiring someday residents who migrate to other hotspots for quick money in resort towns elsewhere and work off season. They should not be your priority. When will this stop? It will never be enough. Stop perpetuating the cycle of more building and starting and start preserving and protecting what makes East Hampton special. Otherwise, we're just hopog. If you insist on continuing down the road of disregarding zoning, disrespecting hardworking neighbors, and disavowing
009preservation, you will not get elected, the people who actually live here and vote. We should all be worried if the board is willing to change zoning in this neighborhood because if they can do it here, they can do it in your neighborhood and your neighborhood and your neighborhood. And it will start with 79 and might get reduced to 48 and then it will get reduced to 24, down to six, down to three. No neighborhood wants condominiums. So you cannot let these LLC's run roughshot over neighborhoods just so they can make more money. Don't waste our taxpayer money. Follow the comprehensive plan. You spent a lot of money on it. The taxpayers funded it. Follow the plan. This is one example of a zone change that could mean the board that you can just change zoning
010anywhere. Your next next to your house, next to your house, next to anybody's house. We're back to spot zoning by fiat. If it can happen here on this parcel, it can happen to you, your neighbors, and on your street. 46, 24, 12, six condos coming to a neighborhood near you. Next, East Hampton will turn into Hopog. It's the one decision to change any zoning and to accommodate rentals for LLC LLCs anywhere in East Hampton. Don't do it. Deny the change of zoning and respect the people who live here and pay taxes and salaries. Thank you. Brian Niggles >> LTV, can you hear me please? Can you please put the screen on in the room here? And also the three minute timer. >> Yes, both are on. >> They're not. >> It's not showing here in
011the room. Zach, >> we haven't >> uh give me one second. >> Sure. >> Ryan, would you like to speak? Okay, he's coming around. Welcome, Brian. >> Hi. Sorry, took the long way. Uh, good morning, supervisor, member of the town board. Um, I'm here again. My name is Brian Niggles, representing my family, uh, and Roundsw Farm, um, farmers for 10 generations, uh, in East Hampton. Um, I'm here with many others to stand in opposition to the request being made to the town board to grant a zone change for the properties at 152 3M Harbor Road and 33 West Drive. Um, I appreciate that members of the board have made statements that they also oppose this proposal. Um, I think it's crucial that the board formally recognize their position by means of a vote or resolution
012of some kind. Uh, it's unclear exactly where we stand. Um and for that reason it's given uh all of us a lot of turmoil in our lives living there and not knowing exactly what the future holds. So um uh I don't need to echo my words won't be any better than Dorene's about the flaws with the proposal. Um, but we do have 2,800 other neighbors uh and petition signers uh who also oppose this proposal. So, I'd like to present that to the town clerk uh to add it to the record and to the town board for their review. Um, this isn't the right place for it. As I've said before, not here, not at this scale. Um, the board shouldn't be rushed. they shouldn't be pressured by deadlines uh by a private developer to make
013these kinds of decisions. And um I think that it would give all of us a lot of comfort if this nightmare would be finally put to bed if the a statement could be made formally. Um there's been a lot of news articles, there's been a lot of statements uh put out, but um there's nothing currently that is protecting us from the developer uh they're obviously desperate. They're held to a deadline that they put upon themselves in their application of today. And so, um, who's to say that they aren't going to change their tune, come add more window dressing to their plan, and and try to persuade you to make a to change your mind. And so, I think, um, whatever the means that is appropriate, I think the town board should uh, pursue a final
014uh, decision on this and add it to the record and let us move on with our one minute. So, that's Thank you. So, I'm checking with the town's uh planning director to see if there we've received anything in writing from the developer, but there was reported in the papers this morning that the application has been pulled that they're not moving forward with the project, but that's only what I've read in the papers. I have not heard that directly. Uh, Zach, we need the uh the clock to show on the screen like we do in all our meetings, please. We are working on it right now. I'm talking to Briting. It would be most helpful. Thank you. Um would anyone else that's all that signed up this morning. Would anyone I'll look for a show of
015hands? Would somebody else like to speak? >> But not you can talk about any topic during public comment. >> That's not that. You could address the board. That would be helpful. Okay, next door there. >> Hi, good morning. Um, my name is Camille and I'm the environmental project coordinator at the concerned citizens of Montalk. On behalf of CCOM, I want to make you all aware that the federal endangered species act is being threatened by our current administration. There are four proposed changes to the act. The first would insert economic analysis into the decision to list a species as endangered or threatened, likely putting profits over species. The second change would make listing new species more difficult. The third would make it easier to remove currently listed species such as monarch butterflies and piping clovers, two
016of particular local importance. The last would make it harder to designate and protect critical habitats for threatened and endangered wildlife. If these changes are instituted, it could begin a cascade of both environmental destruction and removal of laws that protect our environment. As Chris Gangumi reported in the East Hampton Star, um Frank Cavetto Cavetto, who is the executive director of South Fork Natural History Museum, he said, "What's really concerning is the biodiversity that's going to be lost. Biodiversity creates ecological services that we depend on as humans. The more we reduce protections, these ecological services will be lost and it's going to affect our health." Needless to say, the Endangered Species Acts protections are crucial. Now, what can you do to protect it? You can go to CCM's website, preserve montalk.org, and fill out a public comment
017online by December 22nd of this year. CCOM will also send out emails to members with directions and a sample statement. You can call Representative Nick Loa to comment as well. he will be watching the public comments closely through the deadline. So, your voice matters, all of your voices. Um, remember, we consistently see that 84% of the public supports the Endangered Species Act over decades of polling. We need you to be part of that support town board and you all the public. Um, so please comment by December 22nd. Thank you. >> Thank you, Camille. Would anyone else like to address the board on any topic? Okay, Zach, we're going to go to the phones. Is there anyone on the line? >> There is no one on the line. >> One last time here. Anyone else want
018to speak? Okay, so we're going to move on to our topics. Melissa, you're up first with the CPF water quality RFA grant program. Good morning, town board members. Um, so I'm Melissa McCarron. I'm a principal environmental analysts in the town's natural resources department. Um, I'm here this morning to present um some recommendations from the uh CPF water quality technical advisory committee with some proposed changes to the funding guide for septic projects for our um request for applications grant program. Um so this is we something we offer one to two times every year. Um I think this is our this will be our eighth year um offering grant funding for water quality improvement projects. And this allows our technical advisory committee which is a board of seven members with backgrounds and engineering, water quality, um habitat
019um protection. um that they will be able to review these applications that come in and make direct comparisons between different um projects um in order to make recommendations to the town board for awards. Um so the water quality committee developed a set guidance for determining funding awards specifically for septic projects um in 2020. This was based on some lessons learned from uh our first round which was in 2019 and we had many applications but some of the projects um chose not to move forward because the incentive just wasn't high enough um for these types of projects. Um so back then all of the projects uh the awards were based on the flow equivalent to a single family home which is 440 gallons per day. So basically the flow for the project say it's you know
0201,200 gallons per day. We would divide that by 440 which is um the health department standard for single family home flow and then multiply that by our um residential septic rebate program um amount. So it would be 20,000 bas basically $20,000 per the equivalent of a single family home for each project. So some projects that u maybe not high flow but were held to a higher standard they're held to the commercial standards instead of the residential standards which has some higher costs for different components that are required. Um so basically we're we're seeing that again um this trend for um multif family. I just kind of in one moment just to >> you know I think this is an opportunity while a lot of individuals are here I I speak on less on the CPF
021water quality advisory committee with Melissa Billy Hjack is the chairman Melissa is one of our staff members has does a wonderful job in natural resources and with that what's happening right now this is a dense sub dense subject but I think with the group here it's good to explain a little bit how we got here if you don't mind madam supervisor there's a 20% CPA F set aside of the total CPF for water quality projects within the town of East Hampton that could be done for anything for uh um bioil septic systems, commercial uh commercial systems and such. In the past eight years, the town board has uh authorized millions of dollars all by recommendation of the CPF water quality. But what happens with any project that we see there and many different projects, there's
022ways to tweak or better the the funding source to work within what the residents and some of the property owners need. We're starting to see those uh environmental rewards years into this effect of the CPF water quality funding. But what happens also is we need to change and adapt and we take recommendations from the CPF water quality committee to what they're seeing as far as applicants coming in or not coming in and for what reasons. Working within policy that they set forward and that the guides the town board and our decisions right now. Uh some of those applicants decide not to move forward with the project. It could be a not for-p profofit like a church. It could be a commercial entity or a pre-existing non-conforming entity which Melissa is explaining about septic flow rate
023out there then too. I'm not talking at anyone. I'm just trying to explain what she is because she's such a wealth of the knowledge in this in this in this right now. >> Gets a little technical. >> It gets very gets [laughter] very technical very very dated very data driven but also what it is it's available to the entire community to use. It's your resource. It's your funding. What happens also most recently then too the general obligation law was changed by Senator Palumbo and also uh Assemblyman Theo at the time to allow for specifically the 20% water quality funding to now roll over every year. Initially what ended up happening for about the first six years that funding would actually at the end of the year extinguish and then be carried over into the open
024space CPF aspect open space preservation fishery uh uh recreation fisheries uh uh fisheries m not management uh infrastructure. What happened is there was requested by the five east end towns to allow for that water quality funding to roll over because some of these projects are expensive and also take years to get into the making on there. Now what's happening is the water quality technical advisory committee being led by Melissa and Billy are seeing applicants coming in asking questions and this is one of their recommendations to the town board. So I just wanted to sort of explain that to us but also as we have a nice audience too how everyone can participate in this program if needed be. It's just not septic system upgrades. Can be other many other different things and there's many other
025nuances to it. So I thank you for the time frame on there. >> So if I just may add for everyone's uh information, the next topic >> on the agenda. Maybe we should have >> I think maybe we should have started with that one is an overview of the town of East Hampton's water quality improvement. >> Do you want to do that project? I would go to that. >> Yeah, if that could you on a delay. So, first we'll have an overview of the entire program and then Melissa will discuss the committee's >> more specific >> recommendations for change. >> I think that makes sense. >> Patrick, could you put the PowerPoint up for the second presentation? We're going to take this out of order. >> Excuse me one second. I just want to tag
026on to what David was saying. So, this is kind of an evolving process. This is all new since um the referendum passed in 2016 allowing for the 20% of CPF to be used for water quality improvement. And we're seeing that with the changes that were just um you know passed in 2024 um making modifi modifications to that law. But um we are learning as we go and um trying to make any improvements to our programs for the benefit of the community and all our applicants um town projects um that improve water quality for the town of East Hampton. >> So yeah, so the recommendations on any tweaks um is a annual um yeah it's generally conversation that we have. >> Yeah, we make recommendation and then it's implemented for the for the next year. So
027that's what we're >> Let's start with the overview. Okay, great. >> Okay, so um >> thank you Melissa for your question. >> Yeah, no problem. [laughter] Um so Melissa McCarron, principal environmental analyst in the natural resources department. So I'm presenting um an overview of our water quality improvement program through CF. Um since we implemented this program in um it passed in 2016, we really got going in 2017. Next slide. there's a bit of a delay. Um but saying um so the mission of community preservation fund um since 1999 which is when CPF began um was to preserve community character with preserving land. In 2016 it was amended to add the protection and improvement of the quality of all our water resources. Um so we um have been using up to 20% of annual CPF water
028quality improvement projects um up until this is the first year that that funding will roll over. We have used the maximum of the 20% yet um but moving forward if there's larger projects that come along um then that we'll be that available to fund those. Um so the town adopted a water quality improvement plan in 2016 which is a guidance document that helps lay out all the projects and programs um specifically that would be funded through the plan just so we have a road map um for where to go. Um and this identifies priority water bodies programs projects um to improve water quality through reduction of sources of pollution and remediation and restoration of our um local water buds. Next slide. Um, so the CPF law dictated project types eligible for funding. Um so that
029included wastewater treatment improvement projects such as upgrading our sanitary systems, making improvements to any sewage treatment plants which um in the town of East Hampton there's um only one public um sewage treatment plant which is in Sag Harbor um which we have provided funding to for improvements and expansion. >> That's a project that's underway now too. >> Yes, underway. Yep. With the construction. It's a long time coming, but um that'll be moving forward soon. They got a lot of outside grants as well, but it was partially funded with CPF. Um non-point source pollution abatement and control program projects. So um that could include storm water remediation um reducing runoff through rain gardens, bio swells, installation of additional catch basins potentially with um infiltration or filter treatment um to remove contaminants um before filtering into the
030ground or directly running off into our water bodies. Aquatic habitat restoration, so eelgrass restoration type projects. We've done some seaweed growouts, um constructed wetlands, things like that. And then pollution prevention really is targeting more point sources. So such as like a sewage treatment plant. Um but we've also kind of included that um as pollution prevention more education and outreach kind of components. >> We've also funded sugar kelp and also aquaculture projects then too. >> Next slide Patrick. So for um accomplishments, we have I really have three kind of main categories of the types of funding that we've allocated. So the first one is our water quality request for applications program which um the next uh memo that I'll be presenting later um touches on. So this was initiated in 2019 um through the water quality
031technical advisory committee which is our our group of experts that reviews all projects and applications and makes recommendations to the town board. All CPF expenditures are reviewed by the town board approved via resolution. Um so in seven years we've had 11 rounds of this grant program. Uh we've funded 55 projects totaling approximately $10 million. Um so some of the the scope of types of projects that we funded, we've done some commercial and not for-profit septic upgrades. Um these include restaurants, schools, churches, marinas, um the Sag Harbor sewage treatment plant. Um we've actually funded the septic upgrade for this uh building for the Montalk Library. Um, so we kind of really focus on community centers to help um, you know, the residents of East Hampton as a whole. Um, so throughout the presentation I kind of
032just threw in some project highlights for specific projects. So one of the projects we funded was the St. Luke's church rectory. Um, this was a nitrogen reducing uh, BOF filter which is a type of innovative alternative sanitary system. Um, but this was a pilot. It's was designed by the Center for Clean Water Technology. at Sunni Stonybrook. So, it's a little bit different. It's more of a passive treatment system. Um using layers of sand and wood chips creates um kind of a reactive zone for um denitrifying bacteria to grow. It's the you know kind of the science behind all the IAS um that uh the ditrifying bacteria breaks down the nitrate into nitrogen gas. It off it gets off gas and then it's no longer in the water. Um so this promotes the system promotes nitrification.
033So conversion of the ammonia in wastewater to nitrate and then denitrification from nitrate to nitrogen gas. So that's kind of like the science mechanism behind uh these IAS. Um so this system is working really well and the latest results from the center for clean water technology the nitrogen in the post treatment um effluent was uh approximately zero milligrams per liter. So they're removing almost entirely all the nitrogen that's coming into the system which is great. Um so some of the other types of projects that we've funded through this program uh with storm water abatement projects. Um, so one of the most successful ones we've seen is the Methodist Lane Bioale, um, which I have more slides on after this one. Um, so I'll get into more detail on that one after. um permeable reactive barriers,
034which is a type of groundwater treatment to remove nitrogen. Similar um uh technology to the IIA that I was just explaining where you're um putting in to the ground a carbon source to help denitrifying bacteria thrive. The groundwater that flows through this permeable reactive barrier is then treated and the nitrogen is removed. Um so we've done some of these projects in 3 Harbor, Akabanic Harbor, Hog Creek and Georgia Gapond wersheds. >> And also we just authorize authorized a resolution at 66 Main Street Waynecott for poor water testing also to potentially allow for studies for PRB on that property because of the [clears throat] harmful algae blooms within that property that did not have any public access to it. >> Yeah. So yeah, that they're uh looking to do some site characterization work to kind of
035define exactly where the highest nitrogen inputs are coming into um Wayne Scott pond there and hopefully divine to design a PRB to treat that so it's removed before it enters the pond and hopefully alleviate some of the pressure to reduce harmful algolooms in the future there. and and that pond has been considered uh one of the most polluted water bodies um in terms of uh blue green algae which is toxic um on the uh on Long Island. I believe and what David mentioned is that if we hadn't purchased the uh property at 66 Wayne Scott uh for the public, we would not be able to do any type of water testing as it was a private it had no public access and we could only do things on properties where there is access to for
036the public. >> Exactly. Yep. Uh so I do have a a project highlight for a PRB that um was installed at 60 Harbor View. It's a behind a bulkhead for 3M Harbor. Um that was in completed by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Um it was installed in 2024. Um and basically uh a series of soil borings were installed behind the bulkhead and then backfilled with the wood chips to create that reactive zone to treat the the groundwater which had um high nitrogen and actually was kind of a a perfect location because all of the water kind of flowing to one location because of all the bulkheading um and had a preferential pathway right into Thermal Harbor. So, we're capturing that and treating it before enter the harbor. Um, but we saw based on the spring 2025 data
037a reduction in nitrate from 7.7 milligs per liter to 2.7. So, um, a 65% reduction in the nitrogen in the initial testing. Um, and that these um, systems are designed to last up to 30 years um, based on the degradation of the wood chips. And then we've also um seen some aquatic habitat restoration projects. So eelgrass restoration in Napig Harbor was funded. Um kelp growouts in Hog Creek and through mil Harbor and then floating wetlands in Fort Pond slide. Um so this was a project highlight on Surf Rider Methodist Lane Bioell storm water improvement project. Um, so this was awarded in 2020. The installation was completed in June of 2022. Uh, Surf Rider Foundation um, worked on this project and they installed over 12,000 native plants, including native trees, shrubs, um, and flowering plants. And
038since it's was installed, I mean, most people probably drive by it almost every day. um it's become well established, but you can see from the photos um just the impact that it's had during rain events. So on the left, it's before the project happened. You can a lot of ponding after a heavy rain and then on the right um after all the um plant things were installed, you know, how it's really handling that water, helping infiltration, treatment, capturing debris. You can see that they included a lot of um education and outreach in this project with local schools. Um, so they the students collected all that debris out of the rain garden. Um, so it's really doing some work protecting Hook Pond. >> And then the Rew Wild group, they they worked there this summer. I
039know that they were we heard stories about all the all the mug wart that they removed from >> Yes. Don't want those invasive species to come in and take over. Uh, next slide, [clears throat] Patrick. Um so the next program I wanted to talk about was the septic incentive program. Um this kicked off in September of 2017. Um since then we have installed 929 IA systems um through the program um you know residents um coming in and requesting um putting in applications for eligibility and completing the project on their properties. Um we've issued almost $15 million in um incentive or rebate funding to those residents to to upgrade their sanitary systems. Um we've seen an uptick in systems installed every year. Um so in 2025 to date we have 168 septic systems installed and I
040assume we'll have a few more before the end of the year. Um and we've had uh almost [clears throat] 1500 eligibility applications approved as well. Melissa, could you just clarify one point on this because I've heard and I don't know it's anecdotal or not, but there's a perspective that for these systems to really be effective, the property needs to be used year round otherwise the bacteria does you know becomes ineffective in the winter months and then the system needs to be restarted from. Is that correct? Um early on we had that concern, but the um vendors and suppliers have basically been through the the testing have shown that it really only takes a short period of time for the system to start up and the microbial activity to um you know kick in again. Um
041so it's not really as much of a concern as we originally thought. >> Thank you. Could you just address what kind of septic incentives are available because I know that money came down from the state and the county. So maybe that there's become more interest. >> Yeah. So the town has our subject incentive program. The town offers um $20,000 incentive to residents to upgrade if they're in our high priority areas, which is our water protection district. Generally around uh immediate vicinity or 0 to 10 year groundwater travel time to our priority water bodies. um or you can get $15,000 if you're outside of those areas. So, everyone in East Hampton is eligible for an incentive. It just depends on the amount on priority location. Um and then the county and New York State both have
042programs. Um right now, I believe it's still $10,000 um through the New York State um grant and then I believe it's 15,000 through uh Suffach County. Um, but I believe those numbers will soon be changing based on um dedication of state funding um to the program. I think they're going to be increasing that to $25,000 per property. So, >> so a resident is eligible for all of all of that for upgrading their septic system on their residential property. It's available to every resident >> reasonable as possible. Hopefully, the whole cost will be covered. Um, we're seeing in Tampa a range of probably like 35 to 45 the average installation cost. So can be covered if you all the >> Could you just bring the microphone a little closer? I'm getting a a text that >>
043Oh, we need you [laughter] to be closer to you. >> Um, and then I just have some photos on on [clears throat] here. People have gotten really creative with how to hide the lids that are required to be able to be accessed for maintenance. Um, so you can see kind of some plantings around the lids to hide them. Or this woman was very clever and um got planters so she can um put soil and and flowering plants to kind of beautify her yard. >> So I it's good to see that this has just been increasing. The number of applications have been increasing per year. >> Yeah. >> Said quite a number. >> Uh next slide. So we also have um a good number of town projects that have um been completed and are underway. Um
044so different kind of categories. So we have a lot of municipal septic upgrades. Uh we're trying to lead by example. Uh we've installed 16 uh systems on town um facilities. We've been focusing mostly on comfort stations that serve, you know, the the widest variety of, you know, number of residents. Um, but we've upgraded the Springs Library, Springs youth center at Spring School, and we're working towards upgrades at Terry King ballfield, the CDCH building. Um and um >> with that list on municipal properties, yourself and also with staff and the water quality advisory committee prioritize what locations should be done first based on the usage the nitrogen flow rate out there and that's what we've been working off of and it's and it was a very helpful tool that you put together I think in 2021.
045Yeah, it's been a while, but yeah, we're looking at proximity to water bodies, um the need for the facility to be upgraded based on the age of the system, um and things like that, >> and pending projects such as the Westlake comfort station, which we completely redid, put fisheries gear storage behind it, and it's a perfect opportunity to upgrade that septic system, too. >> Yeah, if we're doing a project, it made sense to, you know, kind of put everything together and do all the disturbance at one time. Um we've also done some storm water abatement projects um in Lake Monttok, Sag Harbor, Three Harbor and Echabonic Harbor Watersheds. Um we've done some engineering studies on storm water pipe um conveyance systems for Kofalo and Loenstein. Um so basically the engineer came in did a review
046of the age of the system if there were any issues with the system and then looking at where we can potentially do some future projects to reduce the flow of water getting into the pipe which is um conveyed directly to a water body. Um >> and both those were legacy engineering from >> reconstruction in the 40s postwar >> on there. God bless you. Yeah. Um and so I wanted to highlight a project that was more recently completed at South Lake Monttoque. Um so this was completed in 2024. Um we installed a dry stream bed to capture and treat storm water runoff from the parking lot at South Lake. Um we also installed some permeable parking spaces, pvious walking paths. We did upgrade the subject system to an IIA system. Um, and there were a lot
047of invasive plants down here. So, we did a a removal and installation of native plantings. Um, we've done some permeable reactive barriers. I'm going to talk more about the Tan Bark Creek um PRB which is in the headarters of 3M Harbor um which is uh was an injection PRB. So, it's one of the first um injection PRBs to treat nitrogen um first on Long Island. So, I'll talk a little bit more about that and I have some diagrams to show what that really means. Um, and then we've done um some pumpout tank replacements and um purchase some new pumpout boats which was a collaboration with the East Hampton Town Trustees. Next slide. Um so this was a really interesting project. Um the Tanar Creek permeable reactive barrier. Um so this involved the injection of an
048emulsified soybean oil which served as a carbon source. So instead of wood chips, we're using soybean oil here. Um to create the microbial community to treat uh groundwater rich with nitrogen to denitrify the ground water. as I was saying before with that mechanism. Um so this was 150 ft long. Um the actual injection of the the soybean oil targeted the zone where the nitrogen is in the groundwater which was between 15 and 25 ft below grade. So um we installed wells that were clustered so we can um that are screened at a certain depth. So that means it's perforated at a certain depth where the soybean oil gets injected into the ground and permeates out of the the well screen and kind of creates a a region where um the treatment occurs. >> Could you
049just locate exactly so folks know where exactly this was done? >> Um I think the next slide has I don't want to jump in. >> It's not doesn't really show exactly or whatever. Yeah, it's by Soides Road um down at the beginning of ThreeM Harbor in the headarters area um right kind of behind like >> D by the trailer park >> which is historically high levels nitrogen coming out of it. >> Yep. So yeah, the the goal really of all of these PRB projects is to target areas where there's known high nutrient inputs into the the harbors, creeks, what have you, wherever we're focusing on based on um some site characterization monitoring that we've done. We've done a lot of this work with Cornell Cooperative Extension. Um but it's really from diffuse upgradient sources. So
050likely um all of the septic systems upgrade all that water that gets into the groundwater is flowing towards our water bodies. So that's why we're targeting the shoreline where it all comes together. Um so this project was funded we got a a grant from New York State DEEC for $375,000 and then we provided the the match funding with CPF water quality. Um [sighs] so this was installed in 2022. We do have some ongoing um performance monitoring that's being completed with a partnership with CPF water quality, piconic estray uh program, Cornell Cooperative Extension and Clear Environmental, but we're showing some pretty significant nitrate reduction uh between the upgradient and downgradient wells of where the the project was completed. I have a map that kind of shows um shows that on the next slide, but we've seen
05181% uh nitrate removal in the summer and 84% in the fall. And we're continuing monitoring here for five years. Next slide. Um so this diagram kind of shows what this PRB is. Um so on the left you can kind of see you know the diagram of a septic system but basically anything that um infiltrates into the ground that can be a source of nitrogen like you know pet waste um wildlife and you know sanitary systems anything that gets into our groundwater will eventually flow to our surface waters. Um so Cornell Cooperative Extension installed a series of wells. So the on the right um you can kind of see a map. It it's not zoomed out enough to kind of see where in harbor it is, but they did um several clusters cluster wells um in
052the yellow and then um upgradient wells. So before treatment data is collected from the the red wells and then the blue is downgradient. So they're kind of showing the before and after treatment. Um so that's where that 81 and 84% reduction is coming from. But uh they installed the wells. Um they injected this soybean oil to create this zone. The water flows through it and then is treated before it gets into Three Mo Harbor. Um and then I just had the modeled flow path. So basically showing groundwater flowing through the wells towards Tho Harbor on the bottom. Melissa, as well as the the nitrate levels which we're measuring internally, do we do water quality testing in the adjacent water body to kind of ascertain what improvements are occurring there? >> So that is actually something
053we are proposing um upcoming. So CPF water quality to date really we've the only monitoring we've been doing is for specific remedial project. We weren't really, it wasn't designed to do um just widespread baseline monitoring, but we want to do that. Um so we are making that proposal next week. >> Correct. The general obligation law 2016 did not allow for that. So you had to work with NOS's such as CCOM, uh Surf Rider or others, Cornell Cooperative to monitor on that. Uh but that is something we're also looking to change within CPF law. >> Some monitoring that's done >> in all our water bodies. Dr. Goldler works with the town trustees and does annual monitoring um and reporting to them. Um but we want to do a little bit more robust monitoring moving forward so
054we can really see the impact that all of our projects are making in improving water quality moving forward. Uh next slide. Um so I just want to touch on some large scale projects that are up and coming. We've been working on the engineering design for these three um larger projects for some time and they're um the design is complete and they're moving forward. Um so we have the Westlake storm water abatement uh and boat launch at on Durier Avenue. Um so this is for the reduction of storm water runoff into Lake Mtok. This is fully permitted. It's currently out to bid. I believe the bid is due this week. Um, and so this our goal, we're shooting to install this winter before the summer 2026 season, so we, you know, don't get in the the
055voters's way. Um, so I have diagrams of all these on later slides to kind of show what these really are. Um, but we got a $100,000 grant from SA County. Um, and then that'll offset costs um, the CPF. And then we have the New York State 27 rest stopwater abatement project that is moving forward. We're estimating a fall 2026 installation. Um we have all of our permits except for the New York State DOT permit, the Department of um transportation. This is actually on New York State property, or at least a portion of it is. Um so we need a permit through them. Um we actually do need to hire the contractor before we can get that permit. So that's the next step is going out to bid, hiring the contractor, getting everything in line, and
056then finalizing that permit. We did get a $500,000 grant from New York State um to do that project and then that will offset CPF as well. >> We're partnering, aren't we, with the friends of George Kapon? >> Yeah. So, this Yeah, this project was a partner with the village uh friends of Georgia Kapon, Picconic Land Trust, the um Department of Transportation and the town. Um and then the last big project is the Cove Hollow end of pipe treatment constructed wetland project. This was a recommendation that came out of um our engineering study with VHB on the coal storm water pipe um to treat all that runoff that's collected and um conveyed to Georgia pond before it enters the pond. Um so this is more likely a winter 2027 install. Um but this is a partnership
057with East Hampton Village because the the site is actually on village property. um the friends of Georgia Pond, East Hampton trustees um and we are just waiting on the New York State DC permit for that project and we'll be applying for grants in 2026 to offset. Next slide. So it's a little small on that screen. Um but this is the site plan for the Westlake stormwater abatement project. Um, so basically what we're doing, um, this is at the boat launch on Dura Avenue. The goal is to reduce the storm water volume, um, and provide natural treatment before any uh, water runs off into Lake Mtok. Um, so we're proposing installing true grid parking areas. So the the middle is going to remain asphalt paved for ease of um launching boats off the boat launch, but
058the the parking area is going to be um using this true grid technology. So basically it's a grid that keeps the aggregate gravel um in place so it doesn't move around and shift um and provides a pvious surface for water to infiltrate into the ground before it runs off. Um and also installing rain gardens on the north and south side of the parking areas as well as a bio retention area in a low spot um right at the entrance. Um mentioned >> this at the M talk CAC meeting on Monday. So they're currently aware we're out in the process. The main thing is as we get closer to accepting the bid contractor bid bond and uh getting the contract out mobilization all that we're getting tight to the window the February windows for voters. Yes.
059So, as we move ahead on that until we'll just make sure we let the harbor master know. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Then they've they walked the site with us and we went through the whole plant um listing with um our town arborists and um Mark Abramson and natural resources who does all the reveation compliance. So um they've cleared all the plantings um for this project. Next slide. Uh the next one is the New York State 27 rest stop and this is another stormwater baitment project with the goal to reduce and treat the uh runoff entering Georgia Pond at Talmage Creek. Um so there's really three sites for this project. I'm only showing two, but it's the 27 rest stop in Waynecott. Um so it's kind of the gateway to East Hampton. Um so the goal
060is to some water quality improvement but also like a beautifification as well. Um we partnered with Ponic Land Trust. So a bio swell is going to be installed on the Georgia preserve property that they own as well as um a right ofway rain garden um to the north on old Montalk Highway. Um so this kind of included um so you can see kind of the planting plan. So the bio swale on the ponic land trust property to um the left which is you to the west um plantings on the 27 rest stop site as well as um we're doing permeable pavers for the parking area um and flexi pave walking paths which is a permeable surface to allow for more infiltration um to the ground before the storm water runs off. and also um installing
061some catch basins with um pretty advanced treatment in inlet filters to provide you know treatment of anything entering there um to remove um sediment nutrients um bacteria and things like that. So add on to that this project's been a long-term coming probably about almost seven years in the planning on this working with the village the state stakeholders and the K land trust who's the owner of the former support demar she said there's two sections on the north section of the highway there there's actually a culvert that runs underneath there that discharges here so again it's another legacy issue with drainage god bless you in the area then too still will allow for public access to the pond this location uh we have done permeable pavers uh in two locations down Bay Street and also down
062here in South Lake. For the first time, we will try the flexi asphalt on there which is like glass or ariated asphalt that allows for more percolation through asphalt. >> It's a more of a novel option out here, but it's been used a lot of different areas. They all have a lot of maintenance there. Uh this rest stop, uh New York State DOT has to have certain rest stops certain distances. So, we can't we couldn't just remove this. Again, there's a rest stop on the north side of there or the old I think that's the original Montalk Highway. >> The one thing I would request is that let's if we can tell them if we can take the sign down that's there, the New York State 1935 Department of Education sign and we can repaint
063that in our sign shop. Add that to the project. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um and then next slide for the last one. Um so this is the Cove Hollow um end of pipe treatment constructed wetland. So, as I was saying before, BHB did a a full comprehensive review of the Cove Hollowo storm water pipe, which runs from 114 down to Copalo Road um at um and it conveys um storm water from that whole area, drainage area to Georgia Pond. Um so basically what we're proposing here is cutting off the pipe at Georgia Road um and diverting the flow of water into this um constructed wetland which is a series of um vegetated shallow wetland micro pools um which provides natural treatment infiltration plant uptake of um the nutrients and um reduces the the flow
064of water going into Georgia pond as well as improving the quality of the water going to Georgia Pond. Um promotes some settling and and natural treatment. Um and then we're also so the rest of the site is really going to remain the same um except we're um going to be improving the access to the pond um with a proposed pvious uh ramp to the pond. So this project is still um being reviewed by New York State DEC, but we expect to be able to install in 2027. Again, another major project that's been five, six years in the making on there. For anyone that doesn't know that this wershed, it's again, it's a legacy contra creek pipe that goes all the way up to the Riverhead building supply where the dairy barn is up there on
065114. Uh first phases that we did six years ago, we uh we ran a scope all the way down the length of it. Same thing we did out here in Lowenstein pipe. Uh there are many utilities that were just busted right through it. uh you had cable, you had uh gas pipes going through going through these not knowing all the way through was just sort of >> disconcerning. Um >> we were able to contact all those utilities and they did remove and repair. >> Correct. So again, it's the first portion of the multiple phases of funding that this project's gone through. It's going to be a multi-million dollar project. Also working with the village stakeholders, George Kapon Association, others, >> not George, friends of George Kapon, too. >> I apologize. Um, also with the design
066here to instead of coming in and making it um, a plethora of parking spots to continue the characteristics that are down there very rural >> in the area and allow access into the pond if you're kaying or whatever options you might want to do down there, but it's it's longterm coming. >> Yep. Um, yes. So, this will be an interesting project. Kind of one of the first constructed wetlands that we've done. Um, but the village kind of wanted to m maintain the community character, but we we still want to implement the water quality improvement component of the project. So, >> correct. And there's multiple once that water flushes into the constructed wetland, there's multiple checks on there and which checks mean how, excuse me, how the water then goes over a check, >> filters, slows
067it down, settles, goes through. >> Yep. Um, so that Yeah, that was the last one I had. Nice. And so does board members have any questions or comments that they have for Melissa? No, >> I I've asked mine as we went through, so I'm good. >> I think my only question question to ask, Madam Supervisor, is a lot of these came through RFA processes. These are some municipal projects. Uh what's the anticipated time frame of a potential new RFA that you're looking for? That also comes into the recommendation again for the viewing public. >> Yes. Um so the request for application grant program the first round of 2026 um will be open December 15th um and so that will remain open for two months. It'll be closed February 16th. So, um any um resident uh
068commercial applicant, not for profofit um that's looking um to potentially fund a water quality improvement project in the town of East Hampton could submit an application. Applications will be available on the town website. Um and uh those applications get reviewed by the water quality technical advisory committee and recommendations are made to the town board for funding allocations >> and then they require a public hearing in order to >> go through public hearing. Yep. >> Who can they contact in the town if they need an information? >> Um so you can uh contact the natural resources department and reach out to me directly. Um and our you can find our our information on the town website. >> Thank you very much. Just to clarify, for the home IIA systems, this is for existing structures only, not
069new construction. Correct. >> So, for residential IIA upgrades, that really would go through the septic incentive program, which is the $20,000 grant. Um, but yes, that's only for upgrading existing sanitary systems, not new construction. Okay. >> All right. So, now we can go back to the the proposed modifications you want to make to the septic funding guide. Does it help to have the only if the public if it help? >> I don't think it's really readable. Patrick, you don't need to post anything. >> Anybody's interested can get it off the website as well. >> Too small. >> Yep. >> This was met. >> Um, so yeah, this is a proposal from the uh town's uh water quality technical advisory committee. We're proposing modifications to the funding guide for septic projects through our request for application
070grant program. Sorry, just wait a minute. >> Yeah, why don't we give it a minute for folks to clear the room? >> So, the water quality committee um through this program since 2019 has made modifications as we go um as this is an evolving process and um we're continually trying to improve. Um but the water quality committee has observed that some applica applicants have decided not to move forward. Um if the funding awards don't cover at least 50% of the costs. Um so previously award amounts for >> Brick. Can we close the doors? There's folks standing in the lobby there. That would be helpful. Thank you. Previously the the funding awards for multifamily and highdensity residences were calculated based on the equivalency flow to a single family home as I was explaining earlier. Um which
071often doesn't really equate to some of these larger scale septic systems that um they're required to meet a different standard than residential properties. So they really are required to meet the commercial standards which can include added costs. So it really doesn't equate. Um so basically what they're proposing is changing how that these projects are viewed and calculated for multif family and high density residences. We're proposing um awards based on justified installation costs only with a maximum of 65% of the total cost for properties that are located in priority areas and then 50% for all other sites um outside of priority areas. Um the water quality committee is also proposing an increase in the cap set on commercial properties only um from the current cap which is $200,000 to $300,000. So, it would be 65% of
072those justified installation costs with a cap of $300,000 or 50% of those costs capped at $300,000 if they're not in a priority area >> on commercial properties only. >> Commercial properties only. Um there is no cap on any other um use. [clears throat] Um and then these modifications are being proposed to be implemented starting in the next round which is the first round of 2026 as I was saying um closes in February. on February 16th for applicants to be reviewed >> and that's it. >> So add a little color to that. The simple one, the easiest one is the commercial uh going from 200,000 to 300,000. I think we've even increased that in the past up to 200,000. We find we were finding that that uh septic system costs are uh exorbitantly high for commercial
073flow rates on there and to the point where they might cost over a couple mill million bucks or more on there. So to be to use this as an incentive program which it is and which was pitched in the in the referendum in 2016 on there we're finding out that incentification that's there is not enough put it put it that way on there then too. And this would be enough that the property owners still have to put a lot of skin in the game if they wanted to do so but it could incentivize more applications uh to continue on the hard work that the team the town has done. Also the other portion about commercial uh the residential this goes to a lot of pre-existing non-conforming properties. A lot of pre-existing non-conforming properties have might
074have multi-density properties on there hence two houses on a property. Some of them might be in a priority water zone or not. But the way the county looks at it, you might have to have a lift system in there, a pump system, two >> pump station is adds $25,000. >> Yes. And >> why I don't really know the way you've been explain explaining to me, excuse me, for >> and that's at a minimum made it there. >> But that cost there that ends up deincentivizing. Uh so what this will do was almost put a a different category for some of these non-conformingists uh and potentially allow for that because the town of Eastampton does have a lot of places to say non-conforming dual density properties or multi-density properties within the town ranks on there. >>
075Yeah. The Suffach County standards um it's called other than single family homes. So it doesn't really make sense for us to be comparing other than single family homes to a single family home because it just doesn't um it's apples to oranges. >> So I mean I'll start off. I'm largely supportive of these recommendations. My one concern is that we we tend to set the market rate with this. You know, the more money we put towards it, it seems, the higher the bids and the contractors are coming back and it's going to continue to be the case as we put more money. But I think the end goal here is that look, we're going to end up with better water quality the more people take it on, which is why I'm overall supportive. At least with
076with these awards, um unless it's a a not for-profit community center, um we're not we're never going to fully fund a commercial um applicant. Um so it's really they have to the skin in the game. So >> or it's a lower percentage opportunity chant. Yeah. >> There's been a couple small ones that might fit in, but not never. >> Yeah. Not never fully, but >> never fully. Um, so you know, it's really on the applicant to do their homework, get multiple bids, and have, you know, competitive um, costs, too. >> I mean, how many providers are there on the east end typically put it in? >> Um, there's a lot more now. Um, the the county does have a full list of their approved vendors and uh, it's probably at least more than 20. >>
077Okay. Yeah. And the committee is very aware of that that type that not that type of comment uh that sentiment and I would agree with that and they're very aware of looking and making sure that the taxpayer funds go out appropriately and not being fleeced if you want to say in a way uh they they they look to make sure that they get the best for whatever the costs are putting in besides just the overall outcome of hopefully better water quality too. >> Right. When I say justified costs, I mean the committee and my office, we audit all of the um >> receipts, >> budgets and receipts and invoices that come in to make sure that it's justified cost and that it's a reasonable cost. >> What how have we seen kind of the inflation
078on these type of systems increase in the last few years? um since COVID they increased a lot um and a lot of the contractors I you know kind of cited that as some of the increase in costs and since we are out on the east end our systems do tend to be a little bit more expensive because you know we're farther away from the >> as everything else is >> from everything else. Um but they have probably gone up at least 30% since the beginning but so has everything else. [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> So, I'm supportive of uh the recommendations as you put them forth. I'm also hoping that we um consider uh and that the board considers uh uh changes to um our view on landscaping and what is sustainable landscaping. And as
079we address how to get the to improve our water quality from a way to take the nitrogen out out of what's already put in that we also look to address what we put in to begin with. I think these kinds of things go hand in hand and I will be back next week to present um recommendations from the water quality committee um to modify our water quality improvement plan. As I said, this is kind of an evolving process. So, we want to do an update in 2026 of the plan, which is our guidance document. >> So, Melissa, this would then just this would be a policy change and this would be a resolution of a policy change. >> Um, I'm not sure if it needs to be a resolution. Um, I think it's more just
080a recommendation from the committee of how they are going to recommend to you. Um, so it's just kind of um >> the change of the policy. >> Change of the policy. Um, >> so is everybody supportive with all of the policy changes that Okay. All right. So you'll be ready on 125 to >> put out the round one RFA. >> Thanks Melissa for the extensive updates. Obviously water quality is incredibly important and this was was great. >> Yeah. And it's great to have you back. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yes, it is. >> Okay. Next up uh is the uh chapter 255 uh modify requirements for ADUs and we've got Britney Toardano here. Take us through it. I don't know Ian if you wanted to Oh, I'm sorry Tom if there was anything you wanted
081to do say as a setup. >> No, I mean look I I think um obviously thank you everyone for coming today. It's it's you know hearing your voices is incredibly important. Um, you know, this is something with regards to housing. And, you know, I I don't want to play semantics on this, but housing is an issue out here. Um, you know, it's not the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago. There are not a lot of jobs out here that a young person can get and afford a house. And we do as a town need to look at initiatives to provide housing. And that's where, you know, ADUs initially evolved. They they're across the country. They exist. And for those of you who don't know what they are, you know, they've been known
082as granny flats or, you know, other kind of terms, but it it's basically allowing existing homeowners to build on a separate apartment or a detached apartment or attached um to, you know, allow people to live there. They are rent controlled um and the the homeowner themselves gets to choose the tenant. The tenant has to live and work in the town. Historically, we've had restrictions on lot size where this can happen, you know. So it started off I think about 40,000 square ft. It got reduced to 20,000 square ft. Um this legislation is looking to reducing the required lot size to build an ADU to 15,000 square ft. The reason we've done that is you know just looking through the the property parcels across the town. You know the majority of lots are in that lower
083size. So you know we have a cap on how many ADUs can be built in the town that is set at 40 at this point in time. >> 40 per hamlet. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. And you know, we're not increasing that. Um, but we have not hit that cap since introducing this ADU legislation. So, what we're looking to do here is to decrease the required lot size and and the other major restriction here is the home ownership um to get more ADUs built for people. So, as I just mentioned there, the second part of this is, you know, historically ADUs have only been allowed to be built by primary property owners. So, it's your primary home and you can build an ADU. Um the problem there is that you know as we all know
084most properties out here are people's second homes and you know what we really need is for second homeowners to build ADUs to provide more housing for people out here. So those are the two key changes that we're proposing this legislation. Uh the the other kind of more minor one is changing the parking limitation. Historically parking has been limited for properties with ADUs to four cars and so we're going to be increasing that um in this code change to five cars. Those are my major changes. Cubert. >> Good afternoon, Madison. [laughter] >> Members of the board, um the amendments that are before you are the two scriveners are corrections that we discussed last time. Um and as Tom, as um council member Flight pointed out, the single lot size threshold has been reduced to 15,000 square
085feet for all ADUs. So I had um asked our housing director Mark Morgan Perez for just to get an update of how many ADUs we have or so there are 65 residential ADUs and 23 commercial ADUs for a total of 88. Uh so we've got one in Amigansit, 34 in East Hampton, 20 in Montalk, 22 in Springs, and zero in Wayne Scott. So, with East Hampton at 34, if this legislation gets adopted, I think we're going to have to >> Yeah. I mean, the the 34, to be clear, is um not all of them have been built. Some of those have been recently permitted is my understanding. So, I think there's 27 actually currently built and seven have permits to be built. So, yes, you're right though. We're getting very close to that cap of
08640 in East Hampton. But as you heard from those numbers in other other um school districts where the lot sizes like Montalk are much smaller, there are far fewer ADUs out there. >> So like I had I think I had said this earlier, we had already heard this um uh last month I guess it was right November. Um so we needed to bring this back because we wanted to make some changes. Do board members have any questions, comments, anything they wanted to address today before we renotice this for public hearing? >> No, I I support the uh changes uh that we've made which we've already discussed in public and of course we had a a change to Scribner's era um which is why we're going back uh again why it's in discussion again. The only
087thing I might disagree with is that most of the homes are second homes in East Hampton. I don't think that's true. I think we're a year-round community and we have a lot of second home people home owned by second homers, but not most. Um, not in the town of East Hampton. But I support this legislation. Um, as I said before, I think this is the ability to be able to have uh family members or to make a a rent controlled income. Um, and being able to stay in your home, um, is, uh, something that, uh, we're, I'm happy to see it building because I think this is a way to keep folks here, um, uh, for our year-round community, and I'm supportive of the changes. >> Yeah, I'm I'm strongly supportive as well. I I
088think that, you know, I think housing is a um, as Tom said, I don't want to play semantics, but it's a very big problem out here. Uh, and it's continuing to get worse. And so I I I think that we have to look at all solutions. Not every project in every place is is right, but I think it's important that we continue to look at every tool available to address the need. And I particularly like ADUs. With any type of legislation, you want to legislate, but you also have to make sure that the rules are followed that comes through enforcement through the peritting process, yearly checks, making sure you see the leases of the individuals coming in there. Um, first time on the board. that was supported by the uh the supervisor who was on
089the board at that time also council member Gonzalez at that time to decrease it from an acre down to a half acre. There are some individuals thought that that that was going to open the floodgates and never did even by bringing it down to a halfacre. It didn't happen. Uh I welcome more applications of this nature on there. We've seen some ADUs being built very effectively detached ones. It's one of the ways that you can have multi-generations potentially on the same property legally but a little bit separated. Uh and I think uh it's it's a good step forward there. I know there's been some discussions about LLC's and such as far as ownership groups. That's I think a little bit of a longer look at it. Personally in my family, uh my family lives in
090a in a house that's under an LLC under their name. So if they wanted to have ADU and have my daughter live with them, I think that should be appropriate and those are ways that we can use our enforcement techniques to make sure that no one tries to gain the new laws. Uh so with that, I would love to like go back to the public hearing, see what else the public has to say at that time. >> No, great. Thank you, David. Um and my colleagues, just one thing on the LLC's. I will say that for any LLC even currently that is applying for an ADU, unlike most LLC's, there has to be an identified individual associated with that LLC for them to get an ADU permit. So, it's it does have that mechanism in
091place. >> So, Britney, because this is part of the zoning code, does this have to go back to the planning board for review? >> Yes, it does. >> Okay. So, it we're not ready. We can't notice it on the 18th be unless they've got a meeting in between and we can squeak this on. >> I believe we there are two meetings of the planning board in between. I can check with them about timing. >> Yeah, because they've already seen it and and before maybe you could explain for the community what >> Sure. So, they've already seen the legislation, but because there's a substantive change, which is the um single lot size threshold, it would go back to the planning board so the planning board could weigh in on it and um provide comments to the
092town board. >> Great. So, we're good on that. >> And and Britney, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think technically even if we noticed it and we received their comments before we made a vote, that would still be okay or no. Do we need the planning board to to give us comments before we hear it? It might be a good idea in case they have changes. >> If they have changes, you should you [clears throat] should hear their changes. >> All right. So, last topic today is the revised affordable multiple residence legislation. And Zach, if you could let Eric in, please. There he is. Hi, Eric. >> I'm here. Hello, everyone. Um, so yeah, sorry. >> I was say, does it is Ian, were you going to set this up or no
093need? Okay. Uh I you know I don't want to steal Eric's thunder. I think that this has been talked about once. There's a couple of small changes which I think he'll describe that came out of um public comment but it's this is another sort of smallcale um way to address the affordable housing need. >> Great. >> So only other thing I want to say Eric I'm sorry. One other thing is I I want to you know Britney's done a lot of work on this as a as a town attorney but Ed reali our new housing attorney who's been with us for just a short time um has been very helpful on this and many other things. I just want to recognize him and give him credit. >> Great. >> Okay. Um, so just to give
094everyone a background, affordable multiple residents is a proposed new use um that would allow people to create up to four affordable housing units per acre on lots only within the AHO and only after site plan special permit approval. It's sort of a step up from you can think of it as a step up from an ADU but a step below a fullscale affordable housing development. um as of use. Um so, as was mentioned, the town board has reviewed this uh a number of times and in fact held a public hearing on September 18th. Um there are two changes uh that we'd like to make that came out of comments um at the public hearing and further consideration of the law. Um what I will do is screen share you a copy of sort of just
095the draft changes to the language. Um I may need to zoom in. it might not be particularly helpful um unless you can see it clearly. Uh hopefully you can now. Um but you'll you'll see and uh we highlighted the changes in red and green for the holidays. Um but you'll see that there's uh there's two I won't go through the specific language unless the board uh wants me to, but there's basically two main categories here. one is consideration and addition in the code of allowing an owner occupied unit. Um that is a term that would be defined and you can see it on the screen there on the left hand side. Um we had really always envisioned that if somebody you know a private homeowner wanted to build one of these and add units that
096they would be allowed to live in one of the units and continue to live on the property. There's also advantages to that of having the landlord on site. So um we view it as more of a clarification of what we had originally intended. Um but basically worked into the code now as a provision that one of the units only one of them can be an owner occupied unit that can be occupied by either the property owner or an immediate family member which is also defined. Um [snorts] and um basically uh and then also that would not be subject to the affordability requirements. That would basically, you can almost even think of it as like a manager's apartment that allows somebody that wants to do this and convert a single family residence to continue to live
097on their property and just create the additional units that are affordable. Um, that's similar to an ADU um where the property owner uh continues to live on the property. The other um main change uh and you can see in green on the right hand side is originally we had a requirement that all units excuse [clears throat] me be required to be um multi- in multi-unit buildings. However, upon further consideration if somebody wanted to design a site that had a sort of cottage style um layout to it where you had individual buildings um and if it's appropriate on a site, we want people to have the flexibility to have that that general design. And again um reminding the board that all of these will be required to go through site plan special permit review by the
098planning board who would be looking at sighting of buildings and you know um the way that the site is laid out in general anyway. So um those are the only two changes. Um but um this does require a new public hearing um as it's deemed substantial enough of a change to the proposed local law. Um the planning board has reviewed this and sent um these changes specifically and sent comments to the town board in support of the change. So um the board should discuss these changes. I can go through the specific language um if you'd like. Um happy to answer any questions, but I think the um the next step would be to uh to renotice this. >> Eric, I think you should go through the changes, please. >> Sure. So, um, again, the local
099law would affect numerous sections of the town code. Um, the first one, what you see here in black is the original wording, um, of the code and then in red are the changes pertaining to creating an owner occupied unit and green um, is only the one change that removes the requirement of multi-unit buildings. Um but basically starting out um we need to amend the section of the town code that provides definitions. We're providing a definition of affordable multiple residence but now clarifying um in it that additionally one dwelling unit on the premises may be designated as an owner occupied unit for the property owner as set forth in the special permit standards um which are below and I'll get to. Um so then also proposed to be added here and maybe they're a little bit
100out of order. I'll start with owner occupied unit. Um this is a definition that says a dwelling unit within an affordable multiple residence that is occupied by the legal owner of the property or by an immediate family member of the property owner and which is designated as such on the approved site plan and within the recorded affordability covenant. Um noting that for the affordable units they will need to file a covenant over the property. It's a requirement to get approval for this land use. Um so then immediate family member is also defined. It's persons related by blood, marriage or legal adoption or other person with a a verifiable dependent or caregiving relationship to the owner as approved by the office of housing. Um where the property is owned by an entity other than a natural
101person. The designated owner occupant must be a natural person holding at least 50% ownership interest and any family uh member occupancy shall be limited to relatives as defined above um of such individual owner. So, this also contemplates a situation where you have an LLC um or a similar entity other than an an individual person owning the property and clarifies that they need to be the majority owner um of the property in order to qualify as the owner. Um so moving along um then further uh in the code um the special well I should say I actually skipped over um but you could see in under part three which is dimensional requirements removing the requirement for multi-unit buildings but going further along um again under the topic of the owner occupied unit that also necessitated clarifying
102in some of the other um sections of the code these are all the specific special permits standards for this use that would be reviewed by the planning board. Um any project would need to be found compliant with all of these in order to get an approval. Um so in the legal conditions of approval um we had talked about an affordability requirement that you know it's a continuing condition of approval that the units be made affordable. We added the exception in there for the owner occupied unit and then clarified um the rules regarding an owner occupied unit which says one dwelling unit on the premises may be designated as owner occupied. This unit may be occupied by the property owner or an immediate family member of the property owner and shall be exempt from the income
103qualification rental and affordability [clears throat] restrictions applicable to the other units under this section. uh the location and designation of the owner occupied unit shall be identified on the approved site plan and in the recorded affordability covenant. The idea here being that um one unit can be so designated but it has to be identified right away during the site plan process and designated as such with appropriate legal documentation. >> And again, Eric, just to be clear, uh this only applies to the owner occupied unit. >> That's correct. Yes. all the other units um which any unit in excess of the one that would be otherwise allowed as a matter of right is a single family residence under that zoning. All the other new units must be affordable housing units. They must have covenants and restrictions.
104Um they must meet all of the definition of an affordable housing unit and be for moderate income families like any other uh true affordable housing unit in town. And they also must meet all dimensional regulations. >> That's correct. Yeah, that that's a carryover from um when the law was heard originally, but in the dimensional requirements, again, the U minimum lot area is an acre. Um again, this these are only properties that have been designated with the affordable housing overlay district designation. We do not have many small properties currently um that have the AHO designation. So there are not very many properties as we sit here today that would qualify for this use. Um but yes um all all the other dimensional regulations with the exception of limiting the units to be in multi-unit buildings um
105are staying the same from the previous time that uh that this went to public hearing. >> I just have one suggested revision. the affordable multiple residence definition. It's um this would maintain consistency with the changes that Eric just mentioned if we can just strike on the record um in the form of one or more multi-unit buildings. That's in the first sentence of the definition. >> Oh, okay. >> So, if you go to affordable multiple residence, >> a land use consisting of multiple residences, we would just strike in the form of one or more multi-unit buildings. >> Okay. just to [clears throat] make it crystal clear that it could be a single um family residence. >> Britney, >> yeah, that that makes sense >> because if you're not requiring all of the units to be in
106multi-unit buildings, then conceivably one would not. >> So, yes, just a real life example, I own a house on an acre. Um, and if I wanted to add a couple of cottages, I could. Um, and but I would still have to um have all these conditions on it. I could still live in my house and I could add a couple of cottages >> if you had an AHO. >> If I if I already had an AHO on my property, affordable housing overlay want to stop try to stop using >> and and that's an important distinction um especially because we were just talking about ADUs. ADUs are essentially permitted as a matter of right if you meet the criteria uh in every zoning district throughout the town. This is a use that is limited to the
107AHO and requires site plan review. So I just want to make that that clear and remind everyone. I know the town board knows that, but >> great. >> Um so anyway, just going through um the other specific changes to the code. Um, again, these are all related to um just making sure that it's clear that you're permitted to have one owner occupied unit. Um, in the legal requirements section where it talks about the specific requirements and language in the affordability covenant, um, that would be filed over the property to make sure that it is forever affordable. Um, the first provision there would say, and this would be wording that would be in that document, notwithstanding the foregoing, one dwelling unit on the premises may be designated as an owner occupied unit for the property owner
108or an immediate family member of the property owner. Such designated units shall not be subject to the income qualifications or rental requirements otherwise applicable to affordable housing units under this chapter. The affordability covenant shall expressly identify the designated owner occupied unit if any and shall provide that such unit is exempt from affordability and income qualification requirements but remains subject to all other maintenance and occupancy conditions applicable to the property. Um so that's a clarification of the the wording in the legal document that they'll be required to file. And then um the last real change here is to clarify that because there is a requirement in here that on an annual basis or whenever um tenency is proposed to change in one of the units uh that the property owner obtain a permit from the housing
109office. Um that is what we do with ADUs. That's what we do with apartments and commercial structures. We're proposing basically the same permitting process here of an annual permit. Um but the new change here is in addition to that section that clarifies that the owner occupied unit is exempt from getting an annual permit. Um they're not subject to the affordability requirements. It's basically a unit that is removed from the affordability programmatic elements. Um so there's no reason to have the property owner uh apply for an annual permit and we clarified that in the code. >> Okay. I I I'm go. Yeah. Yeah. I just uh briefly I'm I'm as you know I'm very supportive of this. You know I wish that we had gotten everything perfect the first time but that's often not reality and
110this is a response these amendments to public comment which mostly were that this isn't very realistic. There's no appeal for anybody to do this. Um I think we have to recognize the reality that that profitability is at odds with affordability just you know if anybody thinks about that sort of by definition. Uh but I think the change to allow um individual to stay there it you know part of the appeal for ADUs um in general is not only for the affordable unit but also to help a person try to be able to stay here by by getting some rent and the same idea here. You know this can be thought of as sort of a larger scale ADU project or a small affordable housing development. Um, but if there's a small house on a property
111with room to have, you know, as Kate said, you know, a structure in the back with with apartments, I would hate to make them, you know, tear down their house to put all the units in one building. And so that's where the um allowing the the units to be in separate buildings. Um, and similarly, I would hate to disincentivize somebody from constructing affordable units because they couldn't then stay in the property that they already lived in. So those are the two significant changes here. I'm supportive of both. I think that that's the benefit of a public process is that this is better legislation than the first time I proposed it. I also just want to point out, which has already been said, that this is not as of right. Um, this would still only be
112able to take place in the affordable housing overlay district. And as Eric said, there's very few properties right now within that district, that overlay district that could take advantage of this. For anybody to do that, they would need to change the zone, which would require a public hearing, and then also receive a special permit from the planning board, which would be another public hearing. So this is offering a conceptual tool um with many more steps for any you know actual development of of such a use. But uh I'm highly supportive and I thank Eric for his work. Britney Edri Ali and Mark Morgan Perez. I think this could be a a great thing for affordable housing. >> Um yeah likewise supportive here. Um Eric I mean how many properties are we talking about that would
113be eligible for this? Well, any property that has the AHO would be eligible. Um, but obviously most of those are already developed. Any that you had that is over three acres um it would make more sense to develop as a full-scale affordable housing development. But um the sort of short answer to your question of AHO um zone properties that are less than three acres, I believe we have uh five and I think well all four of them are developed to the point where they just could not add this use. The fifth um is one that's in Montalk um that has existing improvements on it but could uh does have the yield for um a few units. Um so basically as we sit here today there are no vacant properties that would really be candidates for
114this use. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are are you good? >> Yep. >> Yeah. So uh but I just in further that statement the whole purpose of this is that uh really what determines it is that the minimum uh lot area should be an acre. Right. But the idea that as we sit here right now, of course, there's only there there's nothing vacant, but the whole idea of this law is to be able to have people open to the opportunity to petition the board for an affordable housing overlay. >> That's correct. >> On any property that's an acre. >> Yes. I mean, we would envision our hope would be that this use um if adopted would be utilized mainly in periphery of downtown areas. you know, smaller lots in uh neighborhoods that already have um
115a denser development um pattern. Um and that the town board would pursue um looking at properties in such areas and adding the AHO along with larger sort of standalone properties um because we do need more affordable housing. But um you know this is a use that is intended to be and I think this is where where you're going um for for different properties than you know larger than 3 acres where we would be expecting a full-scale affordable housing development. Um this is meant to be 1 acre um between 1 acre and 3 acres smaller properties and the dimensional requirements are aimed at having the development you know meet all of the zoning requirements if it were a single family residence um and to to blend into the neighborhood and the character the existing character of
116the neighborhood. Yeah, I just uh I I support the legislation, but I wanted to make clear that um although we're saying right now there's really none, the point is that people can come and make application or else doesn't seem like there's any reason why we should do this whatsoever. Um, and that's not really what's in here is is that there'll be two public hearings, but uh, in terms of putting an affordable housing overlay on an April property, there is that ability to make a petition to do that in any in any of our our zones. >> Um, I think that this is a good uh legislation in terms of offering an opportunity, yet it still maintains the important guard rails that I'm always talking about. um particularly that the uh that um it is for
117an acre or above. Uh and as you said, it doesn't make any sense if you own three acres to to do this. Um but also that you have to adhere to all the uh other zoning um dimensional regulations including gross floor area which is an aggregate of all structures on the property. So if you were allowed to build for example 2,000 if you had a gross floor area aggregate on a particular piece of property that you were allowed to build 2,000 square foot residence the cottage the the multi-units would have to would not be able to in aggregate go beyond the 2,000 square foot. >> Um so I think that's very important um in terms of um in terms of uh preserving character of the neighborhood and resources. And the only other comment I'll make
118um as I beat this drum perpetually is and we just saw presentations on the funding that we need to spend to improve our water quality. Improving means that it's in a not in a good place to begin with is also as I said before looking at the other side of the coin and talking about uh instituting sustainable landscaping practices zero nitrogen use and fertilizer on these particular properties. And of course, I'd like to see that across town. But I also want to mention u because folks wrote to me that the sustainability committee and CCOM both made comments at the original public hearing supporting that idea and I don't think that that was mentioned and those folks would like me to uh to bring that back. So uh in general, I'm supportive and I think uh
119it's good time to go to public hearing. Yeah, it's all been said. I think it's ready to go back and it's already been to the planning board. So, this can get noticed. >> Correct. >> And um I'm guessing we can notice this on the 18th, but we could we probably can't hear it till the second meeting in January, right? Because zoning needs a month more or less for public notice, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Or no, Carol, it can go two weeks. only a specific property that needs the month. >> Got it. Okay. So, we can notice it for January 8th. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Beautiful. Thank you, Eric. >> Great. Thank you all. >> All right. So, those are all our topics for today. So, we can move on to liaison reports. Tom, you're
120up first. >> Thank you. I apologize. This might go on a little bit because we uh we didn't do anything last uh week. So, um if it's too long, it's my fault. Um, Amigans Assistance Advisory Committee met last night. We were delighted to have Councilman Lee present uh for a discussion of the proposed playground project um on the northeast uh area of the municipal parking lot, the field property up there. Um it's it's kind of moving forward. I think it's got a strong committee uh and we'll continue to keep the public updated on that as well. Uh we also had Susan Harder from the Dark Sky International uh group. She's New York State chair of that group. uh for a discussion of dark skies generally and also as it relates to the proposed lighting project
121uh for Main Street. Uh she did voice concerns that she would like to see the town hire an independent lighting program to design to review the project um based on the fact that you know there's concern that the existing lighting plan is actually not done by a a lighting professional as much as it's done by the manufacturer of the lighting um fixtures itself. So I will follow up with our engineers with regards to that. Um, you know, also came up which department is is truly responsible for town lighting projects. Um, you know, a little bit of confusion is does that fall under planning? Is that full under natural resources? Um, you know, I don't think we specifically have a home for that at this point. I I Yeah. So, I'll I'll follow back up on
122that one with the different groups to see who >> I believe it's the planning. >> Yeah. Okay. Department. >> So, some of the discussion there was about buildings and grounds on there. The individual that Susan was talking about was Sea Kustafage uh who was in the capital projects manager in the buildings and grounds. And what they did is an energy audit of all of the town's uh light poles before going to LED because we were being overcharged by the amounts of tens of thousands of dollars a years by LIPA. And that's the money back. >> We got nice [laughter] shocker sometimes getting it back from PS&G overall. We we received the money back. That's what she was talking about at that time, the gentleman. Uh, a lot of times with um, and then they maintain
123uh, the lighting districts, the poles and such, >> but they do not overall designate the planning aspect on there. They maintain once the plan goes to the planning department. Yourself being the shepherd as he's said or the quarterback I think is what you mentioned. >> Yeah. Lastly, >> exactly. >> Sorry, I didn't want to. >> You're good. You're good. Um, one other piece that came up as we're discussing lighting generally is, you know, we obviously we passed recent changes to the lighting code, but residents raised concern that, you know, as they're reporting lighting violations to code enforcement, they're being told that it's not enforceable unless it's a neighboring property. Um, that is not my understanding of the code. I'm going to have that discussion with the ordinance department to ensure we get clarification on that.
124>> That doesn't sound right. I I I I think there's some kind of crosswire. So we'll we'll get that communication out clearly. Um we also had discussion around the further lane visa obstructions. Explanation was given as to why the town attorney's office is not directly pursuing uh this issue. Fundamentally that the property card is not law if not in the easement or covenant. Um so it's it's not something we think we'd be successful in court for. Um, with that said, you know, we're going to continue to monitor that and take more of a passive approach and work with the resident as they come forward to get that addressed. Um, there was a question in that regard as to whe the town had requested a title search on the property and I will follow up with
125the town attorney's office on that. I also gave the uh group a an update on the Countwell Court project. Um, the clearing's taking place there. Um, you know, we're looking at the New York State crossmod program and we just have a question right now regarding um, uh, whether the clearing could have any impact on that crossmod eligibility. Um, the residents also had a question. There's been a temporary uh, 25 mph speed limit placed in the 20 mph school zone um, there and so it's causing some confusion. I am reaching out to PD just to kind of uh I think most effectively get that moved away from the 20 mph zone because that confusion is not there. And then lastly, we just had a discussion around committee membership. Um you know, for those members uh currently
126who have not been to more than three meetings, I have directly emailed asking, you know, do they wish to continue to be on. I have heard back from some, but if I have not heard back from committee members on that matter, I will not be reappointing them for the 2026 year. Uh for IT, IT operations remain stable. Um which I'm incredibly grateful for, especially after what we saw recently in South. Um the group's been continually resolving daily support user needs, onboarding, uh new staff. Um they've got a 97% help desk resolution rate. Um system devices have been patched and updated. We've been putting out new hardware across the town. Uh and our uptime of our town network is at 99.9% which is an exceptional number. and we have increased firewall security going with that. Uh
127we've recently undertaken some cyber security checks um you know and we continue to see daily blocking of suspicious login um and we're doing a lot more of education with the staff um awareness on that as well. Uh we've done recent tests of our backups um and they've been verified um cloud storage interestingly right now is about 60% usage uh and we recently conducted a successful recovery test as well which is good to hear. Um our server is healthy and stable. We have two capacity alerts. Email and collaboration tools are operating normally. Um and documentation upgrade planning is being continued. Database administration uh is being supported across the different town groups along with file requests uh and assessment tax roes. Uh and our GIS system uh we continue to create numerous I think 30 maps in
128the last week or so. Um and we're working on that new uh GIS program which we'll be introducing to the town board early in the new year. Um we've had some minor issues with regard to disk space based login attempts and video conferencing but those have been resolved quickly and just going into the new year our forward planning includes our infrastructure upgrades cyber security training monitoring automate automation uh GIS migration and staff development initiatives human services um the fall prevention program which takes place typically on Mondays at 1 p.m. uh and functional fitness uh Wednesdays at 11 p.m. Classes have been cancelled for this month. Upper body strain uh strength training is taking place on Friday at 1:30 p.m. Sorry, is not taking place on Friday. That has also been cancelled for this week. The
129East Hampton Garden Club will be visiting the center on Monday, December 16th for their annual holiday centerpiece workshop. This is open to members of the senior nutrition program. Please call Michelle at 631-324-6711 to reserve your spot. Students from Spring School will be visiting the center to uh visit members with their annual holiday caroling concert on Tuesday, December the 16th. I look forward to attending that. Uh the unduplicated congregate meal client count uh for the week of uh December 1st through December 5th is at 92 and the unduplicated count for the grab and go for that same week is at 79. Um lastly, you know, obviously as with all departments, we're looking at capital requests for improvements to that building and so we're reviewing those requests as they've come in. Um fire marshall's office is related
130today. Uh for anyone visiting the Bucks Preserve, you'll see uh we've got some clearing work going on there addressing the vegetation obstructions for emergency services that will be taking place over the next week. Um so please be careful if you are looking to go into that area as it is a commercial working zone at this point. Um sanitation um you one thing to call out here that we have had complaints from residents um of people going to these centers taking away discarded items from the recycling center. Um, you know, informally this has been somewhat allowed with the understanding that people will follow basic social norms pertaining to parking and interaction with other users and safety, especially if children are in the vicinity. Um, you know, those complaints we're hearing coming in are children running around
131unattended. Um, so it's a commercial location and to function requires all users to to, you know, be sensible with how they operate there and and socially acceptable with how they interact with other people there. So with those recent reports of people parking disabled spots long-term, overly direct engagement with users for discarded goods, you know, we we don't want to have to discontinue um that ability of people to do that. So please, you know, do voluntary comply with that. Um lastly, I've was reached out to by a resident as well as our local assemblymen uh regarding the issue of town residents who don't have a permanent registration on their car. I it might be a lease or something else and they're unable to use the the center as a result. Um so there's questions as to
132is that something we could look to change in the new year? Um is there any kind of legislation that exists elsewhere to allow users in that case to do that? So I am exploring that if that is a possibility. Um last not quite lastly sorry uh special events and film uh just to mention that on uh December 16th in our work session we will have our year-end review and we'll be recommending our 2026 code changes in that meeting as well. Um antib task force uh we had a meeting with the chief of police uh revisiting the police reform reinvention plan following the 2021 town report. Chief Solo provided an overview of the final recommendations and actions taken by the department and uh to to address those issues. The committee discussed the implementation of the recommendations
133and identified outstanding issues that may need to be addressed. Uh the meeting was attended by several key members including Ola um and Router 27. Uh some follow-up items that came from that meeting was you know the recommendation that uh key um communications especially relates to public safety should be translated into Spanish. That's something that's in the original recommendation and the committee would like to see. Um uh chief also mentioned that discussions will take place with the um supervisor regarding a possible committee for January to continue police reform oversight. Uh we also have discussion with review and complaint oversight procedure with the town attorneys. Um then uh lastly we have scheduled January and February training sessions with police on adolescent mental health and evolving programs. Um and the final request was for me to in my
134next um fire commissioners meeting to discuss with um the fire commissioners, you know, any potential interactions they might have with immigration uh groups uh that's taking place elsewhere on the island and they wanted to get clarification as to how commissioners would be responding to that. the Arts Council Committee. Um, it's a while back, but on November 21st, we had a fantastic community networking event at Town Hall. Um, we had four local artists. Joanne Roberts, a filmmaker, um, producer of the, uh, uh, recent documentary Bonacas, sorry, Bonukas, I apologize. Um, she talked about the process of film making and film production. Uh, we also had Maria Kolani, who's a local artist, the the daughter of Dr. Dempsey. um and she talked about her creative process uh specifically in painting and her work did a working live
135demonstration. We had Meg Gibson, an actor, director and producer who talked about the process of acting and theater um and did a character reading. And then lastly, we had Carlos Barios and his band who's a local um artisan guitar maker, musician um who his group uh did a wonderful performance and did a clip of the process of making guitars. Uh it was a really outstanding event and to see how incredible the local art scene is out here was it was invigorating truthfully. It was also wonderful use of town hall. We rearranged the entire room um sideways and it was uh one one of the best events I've been to out here. It was greatly enjoyed. So thank you to the committee for helping coordinate that. um the wildlife management advisory committee. Um just uh I've
136been outreached by some local organizations just to raise awareness uh with the distemper outbreak in the local raccoon population. Um just to advise people that um canine distemper is not contagious to humans or cats, but dogs can catch it if not properly vaccinated. Uh in adult raccoons, it's almost always fental fatal. Signs of a distemper in raccoons. If you see a raccoon displaying any of these symptoms, do not approach it. Um, you know, if they're active during the daytime, if they're weepy or mucus filled eyes and nose, if they're stumbling, walking in circles, or moving very slowly or acting disorientated, or if they lose their fear of humans. Um, how to help stop the spread. Do not leave unattended water balls outside shops, restaurants, or other public spaces. Uh, feed your pets indoors. If feeding
137outdoors, remove bowls immediately after eating. Uh, wash outdoor pet bowls with 10% bleach solution. Rinse thoroughly. Um, bring dog bedding, catous, and other pet items inside from outdoors. Keep compost bins sealed in and inaccessible to raccoons. If you see a sick or stra strange acting raccoon, uh, keep your pets and children away. Do not attempt to help or move the animal. call your local animal control um or the Elyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center. Their number is 631728 wild, which is 9453. Uh and just with regards to rabies um because this did come up, there have been no recent rabies um uh cases and raccoons in eastern Suffach County. Um however, if anyone has been by raccoon, uh call Suffach County Health Department 631-852-5500 and go to the nearest emergency room for rabies treatment. And the
138reason for mentioning this is although we don't have it in eastern Suffach County, there are 17 cases of rabies being reported in western Suffach County. So there is a potential for it to spread out here. >> What about drunk raccoons? >> Drunk raccoons. I saw that. It was amazing. Did anyone else see that? Was wonderful story. >> There you go. Living his best life, right? >> Another issue. >> Yeah. >> Um business advisory committee just report that, you know, fall business uh for November was generally very quiet. Uh however, the Thanksgiving weekend saw a great turnout. Um, you know, something uh my colleague David Elise and I discussed um during the turkey trot out here is, you know, just a way to continue to promote the East End as a destination for people to spend
139Thanksgiving out. We have numerous hotels with fantastic rates at this time of year. So, the ability for families to come out and have a fantastic weekend in this incredible environment at a very reasonable cost is there. So, something that I think I'm going to try and work with the chambers on next year to kind of continue to promote um as we move forward. Um just also an update that the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce is having their holiday mixer on Thursday, December the 11th at 4:30 p.m. Um that is everything I'm going to do for now. All right, guys. Thank you. >> The turkey, sorry, I apologize. Uh I want to thank everyone and particularly the recreation department and everyone that showed up for the East Hampton uh sponsor Turkey Trot and M talk
140on Thanksgiving Day. There was a record number of participants at 1300. Tom, you got your personal best Ian? >> Yep. Got your personal twice. [laughter] >> Thank you very much. Uh and once again, why the turkey trot is so special is that uh the proceeds are split between the food pantries within the town of East Hampton. It was a lovely day out there and mom talk also then too. The supervisor was there to uh to uh greet and um blow the whistle if you wanted to say start the race >> with a megaphone. >> Start the race >> won't be my last. >> Uh I also thought it was great in which 1300 people came and pretty much it started almost on time but also the modernization of the recreation department that everyone has to
141sign up in advance and too. So that's proving uh proving it's working really well. Uh I want to give everyone a uh update on the ditch dune project. Uh that dune project is moving forward and probably be completed within the next two days. Uh they're finalizing uh sand placements today and tomorrow. Uh we will have some extra hundreds of yards of of sand left over from the project that we've paid for. So the request and what I'm recommending is that we're going to put three placements of sand piles of approximately 3 to 400 cubic yards in each one of the ditch parking areas. Why? First of all, the taxpayers have uh paid for it. It's theirs within the contract, but we will use it to either plug the gaps and in a case of storms
142or in the springtime use it to infill if we need to if the beach or that or the current dune systems being put in put there will be interacting with the water. So uh that will be also happening and then removed within time frame by the summer season. I've also contacted um some of the the vendors let them know about the situation but that's what's happening in that area. Next steps there in the coming weeks it will be uh fencing and sand plug placement. So that is upcoming. And then two uh Kate thank you for your your leadership on that and the getting almost complete. Uh I want to let everyone know uh there was two demolitions projects on CPF pro uh on municipal properties. One of them was happening on Abraham's path that is
143almost complete. The other one again is upcoming at 20 fireplace road uh where the new farmers wanted and where the where the new farmers are going in through an RFA which was uh approved a couple weeks ago. That'll be happening in the upcoming weeks. Uh as far as the Montalk Harbor dredging uh project, the dredge restarted up through mechanical issues. uh they are still moving forward and still on track to be complete by uh middle January. If there's any changes to that as far as far as that dredging window, the Army Corps of Engineers will work together with the state DEEC through permitting processes as we get closer to that time frame again. Then two. Um, moving that back over to the Army Corps of Engineers, we just did receive information that uh part of
144the FEMI, which is the FIN project, Fent Fire Island Monttok project, FEMI Fire Island Merchants Inlet, which uh provide 450,000 cubic yards of sand in downtown Montalk. Two years ago, uh we were finally they were the the RFP was finally awarded for the removal of the upland um crossovers, the wood crossovers that we've discussed. I don't have any time frame on that, but there will will be updated by the DEEC when there will be a kickoff uh to that construction construction schedule. I'll give you more information on there. I don't think it's going to take too long, but overall um we've been pressing on that. Um the fisheries advisory committee met last week on there. Uh the FAC met. We discussed about the Suffach County's working waterfront legislation in which the town of East Hampton
145has supported on there. And thank you to legislator and welker at the county. Again, this is uh uh um this is, you know, um this is a wonderful form of legislation in which it defines what a working waterfront is in in Suffach County and also puts aside funding, capital funding for protection of working waterfronts. Hence, uh, if it was pack of houses, um, marinas, slip spaces, uh, ice houses also, uh, part of that is that the Suffach County requested two names from the town of East Hampton. Uh, that would be on that committee. We have submitted those, but also what it's done is reinvigorate the FAC to look at our working waterfront analysis for properties within the town of East Hampton. something that's been uh slowly being worked on, but we're going to work on
146that in the first quarter of 2026. Um, other discussions went on to the uh Montalk bottomlands on there, which we're moving forward on then too still uh with leases and some of the bottomlands that have been out there for for decades. Uh the last discussion point that was there was about uh legislation that is up in Albany about horseshoe crabs. The FAC does not support that legislation but would like to see more scientific uh uh means and baselines out there about the horseshoe populations moving forward. Also last week the M talk CAC met uh there was a nice discussion there about ebikes uh and moving forward about uh moving forward uh about a potential task force for ebikes. Um that would be individuals that might be from the police department and other agencies was the
147school district and such. Uh there was also conversation during this meeting and that that um what happened is that the the police have actually been here and discussed to the M talk CAC in the past about ebikes and they'll continue to do so and bring back in in in the future. Uh but again is showing there's a con conflict with ebikes moving ahead and we can discuss uh hopefully in advance of the 2026 summer season. Also with the M talk CAC let everyone know there will be no January meeting uh this month uh this next month on there. So the next meeting will be in February on there. Um let me see here uh I wanted to throw out a happy birthday to Tim Garno. [laughter] >> All right, moving on. Uh, I also want
148to thank uh I want to thank T town staff for all the holiday displays also within the town of East Hampton work with the Montalk CC sorry talk chamber of commerce out here town staff uh for putting up all town uh town displays. Thank you so very much for getting that done. Also, uh lastly on November 27th of this calendar year, Robert AM Stern passed away. Robert AM Sturm is a a longtime East Hampton resident and architect and architect of the Eastampton architect of the East Hampton Town Hall complex. I would love to know what he was thinking that same week. That's all I have. >> Thank you, David. Kate, that last one's tough to follow. David. Um so, uh yes, um the litter action committee met actually what we had as a meeting to
149um to acknowledge the accomplishments and the tremendous amount of volunteerism from Tina Placet who will be uh moving um from East Hampton to be closer to uh grown children uh in the future. uh she has been in tremendous value to our community for all the committees that she's been on including the spring CAC and certainly the formation and the continuing work of the litter action committee. Um Tina has an incredible history with her husband Max of service to people in need um spending many years on First People's uh reservation uh giving medical care etc to folks and uh Tina will be missed but we wish her every wonderful thing in the future. [snorts] Um I wanted to uh the Wayne Scott CAC a meeting that was supposed to be held last Saturday is postponed uh
150potentially to next Saturday. However, this morning I did meet with the members of the Wayne Scott CAC airport subcommittee. It was a very good meeting. Um I met with Hersy Egggington and Mark Fron and Carolyn Logan Gluck. Um they had some um recommendations. They're going to be um meeting with making meetings with individual town board members uh to discuss two things. One is a two immediate things. One is an updated and modernized data collection resource for the residents of the town in terms of um one of these types of dashboards uh that we see that can create data instantaneously uh for uh residents to understand the operations at the airport better and for our uh enlightenment as well. And the other one is a discussion. They'd like to see us have a discussion of restarting
151the SRA process on the airport. Uh those were the two u um um recommendations from that group uh that I received this morning. And as I said, they will be reaching out to everyone on the town board. Um, one more thing uh that I'm going to talk about today is that uh we're at the end of December and the town has an organizational meeting in the beginning of January and I want to put it an outreach out to folks to reach out to us about our numerous town committees that you can join as a citizen. Um, no requirements other than you do live here. Um there's so many different types of committees that you can uh engage in to become engaged um in town affairs and I'd like folks to really consider um reaching out
152to us. Um know we're going to put out more information on what types of committees and even the regulatory boards that we have in town. Um participation is vital. Um and we'd love to hear from you if you're interested on serving on any of these committees. And I'll leave it at that. >> Thanks Kate. Ian. >> Uh yes, the property management committee meeting which is on the calendar for uh tomorrow is canled. And and just to say something about that that that committee was never intended to meet monthly. It's as needed. I did post the calendar on the town website based on public um interest, but everybody should should should check in, you know, the day or two before those meetings just to see um if it's happening. It's on an asneed basis based on
153the um respect for the time of the committee members involved. Several of their recommendations are currently moving forward. I think the most notable one is the Osborne um management plan and that'll come back before the board soon. There were some public comments at the first the first time that was aired and uh there'll be some revisions. Egg advisory, which was originally scheduled for this Thursday, uh is also cancelled. That meets more regularly than the property management committee, but uh still is sporadic. So again, I I encourage the public to always check the website and it'll be updated by the um the week of those meetings. Uh there's holiday concerts and other conflicts where many members weren't going to be able to attend and also uh their site plan recommendations that we spoke about at the
154last meeting. We didn't have time to have a full board discussion because of uh a very busy agenda. We'll revisit that next week and it makes sense for them to wait uh to address our comments after we make them. Spring CAC uh last month met and uh there was a unanimous recommendation to this board that we revisit the springs park management plan. um just to talk about and I I I support that. I think the details I hope to bring that back before a work session and we'll talk about the specific details there. Um on a related note, I've been working with the land management department and natural resources on a a potential revitation or restoration plan uh for the area where we removed invasive species. That was a project that took place in the
155in the springtime. I always said it was a test case and we'd see what the next step. I do think it's appropriate to do some some restoration reveation and again I've been working with town staff on that. I mentioned that it's a separate thing from the spring CAC recommendation but since they're recommending a look at a management plan it's an appropriate time to discuss um the possibility of of that restoration. Uh spring CAC will meet next Tuesday at 6:30 at Ashwag Hall. I don't know the agenda yet, but I'll inform the the the public next Tuesday at our work at our work session. Uh community housing advisory board meets next Wednesday at 5:00 pm at the planning department at 300 Panagle Place. Uh open to the public uh again that agenda is not is not
156posted yet, but everybody is welcome. And then I just want to reiterate what Kate said. Uh I was going to say the same thing that committees and boards, anybody interested, uh I think recently we've had, you know, was a full audience today. We've had a lot of public comment and I think that only makes government better. It makes the process better. It's incredibly important. Um, you know, comments matter, participation matters. And so I I really encourage people to to reach out, who care about the town, who have thoughts about, you know, what we could be doing better. Uh, and participate and that goes to people who don't think of themselves as somebody who would participate in government or or or wouldn't be appointed to something. I think young people um different people from different backgrounds
157would be very very welcome uh to participate in the process. So wholeheartedly agree with Kate on that and I know the rest of the board does as well. >> Great. Thank you. Um so we held a public hearing on Thursday, November 20th. It was for stop signs in the Hans Creek Farm neighborhood. So I'm passing out just it was the memo that we had for the work session with the map. Um, we had the president of Hans Creek Farm at the public hearing. Um, they were supportive of the stop signs on Cordy Circle as it intersects Cordy Court. He did ask to see if his concern was that when folks were heading uh on Cordy Court and they got to Timberline Road, they're cutting that um that turn that left turn onto Timberline which takes
158you out to Hans Creek. And I think and what we have talked internally about, we keep the stop sign the way we noticed it. When you put a stop sign in, we put the white line. I think once that white line is on the asphalt, folks making that left turn will see where the middle of the road is and that should help address, but uh you know, speaking to the chief, speaking to Steve, uh Lynch, it really doesn't make sense to put the stop sign. Um it's not the best planning engineering putting it where it was requested. I think having it where it's where it was where we heard it where it is at the Timberline intersection of Cody Court. I think that that's going to you know obviously you're stopping there anyway. Intuitively you
159would never just pull out because there's could be cars coming um from the north. So, but I guess long story short, I'm looking to put this on for adoption for these three stop signs at the December 18th um town board meeting. Uh Kate mentioned the organization meeting. I just want to let folks know the key dates in 2026, at least for January. The organizational meeting is Tuesday, January 6th at 11:00 a.m. And then we start our regular schedule that Thursday, January 8th at 6 p.m. will be our evening meeting. And then our first work session will be Tuesday, January 13th here in Montalk. And both Kate and Ian spoke about asking folks in the community to consider serving on town advisory boards and uh appointed boards. We have a website or an email address set
160up. It's serve to oe at eampny.gov. It's going up on social media today and um so we're inviting the public when that email comes in. It goes to all five board members. folks will express interest. If you're interested in an appointed board, we'll come back and and ask you to submit some kind of statement or, you know, resume because that's um a much more detailed um assignment than being on an advisory board such as a CAC or any of our other committees that uh we are liaison to. So that's what I've got for my liazison report. Uh David, I think you have the first resolution. My pleasure to offer resolution 2025-1626. This accepted proposal for construction services for the Westlake stormwater uh abatement installation. Uh this is from a proposal dated from LK MLAN assoc
161Associates from December 29th, 2025. Uh for uh construction inspection services for $27,000 and construction admin services in the amount of $5,000 for a total total of $32,000. Second. All in favor? I >> I have resolution 1627, which is the approval of special events for December 2025 and January 2026. Talking about it now, filming. Uh resolve that the following special event permits are hereby approved. Uh one, the first one is Amber Wave Farms Deck the Farm Community Fundraiser and Holiday Gathering at uh 367 Main Street Amaganit. It's Friday 12:12, 4 to 7. Um and uh setup will be on Thursday. There is a rain day um which would be Saturday 12:13. Um Inlet Seafood uh is hosting their holiday boat parade viewing party at 5:41 East Lake Drive. uh Saturday 12:13 fi 5 5 pm to
16210 pm. And lastly, the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry will be hosting the Wayne Scott Polar Bear Plunge, the annual fundraiser at uh Beach Lane Beach and Wayne Scott, Thursday, January 1st from 2 to 3:00 p.m. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Resolution 20251628 is a budget modification for the airport for expenses related to fuel sales. Uh we're increasing the sale of aviation fuel in the amount of $138,000 and increasing the SPE the expenditure line in the same amount. >> Second. All in favor. >> 1629 is a budget modification for the purchasing department for the purchase of office equipment. We're decreasing the MTA tax in the amount of $416 and increasing office equipment in the same amount. >> Second. All in favor. 1630 is a budget modification for the town attorney's office for
163the A fund for the payment of prior year West Law invoices. We're decreasing longevity in the amount of $1,827 and increasing online law services in the same amount. >> Second. >> All in favor? So, those are all of our resolutions for today. Do I have a motion to go into exec session? >> Yes, I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for CPF, leases, real estate, and advice of council. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you everyone for joining us today. >> Thank you, Zach. >> Thank you.