East Hampton Town Board Work Session Montauk - 08/12/25

001to East Hampton Town Board. We are live. Thank you, LTV. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the East Hampton Town Board work session of Tuesday, August 12th, 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 Burke Gonzalez >> present. If we could all 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 we have a packed house here in Montalk Library for our town board work session because we are going to be celebrating some of our junior lifeguards and the

002junior lifeguard program. So first I want to call up uh Chief Ryan if you could come up Johnny and just talk a little bit about the the summer of junior lifeguards and oh I got big John too. >> Yeah sure tell me to come. I don't >> All right. >> I don't like to talk. He's the figurehead. >> He's he's the shy one in the group. >> Yeah. So, uh phenomenal year with juniors this year. Our program in uh in Amigans was at pretty much maximum uh of 20 230 or so. Certainly greater larger than it was last year. Um, and I gotta say I can't say thank you as much as I I should say thank you just as much to the instructors that work with these young individuals that come on to the

003come into the junior program with a little bit of concern but uh willing to give it a try and build that and build their confidence and uh and it's uh because of those instructors working with them that they come in they're ready to do it and uh so our program in in AGansit has and uh or has increased the program in Montalk has uh has decreased a little bit. Uh but we're we're working on measures to improve that. Um one of which would be if if mother nature continues to um favor our Montto community and build the beaches in a beach in uh at Ditch Plains, we can move it back to hopefully to ditch Plains where uh that's that's the family beach. Um so I think that's one of the reasons why our program

004is suffering in in in uh in attendance or numbers. Um but uh without with um alongside of that I want to say that our season has been an amazing season. We've had different types of conditions that our juniors have been able to work uh to improve their skills. Um and uh we've we've made some changes as well to uh what we want to do in the future. Um and TJ will talk about that in uh in in a moment. But uh we have a number of individuals in going to the United States life- saving associations um conferences each year. we re the there is an award that is given out to uh juniors that apply for recognition. Um and and it just as we sat there CJ and I sit there and listen to this

005and it's we just say you know this is something we should be doing. we should be doing for our program. Looking at the individuals in the program and not just picking out the elites, the ones that are finished first and second and third and are top of their age groups, but rather looking for individuals that have qualities that we want to see pushed through to other groups and other individuals. And that may be as simple as volunteering to work with somebody that's struggling with maybe having a little confidence getting out through the break. And these young individuals, we all know that you can say it from an adult, but when you have somebody, one of your peers telling you you can do it, it just it strikes a nerve and pushes them to be able

006to to a little do a little bit more. Um, so we are going to recognize individuals in each of our age groups, uh, ages 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. And uh and we will be submitting these names as well to USLA in hopes that they recognize these individuals as as shining stars of our community and the Hampton Lifeguard Association. >> Um do you want to do that now before I talk about nationals? And >> you want to let's do that first? >> I think so. >> Oh boy. >> You hate the list, Johnny. >> You know, I know between you. >> Yeah. True. >> Okay. >> All right. So, the first one we want to call up is Aiden Khan. >> Okay. So, I'm Can I just read so that there's a

007record of >> Aiden may not be here. I know there's one other junior that couldn't make it. They're off in Canada. I don't know why Aiden's not here. So, the Town of East Hampton Certificate of Distinction is awarded to Aiden Khan in recognition of your leadership and selflessness during the 2025 junior lifeguard program. You stepped up for your team without hesitation and showed what it means to lead by example. Thank you for going above and beyond and making our community proud. Outstanding junior lifeguard 2025, 9 years old. Hey, Lexi. Lexi App Simon. >> So, this is in recognition of your kindness, resilience, and teamwork during the 2025 Junior Lifeguard Program. You encouraged a teammate through a tough moment and stepped in whenever needed. Thank you for going above and beyond and making our community proud.

008And this is the outstanding junior lifeguard 2025 10 years old. >> Take a picture with everybody. >> Okay, good. >> Okay. Isabella Moro. >> Welcome. So, the the town of East Tampa did >> the town of East Tampon is uh awarding you this certificate of distinction in recognition of your positive attitude and dedication as a firstear junior lifeguard. You gave your all at every practice and inspired those around you. Thank you for making our community proud. This is the outstanding junior lifeguard 2025 11 years old. The next certificate of distinction is awarded to Evelyn Sanders. >> Oh, I love big. >> So, this is in recognition of your hard work, determination, and readiness to step in when needed. Your friendly nature and team spirit have been an asset to the Junior Lifeguard Program. Thank you

009for making our community proud. This is the outstanding junior lifeguard 2025 12 years old. >> Hey, the next this certificate of distinction is awarded to Isla Maza. >> Isa sorry you can stand Isa this is in recognition of your initiative courage and outstanding example to others. Your coachability and leadership have made you a role model in the junior lifeguard program. Thank you for making our community proud. Outstanding junior lifeguard 2025, 13 years old. Wesley Bull B >> Bull is Wesley is she is often ted with a with her dad and she regrets being not being here but she's thrilled to receive the award. >> Well, I'm going to read it so that we have it. So, this is in recognition of your attentiveness, skill, and consistent excellence in swimming and running. Your focus and performance

010set a high standard for the Junior Lifeguard program. Thank you for making our community proud. Outstanding junior lifeguard 2025, 14 years old. And this certificate of distinction is awarded to Ariel Rogerio. Welcome Ariel. This is in recognition of your leadership, discipline, and respect for others. You encouraged your peers to excel, stayed on task, and set a positive example in the junior lifeguard program. Thank you for making our community proud. This is the outstanding junior lifeguard 2025 for 15 years old. >> So, this is exciting and this is the first time we've ever given out these awards, correct? >> Yes, correct. and this is something that we want to do moving forward and uh we're all really proud of you and thank you for uh your excellence and your teamwork and your compassion for each other.

011So, what we'd like to do is have >> uh why don't we do we want to stand in front of the deis and have board members come down and have >> uh the captains and the Ryans and let's just take a photo. No, that was Oh, he's going to be doing the presentation. >> So, we're going to take some photos and then if anyone would like to when we get done with the photos would like to get up to the to the microphone and talk about your experience of what it's like to be a junior life [Music] >> too. Guys, if you could take a step forward so some of us can stand behind you. >> One more step. Beautiful. Okay, >> let's hear it for the junior lifeguards. >> Can I say something quick?

012Thank you parents for giving us these kids. >> Yes. >> And also what is unique about our junior life program, these kids must qualify at the Y pool and they must come and prove they're good swimmers. And as they're not good swimmers, we bring them back again and again and again. And those lessons are free because the town has decided that. Okay. So, we really appreciate these great kids because we have great parents and we have great support from this town and the village too. Good. Thank you. >> Talk about their experience as a junior lifeguard. Don't have to say a word or you >> come on. >> No. Come on. >> Beautiful. Lexi, let's go up to the microphone and why don't you say a couple of words. We're going to put this down.

013We got to try down there. I'll do it. >> I am honored. I am honored to receive this award and I know I could have never done it without the help of my amazing lifeguards. >> That's great. >> The lifeguard program is a highlight of my year and thank you. >> How do you follow that? Um um we also have uh want to can we do that now or do you want to do that later? >> Well, so we've got to go to public portion and then we'll go to public. Do you want to did you want to speak on the >> No, I was just waiting. Okay. All right. So, we're going to go to public portion and then we'll go to topics and then we can talk more about >> block the blaze

014and beach guardians. All right. So, the first signed up is BJ Wilson. >> Welcome BJ. >> Thank you. Good morning. >> Good morning. Nice to see you down in Montalk. >> Uh, wonderful program. I was just telling John Ryan that my son has done it. Now my grandchildren and this town should be so proud. We are all proud of what you guys do and the way you handle the children. It's fantastic. There's another side of Malk that we're concerned about. The side of Malk the quality of life issues seem not to be addressed. I talked to a lot of locals. I don't get involved in a lot of things but talk to a lot of locals. I am a local. M public school, East Hampton High School. I've been here a long time. Last time

015we had issues was the surf lodge and it was well addressed. I think a lot of people were surprised. Hundreds of people showed up at the fire department to show that MTOK was not happy. We didn't think you were hearing us. We're at that position again. >> People are not happy and they want to get their torches and pitchforks out and wait a minute. Maybe they don't know we're not happy. Maybe they're addressing these things cuz they don't realize them. The bands in the bars, you think they're playing concerts. You give them right to play music, not a concert. There's 25 or 30 people and you can hear the music three, four blocks away. Bagotel. Bagotel is a different game. They're ruining this town. They're bringing another level of nonsense. 2:30 in the morning on

016Sunday night. I live half a mile away on a boat. Sound asleep. Sit up in bed. What is that? And you talk to people. You talk to the police. You talk to town. They're creating chaos. Didn't the town Don't we have laws against this? The town took Shagwan to court. Was it two years ago? saying you're changing from a restaurant to a nightclub. They've done that since the 60s. Anybody who lives here knows that. Baggotell was always goss. It was never a nightclub. We have laws against this. Why is this allowed to happen the music is so 3:00 in the afternoon? One cop told me they're going to call some Jin Beach. This has to be shut down. But we need enforcement out here. We need code enforcement to come to the bars. We need

017some things done. We need your help before things get out of control because locals have had enough. So, please help us. Send some people down here. We've got a couple weeks left in the summer. We'd like to see some enforcement, please. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you, PJ. Would anyone else like to address the board? >> Jason, is there anyone on the line? >> Yes, we have two callers on the line. I'll unmute these callers and get them up and running. Okay, so let's do this. Hello caller ending 3244. You're on the air. >> Oh yes. Hi Martin Drew Springs. Yeah. I would just like to echo the sentiment of your previous speaker in Springs where we're having the same kind of quality of life issues uh surrounding the Rita Cantina restaurant. Uh it

018seems that they're operating without the sufficient permit. We brought it to our town officials attention and continuing on they are. So, uh, we too are wondering, uh, what it is with the, uh, lack of enforcement when, uh, we do have laws and town codes and state vehicle and traffic laws about parking issues and the, uh, sensitivities about the entrance to our park at Maidstone Park where, uh, it's become quite dangerous as a pedestrian or a cyclist to try to make your way through that area to enter and enjoy the uh, the park. So, uh, yeah, just wondering, uh, when are you guys going to, uh, take control down there and actually start abiding by the laws that we, uh, expect to be followed in our town codes? So, uh, to be specific, uh, the town

019code requires 36 off streetet parking spaces for Rita Cantina, which they're never going to achieve unless you guys take the number 25 uh, vacant land across the street that's owned by the same company and owners. Not unlike what they just did uh, recently when they merged their number 10 Maidstone Park Road into their commercial footprint. And everyone wants to act like every activity down there with pre-existing non-conforming, which it is not. So, uh, you want to open your eyes to the facts. There's a deed that tells us how to run the entryway to our park, which is called a carriageway in the PE, and it says it's supposed to be free of any obstruction, so people can pass by foot or vehicle to enjoy the park. So, uh, you got a lot of problems down

020there with this new expansion agenda, and it needs to be, uh, dealt with. And uh also uh you know all our other beaches in town that have permits uh requiring entry have booths at them. So we want to ask why we don't get the pleasure of a booth so we can maintain control down there. We're wondering why people don't follow the vehicle New York state vehicle and traffic laws where it tells us to park parallel on a two-way paved road now that thankfully Steve Lynch has taken the opportunity to line the street correctly. So, uh, we don't have any more excuses about town while you can't get enforcement. And here we are. The excuses continue. So, uh, just want to make you folks aware of it that, uh, we're having quality of life issues. Our

021neighborhood characters being changed. They're parking all over the wetlands. They're parking all over the nature preserve, which is directly across the street that you spent $700,000 on to tear down a four apartment building unit. And, uh, with no remorse or regret. So, I'd like to challenge you to this. If you do not get 25 a parking lot where these owners can get their cars off the street if they want a restaurant and get back our safety and our quality of life issues in Maidstone Park, then you need to tear it down and buy it with the community preservation funds because this nuisance property is not going to dictate our future. So, we're about to fight you in court. So, either get your act together or we're about to sue you all. And I mean that.

022So that's my comments for today. I've spent three years of my life personally on this and we need you to start following the rules and enforcing the law. You guys are accountable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Martin. Jason, if you could put the other next caller through. >> All right. Hello, caller. Ending 4221. You're on the air. >> Thank you. Good morning, town board. This is Jane Miring and Amigans speaking only as an individual resident of East Hampton and also one who is engaged in getting a community housing trust affordable housing trust off the ground in the town. And also before I speak on that on uh I want to thank you for honoring the junior lifeguards today, the little league team last week. Uh they are core as you know to the fabric and

023character of the community. Okay. So, I'm commenting commenting today in advance of your second work session regarding the proposed new affordable multiple residence use code and I look forward to your ongoing discussion and board member exchange of ideas that we will hear again later today. Um, first I obviously want to say I'm generally supportive of the concept of this new use. However, I do see several important policy details still to be worked through and there are a number of guard rails and elements that I think need need to be codified to ensure that this AMR use will actually enhance and perpetuate the type of economically attainable stable housing needed to sustain our year-round full-time community. I watched the planning board session in the last week of Jul July ra this proposed code um and I

024appreciated their discussion um and the distillation of their comments conveyed in the presentation for the board today. In particular, I agree with and see two of their comments as especially important um quote the planning board expressed concern that this use would end up only housing seasonal workers and quote their primary concern that the use would not end up providing long-term housing for the year-round community. um but instead would only be financially feasible for well-unded businesses looking to house seasonal workers. Um you know, as I've studied it and as I see it, affordable housing in its truest sense should comport with four principles or characteristics. One, affordability, two eligibility, three stability, and four, perpetuity. At this point, this draft of the AMR code still does not appear to demonstrate the assurance uh securely of all four

025of those principles. Um, in particular, um, the code sets an income eligibility maximum of 130% of AMI. Yes, that's technically the upper limit of affordable housing, but I would suggest that the code created by the town board should also focus on facilitating creation of uh, stable quality housing for the community across a broader income spectrum ranging 30%, 60%, 80%, 100% up to 130. I don't yet see that element in the draft. With respect to stability, I do understand there's a need for seasonal workforce housing. It's critical, but that this is a special cate that's a special category. Um, and it's not necessarily core to the town's affordable housing imperative. So, first I'd like to recommend the definition of resident should read quote an individual that lives or works full-time within the boundaries um of the

026town and to say that no one should lose their housing because they are terminated or voluntarily want to take another job. I hear the bell. Occupancy of a unit should not be dependent on working for a particular employment or business. And finally, with respect to perpetuity, um I would like to see more in the code and the discussion about how the long-term sustainability of multiple residences can be affordable, can be sustained, what happens to the structures and development on the property when and if the AMR use is abandoned. So, I'll leave it at that for now. Look forward as always to your discussions and obviously at some point we'll get to public hearing. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Jane. Jason, is there anyone else on the line? >> We have no other callers

027on the line. >> Okay, so we're going to move into our topics and Chief Ryan, do you want to come back up and talk to us about I know we had nationals that just took place and then if you want to introduce block the blaze. >> Yeah, we can uh bring up our blocked uh our cadetses from our great junior program. Um and yeah, so long um it was uh it was pretty amazing this year's nationals. Um and it was by far one for the record books when it comes to the competition at nationals. Um the conditions uh we had 4 to six foot surf breaking 200 yds out which means the distance the juniors and A's B's and C's C's being the youngest 9 through 11 B's being 10 through 10 and 11 year

028uh sorry 9 through 9 through 11 B's being the 12 and 13 year olds and then 14 and 15s were the A group and then yous their the distances they were swimming were over 200 yards out to a flag line. The only reason the flag line was so far out is because that's what far the waves were breaking. These walls of water coming in, swimming out through churned up white water and yet our not one of our juniors did not go. They swam, they competed, they succeeded and it was absolutely awe. We were in awe, jaw-dropping watching them do what they did. Um, as a result, um, they don't keep team scores for junior lifeguards. Um, if they did, we would have won that division. Uh, but they do keep team score for the U19s,

029under 19s. Midway through the junior competition, our lifeguards that are instructors have to peel away and go and compete in their events. And this year, our junior, our ours won the 19 division. Uh it was absolutely amazing to watch them succeed. Uh those points that they earned, they do score up points for the team. H we have to go as Hampton Lifeguard Association because we are teamed up with South some of the Southampton Lifeguards. Um and so we compete as a team at nationals as Hampton Lifeguard Association. As a result, the June U19's points did transfer over to the lifeguards and as a result of that the lifeguard in the lifeguard competition we scored. We were fifth overall out of 35 teams. Um, again falling short with uh teams like Sussex County, which is Delaware,

030they won it um on the West Coast going to the West Coast and winning it. Uh they beat Cal State. Cal State was followed by um LA County, followed by Mammoth County, and then Hampton Lifeguard Association. So, we're competing against county shift, >> one little town, >> one little one town, but yet we're competing against county and collegiic swimmers and whatnot. But, uh, the highlight of our our tournament was watching the number of individuals that compete for Hampton Lifeguard Association swim event after event after event. It's not just you swim it, you place, and we determine points. You know, you swim it. You hopefully make it through that heat into the semifinals and have to swim it again and make it through that to be put into the finals and swim it again. Some of

031our competitors swam probably 24 25 events in in the time that they were at nationals. Uh, and to think that they're getting up again and again and having to go through again, swimming out through that churned up white water, through the break, getting out walls of white water, hoping to get deep enough to get under that wave and then get out around the buoy when there's a sweep that was pulling you. If they didn't go far enough up, they get swept past the buoy and have to swim against the sweep to try to get around the buoy. Just absolutely amazing. Um out of all this there was there is a selection committee there for coach coaches that uh that were looking and watching individuals compete and they have to make a decision of who out

032of all these individuals hundreds of individuals in the events should be competing for the US and four of those individuals came from Hampton Lifeguard Association. Absolutely amazing. Liam Liam Knight who was selected last year to compete for the US um uh Dylan Zucker um who is he's he's doesn't look like he's 16 looks like he's 12 but yet he's competing against 6'2 individuals and and outraing them. uh he was selected Daisy Pitches who was a phenomenal swimmer again probably swam over 25 events uh all weekend exhausted totally exhausted but ready to get up and do it again. Um and then Jeemma Agario uh who uh who was a sprinter and they were the first to reach out to me and say, "John, we need to talk to one of your your competitors." I said, "That's

033fine. Who you need to talk to?" And they said, "Well, we need to talk to you about Gemma and would she be willing?" I said, "We get before we call the parents, we need to talk to her." She said, "Would you be interested?" So, all four committed to going to to International Surf Rescue Challenge, which is in New Zealand this year, uh over Thanksgiving break. And uh it's they said, "John, look, you know, we can't say thank you enough for your four competitors to help represent the United States, and it's a testament to what you are doing out there in East Hampton." uh with these young individuals. I said it's a commitment that they've made for themselves and it's impressive to see and it's it's a spark that can lead to a fire. There's it's

034building a fire in every single one of those other kids that were at nationals uh and competing. So, I owe a lot of thanks to you for the support you've given to our junior program. And uh and these are our cadets. We have 33 cadetses that will be taking their their um capstone test which is exactly the test that all of our lifeguards have to ocean lifeguards have to take every year. They will be taking their test their capstone test tomorrow not for certification but for the con conclusion of the cadet program. Uh and uh they're here to talk to you about block the blaze. Thank you. [Music] >> Good morning, members of the East Hampton Town Board, neighbors, and friends. My name is Aro Roger, and I'm here with my fellow junior lifeguard cadet,

035Orson O'Brien, to talk about something that can affect all of us, sun safety. Thank you, Tom. >> We all love spending time outside, especially at our town beaches like Atlantic or Ditch Plains. But the sun's UV rays can damage our skin in ways we don't always notice right away. Protecting ourselves isn't just for the beach. It's for every sunny day. Earlier this summer, our junior lifeguard program gave hats hats and sunblock provided by the John Wayne Cancer Foundation. This organization gave five simple tips to stay safe in the sun. They include apply sunscreen, use SPF 30 or higher, and reapply every 2 hours or after being in the water and drying off. Put on a hat, especially a widebrimmed hat that can protect your face, ears, and neck. Also, wearing sunglasses protect your eyes from

036harmful UV rays and prevent long-term eye damage. Do not look directly into the sun. Uh, you can also cover up with protective clothing. Lightweight long sleeve shirts can keep you cool and safe. Lighter colored shirts will keep you cooler. Lastly, seek shade, especially between 10:00 a.m. and 400 p.m. when the sun is the strongest and the UV is at its height. >> Following these steps doesn't just help prevent sunburn every day. It lowers the risk of skin cancer and keeps your skin healthy for the future. >> We hope our town can help spread this message. Together we can make sun safety a habit, not just a reminder. Thank you for your time and remember to block the blaze. Our town also offers uh free sunblock at every beach. It's generally right behind the stand on

037one of the tarp posts uh to um help prevent uh prevent skin sun uh skin cancer and uh sunburns. But uh one other thing I do want to really quickly talk about. Yesterday I was uh I uh stopped down at at Atlantic Atlantic Avenue. As I was driving down the beach, I recognized the a serious danger that exists on our beaches. Um, there were two 11-year-old boys digging a hole, two two holes, I should say. Two holes with about 3 ft between the two. And they were chest deep in that hole. you know, uh, my heart started racing as I as I approached them because one of them dropped down into that hole and it was digging a tunnel between the two holes. >> This is a called a sand collapse. Most parents don't realize

038the danger involved in that. That if that individual, he was halfway through the hole and I screamed to him, "Get out of the hole." He got out and it only took a just a little bit of pressure on that for it to collapse and and I showed him what could have been a serious situation at that beach. It would have resulted in a death. And it's it's it's so important that people realize that digging holes at the beach can lead to death. Sand collapses. It's not easy to get somebody out. If that had collapsed, it was about three feet of sand above him. That three feet of sand probably weighed over probably 15 uh 15 uh 1500 lb. That would have collapsed his lungs. He wouldn't have been able to breathe. He It would have

039been eventually when we got him out, we would have been doing CPR. I strongly encourage people to have aware uh no knowledge to understand that that is a danger on our beaches. do not have the rule is no high no deeper than than knee high of the youngest individual in your group. But uh trust me when I say my heart was racing when I walked back to the truck after handling this situation. Um TJ is here to talk about something else that we are doing to help waterproof our community. >> Welcome TJ. >> Thank you for having us. Um I'm going to talk about the Beach Guardian water safety training. Um when Chief Ryan and I were in at the United States Life-Saving Association um meeting in Honolulu this past November, um their lifeguards, you

040know, turned us on to this great um beach guardian workshop program, which was we we we participated in it. We took to it and we looked at each other and said, "We need to bring this back to East Hampton." Um it's, you know, it's it's wonderful. Um we basically have we we've we've morphed it into two separate beach guardian workshops. One is the traditional workshop where it's more of a popup. We'll we'll focus on unprotected beaches and we'll you know we'll go down in groups of one, two or three lifeguards and we will gather a small group of people and teach them what they can do um in order to proc themselves, protect their loved ones. um simple things and literally the the simplest thing is know where you are when you get to the

041beach. Know where you are. We have a lot of we have a lot of visitors to the Hamptons. They go to the beach, they don't know where they are. They call 911 and you know the dispatchers, where are you? I'm at the beach. You know that that's that that really delays um rescue time. And that's going to that's we we've started that this summer and we're going to continue with it in in in forever. Um, it only takes 15 20 minutes and you know we will and and and we enjoy doing it. The thing that I'm really going to talk about is the the beach guardian water safety training which is similar to our junior lifeguard program but for adults. We've had many adults ask the town board, you know, does this program exist? And

042now it does. We had a pilot program um about four weeks ago, four weekends ago. Uh we started a pilot program. Um we had no idea how successful it was going to be. We started it uh pretty much towards the end of the junior program and we asked parents uh to to join this pilot program and we did ask them to sign waiverss because we are getting them in the water. Um and the next morning we had a line of 45 people signing up which was pretty exciting. Um so the mission of this program is to enhance water competency and promote responsible behavior around the water. Um, as we all know, the more we can teach about water safety, the more more people we're saving in the water, um, at our beaches and in the

043pools. Um, we include basic swimming skills, some water safety skills. Um, we are teaching, you know, individuals to recognize and understand rip currents, um, and knowing how to respond to these hazards. Um, you know, the key factors in this program are are number one, know your limitations. We never want someone to go in the We don't want a second victim. We don't want someone to go in the water who is not confident and capable of the task that's put before them. Um, they're better off calling 911, having, you know, yelling for help for somebody around them to go who may be more qualified to get into the water. That's why we always say swim in front of a lifeguard. Most important thing, always swim in front of a lifeguard. Um this the other factors this

044program we want to strengthen their confidence. Um we want to improve their swimming skills and most important have fun. If you're not having fun you're not coming to the program. Um the activities are going to mirror what we do in junior lifeguarding. Uh we're going to do buoy swims. We're going to have rescue board training. We're going to you know going to teach these uh adults to you know to paddle a paddle board. Um we're going to teach them how to read the ocean. What is a sweep? how to identify rip currents, all these things we do for the nine through 15 year olds. You know, a lot of these parents are so amazed at their kids. Um, you know, they want to they want to share in that, you know, that knowledge. Um, the

045other thing that this program, both the popup and and this program, we're also introducing them to handsonly CPR. So, we have, you know, we have um um CPR mannequins that we can bring to the beach and every individual will have the opportunity to practice handsonly CPR and we go into a little discussion on, you know, the importance of CPR and why it's so important to initiate CPR, you know, within the first couple of minutes of of of, you know, somebody who's unconscious. Um, so this is this is a program, like I said, it was a pilot program. This year we're going with the with the town's blessing. We are going to initiate this um through parks and wreck uh next summer and we look to having a really really really successful season. Um I do

046want to say thank you to the town town board. Um there are some there are two programs that a lot of people don't know about and should know about. We have the free swim program, you know, the bays, uh, provided by the town and we also have TA town open water swim training. Um, it's a wonderful program. I participated every Tuesday morning. I I every Tuesday and Thursday morning at Big Alberts, I swim at 7:00 in the morning. There's a group of, you know, 20 to 30 people protected with, you know, four or five lifeguards are there all the time keeping everybody safe. Um, it's not a competitive swim program. Um but it but for we have some really really good swimmers. Um and Tim Treadwell who runs this program is able to get the

047the the strong swimmers a really good workout and get the less strong swimmers a really good workout and give them you know swimming skills teaching them swimming swimming skills and make them more confident in the water and I thank you for that. >> Thank you both for all your service to our community. Do board members have any questions or comments they want to make? >> No, I just think one of the comments I always hear is about waterproofing East Hampton and as we have children, a lot of us have children. We sort of forget about ourselves as adults or individuals that might have not grown up in the area that had the opportunities to pools or the beaches or programs like this. By you taking the initiative and doing this for adults, which are many

048individuals that come here, I think it's just a very wise move and I would support it again. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Big John, did you want to say anything before But um um on on Friday, >> you got to be at the microphone, please. >> On on Friday, we're going to open the community center, >> right? >> M Playhouse. >> Yes. >> With ribbon cutting. >> Yes. >> That's a celebration. That's a wonderful facility. I'm so proud of of the Montto community that that really created this with town support, state support, and it it is a wonderful community center, and I'm really pleased to see it. >> Well, we look forward to seeing you there. >> And what time is it at? >> 2 to 4. >> Okay. I'll be

049there. >> Okay. Thank you. So, I know many of you want to get to the beach. So, if you don't need to stay for the entire meeting, so if you'd like to, this would be a good segue for you folks to >> hit the sand and the beach. Thank you for coming today. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> We're really proud of you. >> Keep it up. >> Really proud of you. And thank you for speaking. Great job. That took courage. >> Jason, we're just going to take a minute until the room clears out. >> Sure. >> Good job. I'd love to have these programs when I was a kid. >> All right, so now we're going to be talking getting an update from the executive director, Kate Carbonaro from the retreat. Welcome, Kate.

050We appreciate you coming out to M talk. We're Katherine's going to pull up your presentation and um thank you for joining us here. >> Thank you for having me. Do you want me to control it so you don't have to Okay. All right. Hi, everybody. I'm I don't know if this is on, but you can hear me. >> Close the door. Would you mind, Rebecca? >> Thank you. >> Hi everyone. I'm Kate Carbonero. I've met some of you, some of you I haven't. I'm the new executive director at the retreat. So, I took over for Loretta Davis in January. I joined about a year ago and then I took over fully in the new year. I'm really happy to be here and thank you for all of your support. I know the retreat was started

051in East Hampton. We're always going to be there and we have such good community support and I appreciate it. So really, thank you. Um, so do you want me to just tell you? You can. Thank you. So the retreat's mission is to provide safety, shelter, and support for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. And we do this all to break the cycle of violence. >> Thank you. This is just a little about our impact in general. I'm going to talk about East Hampton specifically, but in 2024, 2024, we did 3,000 over 3,000 hotline calls. So, we have a 247 hotline just all day, all night, and we're always getting calls from people all over the state, but most of them in Suffach County, most of them on Eastern Long Island. We've provided

0524,875 safe nights of shelter for families and 3,000 counseling sessions over that. And that's in general over, you know, the whole year in the whole area. The our legal services that we have, our violence prevention workshops, community services. These are just some of the overview numbers. I'm going to go into everything we do, but you know, the the point is we're making an impact. We're doing a lot of great work. I'm really proud of the work that we're doing at the retreat. So, when we talk about East Hampton in general, just to start with the hotline calls, I we say 60 hotline calls, but people don't generally say where they are and they don't always say it in a way where they feel comfortable, right? So, people might call and say, "I'm in Suffach County."

053They might be in Eastampton. They might be in Montalk, but we might not know. And we don't press for that. We really just want to be somewhere where someone can call and feel comfortable to talk and share whatever it is they want to talk about. This year in Nassau County, one of the bigger domestic violence programs called the Safe Center shut down. They shut down in March. So they had 18 beds, very similar to the retreat. They were about the same size. They had trafficking work, domestic violence, and they shut in March. Basically a financial issue, I guess, is the best way to say it. It was devastating because on Long Island in general, we have 53 beds for domestic violence survivors. All of Long and that's Nassau and SuffK. So before that we had

05470 and then 18 of those beds went away in an instant. Really? It sounds dramatic but it was because all of a sudden we were getting calls from them saying, "Hey, we have a family of five. We have where are we going to put them?" So right now as it stands there's a little over 50 beds. I'm proud at the retreat we have 17 of those. Most of those beds are for children. And if you haven't seen the shelter and any of you want to, I'd love to take you on a tour of the shelter. We always do it at a time that it's more private for the clients. But I just I think it's great to see because for myself, I used to work in New York City years ago and I would go

055to the shelters and they were a different world. But this is a really safe, it's a beautiful place and it was, you know, most of that thanks to the town and all the support of the community, but it really is a place that feels comfortable and safe in the middle of what's really not a safe time for these families. So looking at this right, we have the hotline calls in general, the violence prevention workshops that we do and I bet a lot of the children that were here to um have experienced them, but we have an amazing prevention education group and they are in every school on the east end and they do great work. I absolutely love them. Probably a lot of you know Helen um at Kinson Bar and she does a lot

056of that work. So that's a lot of our a lot of our work in East Hampton is with those um individuals. A little bit about our core services. Thank you. You can go to the next one. So this is a picture of our shelter. Um it's in an undisclosed location. I know the board knows where it is, but it's it I said 17, it's 18 beds. Um but really this is a space when you go in the basement, there's an entire playroom, which is great. I have little kids and so constantly I'm always thinking about this. So, I'm always talking to my kids about it too to say like this is what's happening in the world. I wasn't nervous with all the kids here cuz I'm like there's some stuff that you don't always want

057to talk to your children about, but most of the people there are children. We have beds that fit up to four kids and one adult. They have their own bathroom, their own area. Um, but you know, 18 beds is 18 beds, right? It's like it's not enough, right? And I know that's a housing issue in general. I was listening to that affordable housing question too because it is something that we struggle with. Uh but I'm really just so proud of this shelter and really an open invitation if you want to come I'll I'll take you over there because in the basement we have this closet that was donated. It's called Stephanie's closet and there are clothes, shoes, bathing suits, everything you would need for kids newborn to 15, 18 years old. So it's really great

058because when we do have somebody come and they say, "Okay, I have three kids. I have a 10-year-old, a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old. We're able to come up to their room and put clothes on their beds and a little stuffed animal for all of them. Like, that's something that I just think is so important because it it's a connection, right? Some of these kids are leaving in the middle of the night coming to our shelter. So, thank you. So, our prevention education work, again, this is something we are so proud of and we do a lot of work in East Hampton. And I think, you know, I love meeting people who graduated from East Hampton or Malk and them saying, "Oh, I know the retreat cuz I remember they were in my classroom." So, we do

059school violence prevention K through 12. We also have a program called the Fatherhood Initiative. This is something that I tell everybody about because this works with fathers, at risk fathers, not necessarily fathers who are abusive, but people who are just struggling. They have kids. They want to be in their kids' life. Maybe they never learned how to be a father. Maybe they've been incarcerated at some point. Excuse me. Sorry. Um, but this this is a program we've had for 15 years. We're hoping to get it again, but this program it we work with all of Long Island. So, if there's a father in the community and he's struggling and he needs case management, he's like, I want to get a job. I don't know how. I want to pay child support. I don't even know

060where to go to do this. We can help with that. And that is important to me as part of a violence prevention organization because yes, we're going to help abuse victims. Yes, we're going to help their children. But if we actually want to change things, if we actually want to break the cycle like our mission is, I feel that fathers and the abusive partner, it is an important thing to focus on too. So we do spend some of our energy on that because we really do want to address the entire family. So that fatherhood initiative is great as well. We also do trainings for professionals and partners in the community. So, we work very closely with East Hampton Police Department. We do trainings alongside them. We do trainings in the community with them. We also

061do trainings for them. I got to do one earlier this year. And it's really great because they're I mean their partnership, they're they're bought in. They get it. They know this is an issue and so they're really supportive when we say, "Hey, we have some more work that we're doing. We're doing work, for instance, some of the violence prevention work is on digital safety. If you have kids, if you don't, it doesn't matter. Everybody knows that is just the number one issue right now. It's young people that are getting exploited on the internet that are often being extorted. There's something called sextortion. We've been working with the Eastampton Police Department on this. A lot of young boys specifically go online and somebody from whether it's another country, another area, they end they pretend that they

062are a friend in the community. They'll go on their Instagram page, get all their pictures and say, "Hey, I know all your friends, John and Julia and whatever." And then they will make an AI picture of that person, that young person without clothes on maybe, right? And then they send it and they say, "If you don't send me $5,000 by tomorrow, I'm going to send this to John and Julia and your mom and your dad and all these people." We're seeing this across the world, but across in the Northeast really all the time. This isn't like an isolated thing. What's happening is especially when it's young boys because nobody talks to them often about these issues, they end up committing suicide. And so, while this is one issue that we're dealing with, I bring it

063up today because it's something our prevention education team is completely focused on. and the East Hampton Police Department, which I think is great just to have that partnership with them because it's something that what we're saying, we're going into these schools and we're saying to kids, listen, this might happen. We hope it doesn't, but if it does, it's okay. Call us, call tell your parents, tell this person. Like, we're giving them all these options. And I bring that up because I think a lot of what our work is in the schools, it starts at first grade, right? So if you have a young kid, you know, first grade, you're not going to go into too much information, but you are going to talk about, okay, well, what do hands are not for hitting. That's what

064the program is. It's don't hit, right? And you're bubble, you have this bubble of space, learning how to have personal autonomy and consent, and it goes up and it gets more complicated as they get older. But something that I love about what we're doing in the schools is that we're a constant presence. So someone in first grade and third grade might be quiet, not say anything. And suddenly we're there in fifth grade and now it's clicking for them because maybe they have a phone and they're realizing it is kind of dangerous. And now we're there throughout their their lives really in school. And we also do these trainings for professionals. We're doing a training in the fall with East Hampton School. We are hoping to do more trainings with parents and with more of the

065staff in schools because I think that's just as important telling staff what happens if a young kid comes and says this or they say, "Hey, maybe the kid comes in and there's bruises on them." Of course, you're mandated reporters. You're going to understand that. But what do you do next? You can call, you can do your mandated reporting, but what are the services that are available and that comes back to us because we have services. We have two new counselors in East Hampton. One is at our shelter almost full-time. One's at our office on Goodfriend. And that again, it's a resource for the community to have someone specifically dedicated to these kinds of issues. Thank you. U. So these are some of the schools that we've been in. You can switch. Thank you. These are

066just some pictures of us at Springs. We are always there. And we also have a comm a coordinated community response team. So many of you probably know about this. If not, it's great. If you ever want to come, they're on Zoom. This is a really important thing in the violence prevention space to have these dedicated groups that are dedicated to stopping violence. So, in our group, we're lucky to have East Hampton, the high school staff, their students that participate, which I love because then we're actually getting it from them. We're not telling them, they're telling us. The YMCA, I try, the library, and we have people from Stonybrook, um, Southampton Hospital. And this group, like I said, it's on Zoom, and everybody kind of comes together, talks about what's going on. We take a little

067break over the summer, but it's going to start again in September. And a lot of the young people who participate in this are from the east end and they end up doing our teen leadership council. So our teen leadership council is another great resource because we really go to them as much as they go to us because you know we're all none of us are teenagers. So we end up saying well what is going on in the classroom? What's happening when people are messaging you this? Because we can tell kids all we want what we want but that's not what they want to hear. >> Thank you. These are just some other pictures. Those are our teen leaders. We actually a couple of our teen leaders have graduated. They've gone to college and then they've

068come back and they work for us, which I think is really great. This is some of the games we do in schools. We do a lot of outreach. These are some of our pictures from the hands are not for hitting workshop. Um, and I I think those are just it's important to do this at that age because you end up at first you don't understand what it is, but then you think, oh yeah, I'm worthy. I'm important. Like that's something some children never hear, right? And that's where it goes back to that cycle. Of course, we want to think that all the children in school are everyone's going home to this safe house, but that's just not how it is. And if you hear a teacher and a counselor and somebody from another organization like

069the retreat come in and say, you know, some people do get hurt by a parent. Some people do feel that they're being pressured into doing this. It's just another person where you think, oh, I'm not alone here. And a lot of the prevention education work to me is saying to these young people, you're not alone. Maybe you see your friend have maybe your friend has this issue. Maybe you see your father hurt your mother. Maybe you see something where you're just not comfortable and you don't know why and now you have a resource to go to. Thank you. These are some of our training pictures at the police department. So just to highlight quickly some of the other services. Like I said, we have counseling. So we do counseling for children, teens, adults. We have

070an amazing program we're just starting which is for adults later in life. It's an elder abuse program which is so important and just not at all being done enough. So we're working with a lot of partners on the east end for that. And our counselors are available throughout Long Island. We have started just a couple services in Nassau because of that giant gap, but we have counselors in Riverhead. We have counselors in Hop Hog. We have counselors at our shelter and in East Hampton. Thank you. We do legal advocacy. So, if somebody says, "I think I need an order of protection, but I don't know what that means." We're able to help them, walk them through it, and then go to court with them. We have legal advocates who do a ton of this important

071work that's really hard because there's lawyers, and I am a lawyer by training, but then there's all the gap where lawyers don't always go over everything, right? They're like, "I'm doing this paperwork. I'm not helping with this." Of course, our lawyers don't do that, but we do see that happen a lot, right? And so, the legal advocates are sort of that branch where they say, "Okay, now you need help. You need to get your benefits. You need to get somewhere to live. Let's call our shelter. If the shelter's full, where are we going to send you?" So, they do all of the case management and then they go to court with them every court appearance just to be with them. And that is so important for somebody going through this, right? So a a case

072that I could think of is somebody maybe they live in Montalk. They say, "I have to get out of here. What do I do?" They call our hotline. We help them to get to the shelter. We immediately enroll them in the East Hampton School District, which is pretty amazing. And then we're able to help them with every service that they might need. And then that person says, "Okay, I want to get that order of protection." Now our legal advocate goes with them. And then they say, "All right, I'm feeling a little better. I need counseling. My child needs counseling." And then we're able to help with that, too. So, it's that wraparound service that I'm really proud of that we're able to do. Thank you. We do a financial empowerment program at our shelter as

073well. This is great. It's not always something that people need right away because they're in crisis, but once they get out of that crisis, once they're in the shelter a few weeks, once they have the order of protection, then we can say, "Well, do you want to get a job? Do you need help with your resume? Do you need help financially getting into schools?" We get scholarships for them. That program is amazing. They do budgeting. We have people come in from banks and the community to help them with everything. This is our retreat hotline number as well. And I said we're going to leave some brochures here at the library, too. We have I think we have some new brochures now. Did you know if we have those? I'll send them over to you because

074we are Thank you. You can go to the next one. So, I'm not going to go into too much on this, but I did just want to highlight some of the work that we are doing here in the community that's newer. So, human trafficking is something that I did not want to have to talk about with children here, but I think it is something we have to come to terms with that it is happening and it's happening here. And I never want to scare people, but this is something I've spent a lot of my career working with human trafficking survivors in the city and then in Long Island and in Suffach and in this area. And right now there's actually a court that was created in Suffach County to help young people who are being

075trafficked, sexually exploited, labor exploitation or at risk of it. So we see them running away. They see them with an older person. Their parents are worried about it. Maybe they don't have parents. Maybe they're in, you know, a child that's here from another country without anybody. And that court was created because of the influx of people they were seeing that were young that were involved in court and were being trafficked and there were no supportive services. So we at the retreat have started working with the young people from that court and they're everywhere. They're out in Montalk, they're in East Hampton, they're in other parts of Suffach County. And it's something that is hard to talk about because a lot of people don't want to talk about it because it's such a it's such an

076awful topic. But we're seeing it and so on our we're going around we're doing a lot of education on it. We're doing a training on Oh, that's Yeah, that's what Helen's doing on August 27th. That's at the East Hampton High School um with school administration. It's a mental health day for So, it's all the guidance and professionals at the school and we're going to go and talk to them about DV and we're also going to talk about trafficking because it is something that happens and this is what you know just because this is a newer service I guess that we're doing. It's something I wanted to bring up because it's not just because of my background, but that was something that I said when I came in like there is this exploitation happening. Domestic violence

077is so closely linked to trafficking. People who are trafficked end up reporting much higher levels of domestic violence. It's just another vulnerability, right? So, we see vulnerabilities. Yes, some people are low income and they they're vulnerable. We also see this with people that are not low income. And I think that's really important. I always say it because sometimes there is a stigma when people say, "Well, I look, I I make so much money and I have this house and I and I still don't know how to leave my abusive spouse." And that is something I, you know, there are people in our shelter that are really just fleeing violence and we are just helping them. It's not about money. It's about let's just get you safe and stable and then you'll go on to where

078you can go. Um, some other work we're doing, I've mentioned the abuse later in life grant there. We're going to have a kickoff for that in the fall. We did a big needs assessment. Diane was so helpful at the out here um at the senior center and from this giant we went all over the place got all of these people to answer our questions and what we've come out with the needs is that people really need case management. So adults later in life are saying yes counseling is good and this is good and but really we just need someone to come in and help us to get our benefits to figure out where to go to figure out what the next step is. So, right now we're in the process of getting a case manager

079to help with that. So, I'll definitely spread the word when we get that because there, you know, all the programs that exist, there's not a ton that really focus on abuse later in life. It's another stigmatized thing that people don't always want to talk about, but there's a lot of abuse with family caregivers as well. And I think that was it, right? Okay. So, that's what we're doing. We're doing a ton in East Hampton. really I'm so happy to be in this area really because I think it feels safe for us at the retreat. All of our clients that visit us at Goodfriend, we're right near Ross School, so it's a nice like quiet area and you know I think in this coming year too we're just growing and doing more because we have to

080unfortunately. Um but yeah, I'm happy to be here. I'm really I'm glad that I got to meet everybody too today. >> Thank you Kate. >> Thank you. Folks have questions for Kate. >> Just comments mostly. Um, thank you. You're you're dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in the world and some of the worst things in the world and you're a counterpoint to that. So, what you guys do is absolutely incredible and I can't thank you enough for it. >> Thank you. >> I'd be delighted to do a 12th retreat as well. >> Oh, great. Great. I will connect. >> Can I ask you, Kate? Of >> course. How is the retreat been affected by Have you had cuts in federal funding? >> We have. We've had cuts. It's been a It's been a

081stressful year to take over a nonprofit. Um, but yeah, I mean I there have been and a lot of it's the uncertainty of what's in front of us because a couple of the grants like our bigger grants, they were delayed. We thought they weren't going to come out and they were delayed by months and they did and we applied but now we don't know. And so in the past it was something we always said, "Okay, we have a transitional housing grant." That is amazing because what it does is when someone's leaving the shelter, we're able to say, "We can give you a th000 or $2,000 a month for two years to get that middle place before your next spot." And that was something that we don't know if we're going to get like we would

082have known already and we don't know. And so we're not counting on it. So that's something the fatherhood grant I mentioned that's something usually we have 60 days to plan. It's every five years, right? So this year, it just happened to be this year of everything everything's done and we're reapplying. And so there's with the fatherhood grant, we reapplied. We're not going to know if we have it until September and it runs out in September. And so the uncertainty is really hard. I for our staff too, but for our clients because our clients see they they listen to things and they're like, "Wait, are are you not going to be funded anymore? Like what's going to happen here?" And so, you know, we've been able to go through like we've been able to persevere and

083I think we always will. Like that's the good thing with the community, but I just don't want to shrink. Like I think that's what I keep saying is like I'm not worried about us ever going away because we're so essential in this community. But when the need is growing, when this giant organization just shut down doing the same work as us, what's next, right? And so I say to our board, I'm like, I we still have to have this growth mindset because the need is growing. Like it's just it's unfortunate, but it is. Um we did have a larger it wasn't it was a state grant that was cut for prevention education. So that was really unfortunate because you know it was our we were the biggest grant holder of that for the state the

084retreat because of our program. And so we used every penny of it. And when I asked the state like what happened? Why aren't you do why aren't you offering it again? They said, "Oh, a lot of people didn't use it properly." I was like, "We did." And they're like, "Yeah, but that's not how it works." So, that's something the prevention education, you know, that's where I I worry about it because I we've been growing. We have some donors who will give for a position here and there, but we're definitely getting there's an increased need. Schools are learning about it. administration. We do dental and medical resident training as well, which I think is amazing because you can be the best doctor in the world, but if no one ever told you how to talk to

085a survivor, you're not going to know. Um, so we do that, too. So, yeah, it's been it's been a struggle, but I think we have this team. We're so lucky. We have this shelter and this office, and so I hope, you know, we I think we will weather it, but I just want to grow in the middle of it, even though that's a hard thing to do. Well, I love your optimism. Thank you. I I just want to thank you for everything that you do. Um it's hard to to pick out a part of your program that it is more important than any of the others. Um but the idea and and bringing awareness to sex trafficking here on the East End is such a critical issue for the vulnerable people that get exploited. the

086idea of digital safety, uh, that importance and raising awareness for for for folks who don't even know they're vulnerable and empowering them to to stop it. Um, and not feel like you have to go along with something, you have to go along with something and the sexitation. Um, these are these are topics we don't generally like to talk about in public or kind of whisper it a little bit. we shouldn't we should be doing what you're doing and I just want to thank you so much for it because these are issues that are usually including domestic violence are are pushed aside and I know uh educating people uh and and those who are being abu abused to understand about the abuse and that not all abuse is physical there there's emotional abuse as well that

087can ruin people's lives uh that that work that you do also is just so vital for our community and I just want to thank Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, I would just reiterate the previous comments. Thank you for for your service um to the services you provide. To be honest with you, I wish that this wasn't necessary. >> Um but unfortunately it is and it's a difficult thing to step in and and do what you do. Um but it's fully necessary and greatly appreciated. So, thank you. >> Thank you all. And and like I just bring this up in the fall if there's any I mean really if you think of a place of anywhere that you think that we could jump in to help with education like I would love to do that.

088I think that's important for like businesses too. Yeah. >> Just contact the firehouses to the EMS departments because a lot of times, you know, I I certainly know my own case that I've I've run across patients who, you know, you know, have having that resource there and letting them know that that resource is there in that situation would be very helpful. >> That's such a good idea. I really Helen will know but I I have in the last year I really haven't seen that us working with the fire departments but that's such a good point because often people feel really comfortable talking to like firefighters. So that would be a good idea. Thank you. >> And also I just want to ask you to educate us on ways that the community can help you. I

089know you depend very much on grants from or municipal organizations and governments, but also I I'm sure there's people out in the community would that would love to know what they can do. >> Yeah, thank you. And and we do we rely on a lot of brands and donors and we actually I shouldn't I should mention this, but we have a thrift store, too. So, some people don't know the the Retreat Boutique, which is in Bridgeampton Commons. That's a thrift store. That's something I bring up because it's an easy ask because if let's say people have a a beautiful old dress or you know not not like a tattered old dress but like a dress that they're like I only wore it once what am I going to do? We love when people donate all

090that thrift store it I'm not just saying this cuz I'm in charge of it but it really is beautiful. Like the clothes are really nice there and they're really so if people have clothes that they're like cleaning something out and they want to we would love to have those um donations. But also, if you shop at that store, every penny that we make there besides our staff goes right to our shelter, right to our clients. Um, and I think in general, just even knowing the retreat, knowing the phone number, knowing if you just Google it like Kate, I heard that lady Kate Carbet, what was her name? And like Google retreat, you'll see you can email us or reach out. If people want to volunteer, if they want to I mean, we're always saying if

091there's legal advocates, if there's lawyers, if there's people that want to be on the hotline, the hotline is a great way to volunteer your time if people have time. Of course, financially, we always love donations. Um, but I think in other ways, I'm thinking like, you know, do you have a car seat that is new that you barely used and you want to donate it and it's not expired? let us know, you know, because the shelter takes donations and we also take donations for all of these young kids and adults that are all in our other services, right? So, somebody that's getting legal advocacy. Um, and we always have these events that are really fun and really great. We have our golf event coming up September 22nd. So, if anyone's a golf player, it's really

092fun. Um, and we're just in the community. So, really like reach out. And I think, you know, you were saying about educating the community. I what I like to say is that we don't always know what's going on in somebody's house. like we we don't know and we shouldn't ever presume and say this you're being you know trafficked you're being abused but even just saying I'm going to save the retreat's number and sometimes there's somebody that you're like oh that person seems like they're struggling maybe I'll talk to them if it's comfortable and say hey here's this number right like we give our cards out we give a ton of them to the police department to say just maybe you don't want to talk to this person but you feel like something isn't right you

093can just give it to them you know and it it's tough though it is so I appreciate that question and I appreciate that you guys are all, you know, interested in this and doing all that you're doing already for for us and the community. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Jason, is is Eric Chance uh waiting in the um for the Zoom? >> I'm here. >> Oh, great. So the next step is we're going to have a a discussion. Eric's going to lead it in a presentation on affordable multiple residents. >> So hello everyone. Um nice to see uh the town board again. Um let me just set this up in full screen so that I can screen share for you. Oh actually um if it's okay uh can I screen share uh so

094that I can control the uh Thank you. Sure. So hopefully everyone can see the presentation. Um please let me know if you can't. Um so we're here to discuss I'm sorry >> I said it's up now. We're good. >> Okay, great. Um so we're here to discuss the affordable multiple residents proposed use. Um the board has discussed this on numerous occasions um as indicated by public comment. Um, so just as a reminder, um, what we're proposing is a land use consisting of multiple residences in the form of one or more multi-unit buildings that meet the definition of an affordable housing unit in the zoning chapter and which meets all the standards provided in the special permit standards for an affordable multiple residence. Uh, it's intended that the individual units will be rented directly by the

095property owner to an individual that lives or works within the boundaries of East Hampton other or their families. um otherwise known as a resident as a defined term. So again, this is um in a way a type of mini affordable housing development. Uh it would be permitted only in the affordable housing overlay district and it's really intended for lots that are less than 3 acres. Again, you need to have at least 3 acres to do a fullscale affordable housing development. This would provide an option for development of AHO zone parcels that are smaller than that. Um, it would allow private owners to convert an existing single family residence to a multiple residence or build a new multiple residence. Tenants must be residents, which means live or work in the town of East Hampton. Um, this

096has to be affordable housing, meaning that the household income cannot exceed 130% of area median income, and the maximum rent is 130% of fair market rent as determined by HUD. Those are both the town standards for affordable housing. And then um as far as the approvals that would be needed, a site plan and special permit approval from the planning board would be required before the use could be created. Um and an annual permit from housing would be required very similar to an ADU or an apartment above a commercial structure. Uh as far as needing um that process or I should say at least the um housing permit, you don't need a site plan uh special permit for an ADU. So the main thing to talk about now is that um the matter was referred and

097the draft code was sent to the planning board uh for their comments. That is mandated by the code that you refer it to them. This is a summary of their comments. Um they have a a formally written comments that the the town board should read in their entirety. I'm summarizing here, but I think I'm hitting the the key points. Um they noted that the use would have little applicability if additional areas and parcels aren't zoned with the AHO. Uh the planning board suggested provisions that would allow a tenant to remain in a unit uh if their income should increase to a point where they would not be otherwise eligible. Um the planning board expressed concern that the use would end up only being um for seasonal workers. That's kind of related to the last uh

098bullet point here too. Um the planning board questioned how a resident would be defined. Uh one planning board member wondered if the current standard of of 130% of area median income is high enough uh for families around here. Um the planning board discussed whether or not uh higher green energy standards should be enforced and if solar um or or other provision should be required when somebody establishes one of these uses. Um, but the planning board's really primary concern was that the use would not end up providing long-term housing for year-round income qualifying residents, but would instead only be financial fees financially feasible for local businesses looking to house seasonal workers. So, um, I I prepared um, a couple of slides here to hit a few of those points. Um, some of them, for example, whether

099or not you want higher green energy standards are really purely the discretion of the town board and you should have discussion about that. But just to help the discussion, um, one of the comments made was about the definition of a resident. Um, what we did in the draft of the code that you have is use the definition that is included in the community housing fund law. Um we did that because we assume that you know and envision that these types of uses may be projects that uh there will be CHF funding requests for. Um but basically that that definition is to cut to the the key part uh a resident uh shall be defined as an individual who lives or works within the physical boundaries of the town. resident of the town shall include a

100person who is currently a resident of the town or a non-resident who has been a resident within the past five years. Again, that is taken verbatim from the CHF law um to have that definition um jive uh if you will uh with that law um so that that funding could be used for one of these uses. Um the question came up about um a moderate income family and whether or not the income limit is high enough. Um so what I provided for you here is the definition in the town code of a moderate income family. Um you know obviously as you can see here it is a codified standard of 130% um AMI. Um what you have there in that chart below are what I believe are the updated 2025 figures of what that would

101represent. Um, so you can see for a household of two individuals, 130% AMI is $171,600. [Music] Um, so I guess the the main point um that the planning board had was about the the economic feasibility of this. And I think what they're really worried about is that any of the properties that are eligible for this will be gobbled up by local businesses who will be looking to house seasonal workers um who won't be year round members of the community. So, um not really a um uh you know direct response or reputation uh to uh what the planning board's saying but just to give you know um to to to give some clarity to it and to give it some um you know uh some background um you know really you need to create this use

102first um in order to determine whether or not it's going going to be feasible. Um, and I guess connected with that is that, you know, as a reminder, the town board has full control over what parcels would be eligible for this use and how many parcels would be eligible for this use and where they would be. Um, we envision this being a selected number of parcels near the periphery of downtowns. Um, and you know, that kind of leads to the next point. Seasonal workforce housing is something that is also needed. Um I if this does end up being a good model that works for that um I you know I don't know that there's necessarily a harm in that that that is a form of housing that we need in the town. Um and I

103think if you're establishing that along the peripheries of downtowns or maybe even on larger properties um commercial properties where they want to house um staff workers um you know I don't really necessarily see that as being prohibitive. I think this is a tool that would allow you to do that. Um depending on how you set up the restrictions and where you designate where the properties are that you designate for this use would determine the appropriateness um of you know sort of modifying this for that use. But really the key thing here that I have in bold is that there is available town, county and state funding to uh assist in the creation of affordable housing. Um the town board knows that a lot of the pre-existing non-conforming multi-unit buildings throughout the town were gobbled up

104by um by employers. Um but the town board knows that there are some um multi pre-existing legally pre-existing non-conforming multif family residences that housing agencies have looked to purchase because they have that legally pre-existing right um and have sought you know have inquired about CHF funding um so that they could own and manage such a a facility. They they've been doing that within the um confine of the fact that there are no areas within the town that are zoned for multif family housing and they have to find you know a non pre-existing legally pre-existing but non-conforming such use um if they want to to do a multiple residence uh you know affordable housing. Um they can't do that unless that use is created. And you know, yes, obviously the market uh out here in real

105estate um you know, drives the price up, but you know, there is funding available and they can't even consider projects like that unless you enable that use. There are just too few non-conforming parcels. There are none um that are that have multiple residences that aren't already owned. Um and then one of the other considerations here is so One of the ways that we're thinking people would utilize this is if we put the AHO designation on, let's say, a small single family residential property has single family residence on it. That owner doesn't want to sell, doesn't want to move. Maybe they want to um put a family member uh in that unit. Maybe they want to create a second unit um by simply partitioning off part of that house so that they can um get the

106rent revenue. maybe they are someone who is has an income constraint. Um, you know, parti it depends on the house obviously, but partitioning off a house and adding a second kitchen to create a two-unit home doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Um, it could be something that is in line with what it costs to build an ADU. Um, we have many ADUs that cost in excess of $100,000. Um we have the plus1 ADU grant program uh that offers $125,000 to help build an ADU. Um so it's certainly conceivable that there are some, you know, minor home renovations that could be done by private owners who are not businesses who are looking to house family members but have more privacy um looking to get additional rent. Um and and that is not necessarily something that's cost

107prohibitive. Um so you know that's really um kind of my main points on that and I think again sort of those first two bullet points are are really the most important ones. Um which is that you know you need to create this use to determine how successful it's going to be. You know if there are going to be issues with some of the restrictions not being enough um not having specific enough restrictions maybe having too many. Um, but the town board controls where these would go. Um, right now there are only a handful of parcels that are zoned aho that are less than 3 acres. We previously identified that there's really only one that's feasible for any future development which is in downtown MTalk. But that you know what we envision as the second part

108of this process is is the town board looking at appropriate areas for extension of the AHO. Um, and again you you have control over that. Um, and one of the other points I really wanted to make here was when you look at the existing uses in the town code, um, for housing, uh, whether it be affordable or nonaffordable. So, when you look at this table, what you'll see is in green, I highlighted everything that is affordable housing and categorized it by apartment, multiple residence, a full-scale affordable housing development, and then single family residential options. So, what I've done on the top there is an accessory dwelling unit, an ADU. It's sort of quasi affordable housing because there is not an income restriction, but there is a rent restriction. It does require a permit from housing.

109Um, but it provides for the affordable housing stock. Same can be said of an apartment above a commercial structure that is entirely affordable. uh you know, within the definition of affordable housing, there's an income restriction, there's a rent restriction, there's a permit uh that's needed from housing when a new tenant goes in or on an annual basis. That's what we're envisioning for the affordable multiple residence uh use. Then you go into sort of the next category, which is multiple residences. And the town code will allow you to um the the first one that you see in red there says multiple residents chapter 193. That's the open space subdivision chapter. a property developer can buy a large property and subdivide it but create multi-residential housing units. It's not very common. They're commonly condoed out. Um Dune

110Alpen uh is one that people know of um that it didn't go through this process, but it's basically to build the same type of development. Um under the code you can build condos in the resort zone as multiple residences. You can build motel in the resort zone. You can build multi you can build a multiple residence in the MF multif family zoning district, but we only have a handful of properties that have that zoning. Um it's been mostly erased um since the last comprehensive plan update and um they're all developed. The only other use in the code that provides for building a multiple residence other than in the context of a full-scale affordable housing development is the use that exists in the code which is very similar to this proposed use which is change of

111a single family residence to a multif family residence or other multiple residents. Um we are proposing that that use be stricken from the code and replaced with affordable multiple residence because as we previously discussed there are almost no limitations on that. it certainly doesn't have to be affordable in any way. Um, and it's permitted basically in in any zoning district in the town. So, we think it's prudent to replace that with something that is more confined as far as far as where it can be. Um, and has affordability requirements. Um, and then the other uses you'll see on here are full-scale affordable housing development. Obviously, that's affordable housing. Single family residences. Obviously 99% of the ones that we have in town are not reserved as affordable, but the town has taken steps through its affordable

112home ownership program to reserve a number of homes uh throughout the town for affordable housing. So you have affordable apartments um options in the town code. You have a full-scale affordable housing development that's an option. and you have single family residences that um you know can have covenants and and um ownership restrictions on them to make them affordable housing. You don't have anything that's for development of multifamily residences, multiple residences on smaller parcels. And you know, I think that can be a very useful tool. Um, and it's something that is part of, you know, sort of common sense modern planning is to have multif family residential zoning around downtowns. They tend to be somewhat of a sort of bridge type of housing for people between a smaller apartment and ownership of a single family residence.

113Um, you have a lot of situations where you have people that live and work in town and they have families. um and an apartment is just not going to be large enough for them. Um I I think that creating this use is the first step to creating that much needed housing stock within the town. Um so that is basically the summary. Again, um this was brought back to you mainly to address the planning board comments and have a discussion about them. Um, I anticipate uh that there will be further information required or changes to the draft code as a result of your your conversation today. Um, but down the road and when we do get to a point where the board um and the you know the the board may be uh confident in this

114code as it is right now, I'm sure you're going to ask me some questions about the particulars. Um once that's the case, we'll uh prepare an environmental assessment under SRA as mandated by um state law. uh we would refer this to the planning commission and then eventually you would have a public hearing on it as a draft local law. Um but for now um the discussion is really about the planning board comments and what I'm going to do is go back to the slide that was a summary of their comments um to aid your your conversation. So thank you. >> Great. Thank you Erican. Do you want to take the lead here now? >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you Kathy. Uh and thank you Eric. Um you know Eric has put a ton of work

115in on on this. It goes back to my, you know, the beginning of my tenure on the board, which is with 2024. Um, and I I really appreciate the thought that's gone into it from Eric and and Tina and the planning department as well, but but Eric has really been the the lead on this. Um, I think a big part of this that the the point of this meeting today is to address the planning board comments and and you know, I want to recognize that the planning board I served on the planning board with with many of the current members. Um I consider them colleagues, friends, great deal of respect for them um as individuals and planning board members um and as people and I have a great deal of respect for the process and

116that we should hear those comments and address them. Um and it's in that spirit that I'll respond and you know give my own my own comments on on theirs and this this code in general. Um in terms and and I I want to recognize I guess big picture that I think that many of the problems they highlighted are real. Um, this is a complicated issue to solve and that's why it's such a big problem for us. Um, I I think that it's important that we don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It doesn't mean we're not thoughtful and we don't do our best to have, you know, the best code we possibly can have, but there's no way we're going to get it absolutely perfect and prevent every problem that exists or

117that can exist. I think that many of the things they point out um are issues with our current affordable housing regulations. You know, Eric points out that commercial apartments, affordable apartments really almost all the issues they point out exist in that as well or the income limits or where exactly to draw these lines. We're it's you know we're going to do the best that we can but we're not going to get it perfect and I don't think that we should be paralyzed until we do. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be thoughtful and I think that we we have been and continue to be. In terms of the planning board's first comment about the the zoning, I think it's uh it's a given and and certainly I'll take the the blame on this one and that

118there's not a lot of opportunity with current zoning to construct these. Um and that's fairly intentional on my part to be honest with you because I don't want people to start to um get bogged down in whether this particular parcel is right or this parcel is right and therefore we don't even create the use and so it can't exist anywhere. And so I think acknowledging as a town, as a board, that we need more affordable housing and multiple residents is is one tool we could use to get there. The first step is creating this use and then very quickly we should look at where the appropriate places are for that use to be contained. Um, and I think it was Eric's suggestion to have it be part of the affordable housing overlay. We've already acknowledged

119an overlay district that's appropriate for affordable housing generally. This would just allow for smaller parcels to be included and contribute to affordable housing stock. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. So, do you see this as then because that's that's a labor intensive project, right, for the planning department to then take a look at the town of East Hampton and where does this exist or is it at this juncture it's for property owners that have parcels come to the board and say, would you consider this for an affordable housing overlay? >> I think it's both. I think we we as a town have have often looked at parcels and say, "This would be an appropriate place for affordable housing." that's let's that's you know expand that apply that designation so I think that's appropriate I

120think you know eventually there's going to be a more holistic view but I don't want that detail to cause us not to create a use and not have any opportunity so I 100% agree that somebody might we we've had people approach the board who say what about this parcel I think we should actively look at each one of those and determine whether it's appropriate or not um but I also think just you know eventually we're probably going to do some comprehensive zoning and that would be another opportunity to expand the overlay district. And look, I'll be honest. I've floated the idea, and maybe I shouldn't say this this publicly, but why not make the whole town an affordable housing overlay district? This is a big problem. Um, and we need to be fairly aggressive about

121it. This is a more measured way, and I think keeping it restricted to the affordable housing overlay district, recognizing that we need to expand that either, you know, an individual basis or, you know, larger tracks. Uh, but I think this is a first step. Um the planning board also suggested um you know another issue that that that already exists when people you know make more than they originally did to qualify the and that's a problem. Um I think we have to be thoughtful about this and and Katie Casey gave comments from the Eastampton Housing Authority that people aren't in fact evicted when they make you know slightly over that threshold. You know there's a certain point at which if somebody becomes very very wealthy and can afford a home perhaps they should not be in

122a an affordable housing unit. I think that naturally works itself out just based on preferences. U but I do think we should provide some clarification on that point you know before this is finalized. I think that people should income qualify to get in and there should be certainly some grace period so people don't lose their housing based on you know becoming successful in the world. >> Should we go and just as you go through each point to have the board members like so that it's rather than >> Yeah. So so let's just start the aho. Um, look, I I'm wholly in favor of looking at each application for an AHO as it comes in. Personally, I I'm slightly wary of the concept of creating specific zones where we're going to do it because I think,

123you know, that that has its own issues that could potentially develop, but I I also see there's potentially a need for it. And there's also some common sense to it, which is like, look, if you're next to the transport infrastructure, you know, that might facilitate some areas that kind of could understand that, but but generally speaking, to your point, there is such a desperate need for this. um you know if people wish to convert to to do this I think we should be looking at every application as it comes in. >> Um so I think one of the things in the 2005 comprehensive plan that unfortunately was done is that there was multiple AHOs were removed from the town code. um it might have been looking prudent at that time but unfortunately the crystal ball

124I think they got wrong at that time then too puts us in the position where we don't have many locations that are currently still AHOs are available for AHOs when uh former uh Joe Potter believe he was chairman of the community housing opportunity fund came to the town board maybe about six years ago and gave their recommendations at that time one of the recommendations was to claw back as many AHO properties uh that were either upzoned in 2005 as potentially could be and two I would like to try to continue that but I agree with what Tom was saying we're in the situation here that we will probably have to do this individually instead as uh um until we until we change the comp plan or we relook at it again later on then to

125we might have to do this on an individual basis then too um that's how I feel about that one >> uh so as far as as as that uh overlay. I agree that we should always be uh encouraging folks to bring us uh potential affordable housing uh to the town, but I I think that the idea of looking at overlays in areas where um you have public transportation, you have mixed use with businesses, etc. it isn't a bad idea to encourage people who potentially would like to see uh uh affordable housing in those areas be encouraged to to purchase and do so. Um probably what I'm going to have the biggest I'm just going to spoil alert have the biggest problem with any of this is the AMI that we're looking at and what who

126really targeting and calling it affordable housing. So I'll wait till we get to that one. But um I think that uh there are appropriate locations. They they were they did exist uh prior to the 2005 update and um I think that there are areas that would lend itself more particularly transportation, ease of transportation, ease of getting to work. Um that may accommodate an H aho. All right. And and I agree with Tom and and David at this point. I think it's right now it's property owners coming to us and saying please consider this property as till we get ready to do an a comp plan update. >> Yes. And then you want to talk about the income qualifications too or >> the next one. Um, yeah, this this one's kind of a complex one for

127me because I I' I've mentioned this before that, you know, the the AMI of this area is is so clouded by second home ownership that, you know, many of the properties we have out here uh by people who don't report their income in this area. So, truthfully, where the market is at for rentals is much higher um than we potentially see. So, what people are having to compete with that their salaries don't meet. just doing some, you know, quick basic math. So 172,000 for a two household couple, you know, that's 86,000 each. You know, that's what we talk about with PD and teachers. And it's like, you know, your certain point there where you might have a teacher who's been there four or five years and a PD similar thing. And you know, they can't

128be in that list and and that's problematic in itself. But I think Ian, you've brought this up time and time again, like there's housing at all levels that's needed. And you know, this maybe is focusing on those really at the the lower income levels, but then we have what's historically been considered kind of our middle class, but you know, with the housing costs we have out here, that's no longer the case. So, it's it's it's it's a really complex one. I I need more time to get my head around that. But I think, you know, first glance, I would like to see that threshold be slightly higher potentially. higher than 130%. I don't know if we can, Eric. Right. Isn't it defined that it's the highest we can go is 130%. It's not the highest

129that that the town could go as far as how you set the code in your standard, but it becomes almost moot because almost every other municipality um sort of deems you know 80% of area median income as the edge of low income and then 80 to 120% as moderate income. So you could have So our standard is already higher than most municipalities including the county. It becomes maybe moot's not the right word but it it doesn't um it becomes problematic because you know you end up having people at an income uh that you want to put in a particular project that um that project will not be eligible for funding uh from from other levels of government. So, um, you're not prohibited from setting the standard higher, but once you do, um, if you need

130partnership or funding from other entities, it becomes increasingly difficult to to justify that, >> right? For instance, we just put in a grant application the end of last month for the pro-ousing supply as part of the consolidated funding that the state had, and that was for infrastructure for the Route 114. we put in for almost $4.1 million and then we would have to match that and that was at 130% AMI. we wouldn't be able to go for that grant if that if we had our um you know percentage set higher. And you know, as we said, there's folks at every level that need housing up to 130% mimics what we're doing at the Springs uh fireplace apartments where there's uh 26 units, 13 one-bedroom, 13 two-bedroom, and that is the only, you know, middle income

131uh development that we have in the town of East Hampton. So, I mean, I I liked your point and what the East Hampton Housing Authority does, what you said, Ian, is there's a grace period, you know, like you you starting to inch up a little bit, but also it could be that, you know, your salary is going up, but then you may have had a child, right? So, then now it goes to, you know, a family of three instead of a family of two, and that and that income level, you know, kicks up. So, um, for me right now, I'm I'm good with the 130%. With a with, you know, a grace built in. >> Anybody else? >> Uh, Dave, do you want to go? >> Ladies first. >> Thank you. Um, so, uh, I

132actually am going the other way on this and I have a a concern about, uh, being eligible for affordable housing in this town not being open to all of our workers. Um, we talk about teachers and and police officers as a model, but what about support staff? They they don't make anywhere near that. So, when I look at this chart and I see um it uh you know, two two income two folks making income, one is 150,000. I I I am concerned that we're not providing housing for a large number of people that desperately need it, that don't make these kinds of numbers, but are essential to the businesses and the uh the municipality and all all the other uh services that the town provides. I think I feel like we're always talking about these

133numbers and you know for if you have three people in your family that's the two if there's two earners it's 96,000 it jumps up then to if you have two two kids and two supporters it's 107,000 each and that's each. So, I'm just very concerned that uh we don't we're not offering any housing affordability for the smaller businesses in town and for the people that make less than these numbers. >> But is that that's up to 130%. That doesn't mean that someone at 80%. >> but at 80% you may not >> well the idea that this can be profitm ventures I don't think I think you're going to look to even a halfacre how much is that to purchase? certainly two acres uh to purchase and then be able to make a profit. You want

134the higher numbers and if we just say up to I just don't think we're promoting anything for the lower number of folks in town. That's my opinion. Okay. And and we haven't talked about that about I don't recall what the I thought it was more like you had to have an this was for like an acre to three acres because the three acres >> halfacre >> half acres >> but then it says in the code that you're it's um this >> it's between a half acre 20,000 >> here at the maximum permitted shall be four per acre. >> Yes. So I mean to me I >> two and a half acre >> I would the dimensional requirements I would start with this because you could always loosen it is start with um 1 acre to

1353 acres close that gap first before and then see uh before you go to 20,000 square feet but that's just me. Um okay where are we? We are >> Dave anything on income qualifying? No, I mean that it's it's one of the biggest challenges I've had since I've been discussing affordable housing here for the last eight years then too is that you want to provide affordable housing for the individuals that need the most or might be more income uh on the lower side of the income spectrum. But at the same time, there's so many critical individuals that need in the town that uh you know fall within 130 or not even up to 150 on there. Uh I think the main thing is just trying to provide more units is is the main things. uh

136I didn't really register to about the 130% how that ties into other grant funding or needs on there. Um I would probably tend to be more cautious and stick at the 130 uh and try to continue to evaluate how we can move that up to 150 and maybe work with the state to see how uh we can work collaboratively then too so it doesn't put the individuals that are trying to build these units at a greater hardship to find the funding to actually build them. >> Yeah. Yeah, and I I agree with everybody's, you know, comments and concerns. I I mean, to be direct and explicit, we we have a problem, you know, across a wide range of people. We need low income people to have, you know, affordable, dignified homes. We need middle income.

137We need moderate income, you know, we need workforce. We need all of these things >> and seasonal. And yeah, that's going to be another story. That's not what this legislation is meant to do. But I don't think it's a bad thing to talk about seasonal housing. Um, but the fact of the matter is we we we start from a particular point. community housing law set that 130%. And so if there's CHF funding going to be used, that's why, you know, that number was chosen. That's where we're starting from. Could we adjust it? Of course. Look, I proposed, you know, a different up to 150% sort of a workforce um middle inome housing. And there's all sorts of complications and we haven't we haven't completed that. I would like to revisit it to Tom's point and

138to the planning board's point. Um but again, we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good. you know, this it would be a a step in a really positive direction, I believe. And Kate's points about concerns about low-inccome, very valid. You know, we can't forget about those people who are probably the most vulnerable and and, you know, the least likely to find a place to live. But, as Eric alluded to, many state and federal funding programs do 60% or 80%. And so, you know, the green and gardener's point was limited to 80% because of funding sources. Uh, we should encourage and support those projects 100%. 114 project that the town is currently working with the East Hampton Housing Authorities at 130 because that's typically something that doesn't get funded. And so, you know, we

139need all of these things all at once. And um you know, to to Kate's point about profit that there's a concern there for sure, but this sets a maximum rent cap regardless of their income. And so, you know, you know, we're allowing people to and somebody could be a, you know, a good Samaritan and, you know, a housing trust, for example, or somebody else and charge lower rents because they they recognize this need. This legislation is trying to create opportunities for more people to provide more affordable housing. I think it's a good thing. >> Great. >> Um, the next thing, the, you know, seasonal workers, we've sort of addressed that a little bit. This is designed for year- round, you know, tenants. It's a a year- round lease is required. there's there's a rent cap

140and so if you know somebody sort of games the system and has somebody there for one month they're making one month's rent. Is that a potential problem? Are there going to be any any seasonal workers who end up in these places? Maybe. Uh do I think it's worth stopping the whole thing because of that concern? I don't. Um and and and frankly I think as as Kathy just said we that that's an issue as well. That's not what this legislation is supposed to address. But my biggest concern in in town or with affordable housing isn't that, oh, we're going to provide affordable housing for seasonal workers, you know, instead of nobody at all. You know, I think that that's a a small risk worth taking. I >> I I would second that entirely. And I

141think, look, I definitively there's a need for seasonal housing. Um, but I think this is more of a priority for the town. Um, you know, it's yearround residents who support a lot of our charitable organizations that support, you know, a lot of our volunteer organizations. That's what we need to be sure that we're rebuilding for the future of this town. >> Well said. >> Okay. You want to do the next fourth point? >> Yeah. Yeah. Next bullet point. Uh, so for how a resident would be be defined, of course, it's a very good point, but again, we have a starting point. there's community housing law that's already established and we want to use the same language so that we're consistent. Um, and you know, the language is that uh you need to live or work

142in East Hampton and and that includes somebody who's lived here within the last 5 years. So, I'm not we're not pulling these words out of thin air. We're basing on established law so that we have consistency and if you know I'm a believer in um a living code. You know, we should we should revisit this if it ever it gets enacted and and make it better all the time. But we're doing our best, you know, at this point. And I think that that standard has already been established and is the one worth going with. And even if it's imperfect, I think it's it's the best thing for this now. To >> totally agree. We've run into this issue with the ADU program as well. I I second your sentiments. I think we have to draw

143a line in the sand and say this is what we we're at and move forward with this. >> And if we change it, we can change for everything and we have a better definition of resident. But again, there's there's, you know, foundations and current law, >> right? And I don't have an issue whether it's full-time or part-time work, you know what I mean? We we need both. >> Yeah. And for me, um that idea of resident and and and it is a living code and I agree with both of you. Um that's why um in in doing this hand in hand with doing this is also look at looking at some of our our other code areas uh and making sure that uh our neighborhoods are remaining neighborhoods for residential life and for people to

144live and raise families and work in the town and not as businesses uh through say for example short-term rental platforms or you know flipping large homes. I I think we also have to have a holistic approach to what the affordab affordability issue is here in this town. >> The next bullet point was, you know, concern we've addressed this a little bit that the what the threshold wasn't high enough. Again, we've we've discussed, you know, legislation that would would make a different tier of housing that I think is worth pursuing. It's complicated and we shouldn't be bogged down by by that idea and not you know again the 130% has been established. Um let's use it. Let's do some good and then let's do more good later. >> Yeah. I listen I I acknowledge your position

145on this. I I think the one thing that I kind of see on this one which is that look this is the opportunity for individual property owners to address the housing need out here more so than kind of a commercial development of any kind. And you know, the more we encourage people to do this and and open it up, the more housing we're able to provide. And that's just kind of where I stand with, you know, and and they they might not need the funding sources. So, you know, for us to restrict it to say the 130 versus a 140 or 150, I think potentially could be shortsighted. Um because, you know, if people do want that funding, then stick to the 130 as your cap. Um, so that's just, you know, I think to

146me it's like by having that cap on there, we're limiting who we can house and how much housing we might be able to provide. >> I I I fully acknowledge that. And look, I would love nothing more than to bring back that other, you know, the proposal and talk about a different level of income in a different zone. The AHO though is also recognizes the affordable housing overlay that 130. And so if we're mirroring that, you know, I think it's the easiest step forward. But Tom, if we want to revisit, you know, up to 150 or some other number as another type of housing, I am all for it. >> And I think you said something important which I uh regarding having lower AMI for the people that don't nearly qualify that. And I think

147that's a big need in this town. And I think we're losing a lot of local people as well who children can't afford to live here because they don't make these kinds of numbers. But if we incentivize uh offer an incent where we incentivize somehow having uh providing income uh places to live for those folks, I I would like to investigate that and and I'm in favor of that. >> So the thing is to to me this isn't just for a property owner. The town could be doing this too, right? Katie Casey came to our meeting the other day and said, you know, the reason we could we have the 114 project is because the town made those purchases in like 2018 2019 and we landbanked. And so now if you know we would have an

148opportunity if let's just say it's 1 acres to 3 acres now we can go you know we could be land banking properties with community housing fund money and then again turning that over to the housing authority to develop um multiple residents and if you you put three single acres together that's 12 units you know that we could be doing. So, um I think that that's something um that it's a for me it's not just, you know, the municipality and the and the housing authority also can be in this game. >> I agree. I I don't think anything we're doing here is taking away from something. It's creating more opportunity. I think an example of, you know, a similar thing was the property in Sag Harbor that the the town helped to purchase for the East

149Hampton Housing Authority, which was essentially this but pre-existing non-conforming. what we're doing here is creating that opportunity, you know, hopefully with with additional zoning in way more places. So, um I agree with you, Kathy. >> So, can I ask a question, please? Um so, we're talking about the maximum density of housing units would be four per acre. And how how many uh housing units are in each unit? If it's small, >> a unit would be like one kitchen, you know, one it could be up to three bedrooms was is >> we're looking at only so each unit is is it would not contain more than one let's say cottage. >> A unit is you know I think basically a kitchen and a and a family unit. So there would be like you know two two-bedroom

150units in one structure. So a struct a structure um this law says that you have to they have to be more than one unit in a structure and a maximum of four. >> Okay. >> So you know the part of the genesis of this is our affordable housing code starts at three acres. There's not that many parcels available at 3 acres. So we talked about oh do we reduce that threshold but then you know we raise the the density to 12 units. Maybe that's appropriate when you can screen and do a thoughtful project on big land but you don't want 12 units on a single acre probably. And so, you know, Eric and I went back and forth with with Tina's help and others and thought, okay, it makes sense to actually come up with

151a separate code for between a half acre and 3 acres. Now, you're suggesting one acre would be more appropriate. But point being that, you know, the density is a little bit reduced recognizing they're smaller lots, but still we're creating, you know, a new opportunity that's not there. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that the public understood what we were talking about when we were saying units. >> Yeah. So this would be, you know, on a on a single acre, for example, there could be a something that looks like a house and in fact is four individual units or two structures that have two units each, meaning a couple bedrooms and a kitchen and, you know, >> not four houses with four four uh kitchens each. Yep. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make

152sure that was >> Well, it's a good question though because a lot of people have approached me about tiny home legislation and I think that would be a different thing and also worth looking at. But, you know, Eric and I spoke about this and this is designed to sort of fit into residential neighborhoods and so it's contemplated the structures will appear just like the echobonic >> uh manor houses. You drive by and it it fits in the character of the neighborhood but meanwhile there's I think four units in each of those buildings. >> Um the next point was uh green energy type of initiatives and requirements. Uh while I think we're all supporters of, you know, green green energy and sustainability, um I think we need to be careful that we can't do everything with

153all legislation. And at a certain point, I think it would become an impediment towards our main goal here, which is affordable housing. There's nothing preventing anybody from, you know, having all electric units or solar panels or any of that. And I I hope that we see developments that that contain all of that. However, and this was acknowledged at the planning board level. I watched their conversation. If we make that a requirement, is that a reason in 1 2 10 cases that something doesn't get, you know, affordable housing doesn't get constructed because that part of it didn't work. And so I just think that um it's a noble comment, noble goal, and I hope that it's how, you know, people construct. I don't feel it's prudent to I think we can we can overregulate to make

154things too complicated and and impede the process. So my thoughts on that are of course sustainability isn't just noble. We have to use what we need and leave something else for the rest of the generations. We're in climate crisis across the world. That being said, um I think that for me um we would need to talk about what we're talking about in terms of you know for me it'd be important to see that there's sustainable landscaping in in all of these projects. no fertilizers, no irrigation, all the things that add to the crisis that we're seeing. In terms of all electric, I know the state's going to mandate that. So, I don't even know if we have control over that anymore. That may be a state require state building code requirement as of 2026. Um,

155so, uh, I would like to see, uh, uh, the projects be at least solar ready because there are grants hopefully, uh, that become available for the ability to put solar on and there's impediments to apartment buildings, etc. with the with one one um, meter for the entire uh, building. And I know Katie Casey has come to us uh and got a grant and looks to do this on on affordable projects. I also don't think people living in these should be excluded and in terms of having a sustainable uh world um and contributing to that. Um and so it for me we I I need to know what we're talking about when we broadly say you know solar or this or that. I also think we can provide incentives for that ourselves as well. >> Yeah.

156I mean, look, I I think if you ask someone who's looking desperately for housing the importance of the green energy aspects of it, they're going to say housing blows everything out the water and and I acknowledge that. I think our position is slightly different here. Like look, we we to Kate's point, we can look at the impacts of climate change and realize that if you can avoid them, it's a lot cheaper to invest early on than to try and fix the problem on the back end. U and we're facing it as a town right now in different aspects. So I I I definitely where possible, I would like to see green energy provisions, but you know, I think we we have to be very careful that that does not impact the deliverability of it. So

157be that through grants or through smart forward planning. Um you know but it's a it's a fine fine balance there. >> I'd prefer solar ready but not mandate solar has to be on top. >> Yeah I'd like to see it all electric with solar ready. I mean that's what the housing authority is doing with they've done it with I believe Gans at Meadow Green at Gardener's Point and they'll be doing it at Route 114. We we said that for the Campwell Court. So I my vote would be for all electric solar ready. >> Yeah, I I support that. But I also would like to move into uh having the having these types of programs also demonstrate that you don't need to have a green turf lawn that you need to fertilize every 5 seconds and

158irrigate to death uh to be able to have native plantings only um and sustainable landscaping included as well. That actually I believe is less expensive than needing a gardener to come every week and and turn it into a toxic green lawn. >> Yeah. No, I'm good with native landscaping. I mean, again, we did that with Campb. >> No, I I agree with all of the these comments and I think the sentiment of this board is is strongly, you know, pro sustainability and green energy. But just to clarify, you know, my position here is I don't believe we should be putting additional restrictions on affordable housing that are above and beyond what we require of everybody else. So, if we want to go all electric or, you know, whatever rules we want, I think that should

159apply for everybody. And I think that if we're, you know, making it more challenging to develop affordable housing because we want them to have a higher sustainability standards, I think we're missing the mark on that. And so, I totally agree. um if the town does a projects ourselves, maybe we want to have these these requirements, but um I think by definition to put an additional stricter standards on affordable housing development, you're going to make it more difficult to to construct. >> So maybe I could look at if it's a nonprofit building the houses, but if it's a forprofit enterprise, I I don't think it puts um an extra burden on the tenants. I think people can build that into the pricing of what they sell to the businesses. >> My challenge about the vegetation is

160there's not many not going to be many natives that are going to be usable for screening, particularly when you're trying to put this type of new zoning into some type of some areas or some neighborhoods, you might want to have different types of screening. And I would probably leave that up to the site plan for the uh site plan application of the planning board at the time. And and the reality is our the garden that change Hampton put in isn't 100% native landscaping, right? I know Edwina used to talk about twothirds for the birds, right? Twothirds of your landscape should be >> should be native. I I just don't think we can look at things in silos and say, "Well, this applies to this and it's a townwide goal except for this this this or

161this." Um, so I I think where we are in time, I think it's important for everyone actually to to have sustainable building. I if we want to promote that across all of our building regulations, I'm happy to investigate that to make it equitable. >> Yeah. No, I think I think I think we agree that I don't want to exempt affordable housing to have to reduce the standards, but I just don't want to increase them. I think that, you know, sustainability >> they still have HERS ratings in it. No, they No, they would it be the aggregate like if you're doing four units or right now it's for 4500 square foot or higher >> but I would imagine if you're doing a multi-residents it would be um additive for each unit. >> Again the state has

162passed legislation >> all electric. It was challenged in court and the challenge was defeated. So I believe that kicks in in 2026 and maybe we could just get an opinion from the legal department if that applies also to affordable housing etc. which would make this conversation kind of me >> out there. Makes sense. >> Find out >> Jake. More work for you Jake. >> Thank you. >> So I guess the the last point was the biggest one and the planning board talked a bit about it and it it covers a lot of different things and and I think honestly you know contradictory things. for example, why would anybody do this? They're not going to make as much money as they possibly can make. That's true, but we can't both maximize, you know, somebody's profits in

163a business endeavor and also keep rents affordable. So, you I I don't understand how we square that circle. Um, you know, what this does, I think it creates a reasonable opportunity that somebody could not lose money by constructing a development and renting it to somebody. It's a reasonable business opportunity, not the not the most profitable one you can do in the Hamptons, but I hope that there's people out there who recognize this is a need and want to construct affordable housing and we'll just acknowledge this isn't going to be, you know, a get-rich quick scheme, but at least we're providing an avenue in which, you know, private developers and yes, a business I, you know, I don't think it's the end of the world if a business constructs stuff that provides affordable housing for our

164workforce. Do I have reservations about people's work being tied to their housing? Of course. Uh does that mean that we shouldn't create opportunities where maybe those are the people who con We'll see what happens. You know, if if if that's who's constructing it, if it's a housing trust and or somebody else who's doing it purely out of the goodness of their heart, fantastic. I think the goal here is to create legislation which leads to opportunities for more units coming from more places. You know, we have the housing authority. The town is going to continue to do all that we can to, you know, to contribute funds. the CH uh funds have been a big part of that. Um but we need, you know, sort of all things at once here and that's that's the goal

165of this legislation. >> Yeah. I just always I'm going to say the same thing. This is such we are one of the most attractive places certainly in New York State and and we rank very highly when uh you research the data from short-term rentals. We are prime territory for maximizing your profit in these types of rentals. So, I just want to know how we're going to make sure that these are going to be used for the use intended. That's extremely important. Uh, and I know, you know, we say you have to register once a year, >> but let's talk about enforcement and how we're going to make sure that that gets enforced, what kind of staff we're going to need. Let's talk about the reality of the cost of that also um type of enforcement

166so we ensure that it happens. Um, and uh, that's the only thing I always say is I want to I have to know that we did our best to make sure that these units are going to go to the people that they are intended to go to. And that that to me across the board I completely agree with and that's the only reason I voted for the community h housing fund when we move that way is for the level enforcement that the mechanism that has to be going through either through the housing office which we initially discussed or the building department then to make sure the units all the units in town not just any new ones we might go are being properly used for the intended results and the intended individuals. I agree with

167that. >> Yeah, I I I would I would totally agree. I mean, I I um look, it's the nature of most people that they're going to look to maximize profit and you know, I you know, you you hope that there's some kind of form of social responsibility that comes with that, but often that's not the case. And I I think we have to have guardrails in place here to ensure that this delivers what the need actually is for the town as a whole. >> So, since these are affordable apartments, we don't as a town typically manage affordable apartments, right? We we give that over to the East Hampton Housing Authority. They've been doing it. They've got five properties, I believe. Well, actually now more with the cottages with 109 Hampton Street. Um and they seem

168to be doing a great job of being able to manage making sure that the folks that are in their units are um living up to they get annual inspections by the commissioners uh to make sure that people are living that their conditions are um safe that there's you know no hoarding going on things like that. So, I mean, I see this as being, you know, we may want to consider, >> say, you know, Acme Business decides to build 12 units, um, that the housing authority is the one that's managing the project and making sure everything is, >> you know, up to >> Yeah, I don't I don't know about the legality of that. That's a that's a fine idea. I also think the housing authority is becoming busier and busier with all the projects they

169have going on. But um I think enforcement is a major is a major consideration, but I think it's this is analogous to our affordable commercial apartments which already require a permit and ADUs. Um you know that they get a permit from the housing department. Um you know they are inspected, things are checked on. If we can tighten that up and make sure that you know things are used as intended, of course. But I think that the the law what the law states if we make sure that's what happens does that job. So, but I think that those concerns are very very valid. And um hey, look, the housing department's a small department in town. You know, if there's a lot of these that exist, we're going to have to think of, you know, how to

170make sure enforcement is a big part of it. >> Yeah. I think it's a kind of concept that might require an oversight committee at a town level that, you know, people have concerns it's being abused or misused. it gets investigated by important and brought to that committee for review. >> You dealing with very sensitive like information. I'm the liaison to the housing authority. When they go into exec session, that's when they discuss tenants. I don't stay for those conversations because I'm not a commissioner. I'm just the the liaison. So I I I you know, you're looking at people's tax returns. I I don't know if having a town citizen committee is the mechanism. That's why I think having been the liaison to the housing authority for two and a half years now, I think it's

171right up their alley um and they have the the expertise and um the processes already in place for for managing this type of thing >> and again not working in silos. We may not have to look at that issue through this particular code, but when I bring the updates to the rental registry code that we have, we may be uh looking at being able to have stronger enforcement of what what gets put out there on uh social on the platforms for these uh for these short-term rentals um etc. So again just looking at it a little bit more holistically how we can tie something uh enforcement for this also into that as well. Yeah, I agree. And again, I just I think that the you know, we already have an analogous situation, which is ADUs,

172which are ADUs and commercial affordable apartments. And so, um, you know, this is sort of lumped in with those. And as affordable housing units expand and grow, enforcement is going to be, you know, a bigger issue. And I'm open to all ideas. If it's the housing authority, if it's some, you know, somebody else, it's important that that the the intended goal is what we achieve. >> Agreed. Uh and then I mean I guess just to just to wrap it up uh there is one one point Eric um that we set the minimum size for one of these unit at 400 square f feet. You and I have spoken about this. Um I was my understanding that was the minimum for ADUs but it's actually 300 ft. And so I would go a little bit smaller

173to say 300 ft again in the interest of being able to provide as many as possible. I don't think there's a lot of, you know, apartments that'll be constructed at 300 square feet, but I don't see the harm in allowing that minimum to match sort of ADU standards. So, that would be one substantive change that I have. Um, beyond that, you know, I want to move forward quickly on this. I think there's a couple of things to to to tidy up here. Um, you know, I think we need to be thoughtful. I think we have been, but I think we need to take action. And I think that um you know through Eric's work and the planning board's comments and and the board here um we've got you know the draft of very good code

174that I think we should um take to public hearing and hopefully adopt soon. >> I' I'd like to see see the changes incorporated that we've spoken about or addressed before we go to public hearing. Which ones in specifically just so I make sure we >> Well, the all of the items that we just talked about. >> I have uh Oh, I was gonna say I have a list. Uh maybe I could read them off and then you know what I mean because I I will work on uh uh draft revisions. >> Yeah, I think that would be helpful just so we have a very, you know, clear understanding of >> Yeah, that works >> before we get there. >> Wait, Eric, hold on. >> Sorry. Sorry, Eric. Good to see you, Eric. Um before we

175get there I might have two more and one might just be for clarity. So chapter 193 160 is where the multiple residency currently is right now. Are we maintaining that in the code or are we going to remove that from the code? >> Chapter 193 >> 193 160. That's where the multiple residency currently is. >> That's where you said you're looking to strike. >> No no no. Uh the use in the code that currently exists that um is a change of a single family residence to a multiple residence with no affordability requirements is in chapter 255. Um it's a use listed in the use table and it has uh its own special permit standards in 25550. Um what I was referencing from chapter 193 which is open space subdivisions. Um there is a provision in

176the code that allows a developer to take a large residential property and rather than dividing it up into lots and a reserved area. They can basically cluster all of their uh density into multifamily residential buildings. It's very uncommon. Um we only have a handful in the town, but you know you'll see a large property with you know connected condo units usually. That that's the mechanism in the code that allows them to do that. Um, I only brought that up in the context of the housing options that exist in the code to show that, you know, we do have this mechanism, but it's certainly not for affordable housing. Um, and it's rarely used. >> Sure. And that that's the Dune Alpen or Treescape or those those discussions. >> Yeah. And that that section doesn't need to

177be revised. >> Okay. >> But the but the one that you said that we're looking to strike, you said that was chapter 255-5-50. Yes. Uh and then so those are these specific special permit standards for various uses and then it goes alphabetically by use. You know retail restaurant or restaurant will come first. >> Um >> is that that happening while we're doing the public hearing for for this? >> Yes. Yeah. I I would propose that you strike that in its entirety while you consider adding this this use. >> Got it. >> I just echo Ian's point. I mean, look, I we we talk about this housing crisis and, you know, I acknowledge we have questions here, but I would like this to move to public hearing as soon as possible. I I think, you know,

178we we have to move on this. Um, you know, and we can address this either by email or offline. Um, >> no, I think we should discuss it in public, but we're going to get a draft code before we get a public hearing. >> We have a draft code. It was a >> Why don't you, Eric, go through the list that you just made? >> So, sorry. I just had I have one more. >> Oh, sorry. >> That was one out of two. Um the second one is this is a little bit potentially different situation for affordable housing from entities that wouldn't be actually maybe not even NGO or government related then too. What what happens for some reason if the the provider of these units somehow was not able to provide the units anymore

179there was bankruptcy or some some other situation and that use ceases on there. Do they have to rem How does that go? Is is it you're removing a use in a special special permit from a project? Does do they have to remove do they have to go and conform to what the code was and what the property was initially or what happens there? >> That's a good question. So if so sell a business sells like we've seen happen multiple times, do they do they are what happens with the >> I think the closest thing I can go to and I mean I I hope this analogy works enough here. If it is an artist studio, artist studios could be larger than accessory structure. But if the if that use ceases based on multiple reasons in

180the code, the structure has to either become the size of a artist of a accessory structure or not. So I guess the situation here is what happens if something 15 20 whatever years goes on it doesn't doesn't work out and two are you now have what do you what do you have on the property at that time? So when we looked at this with the ADU committee, the guidance they gave on this is that the property has to revert back. So the kitchen would have to be taken out. Um you know >> to me with this one like I I I would say that look if someone's going into bankruptcy or the business has gone out the property is likely to sell. I mean that that there in lies a thing. We don't want to

181lose the house. >> So give a grace period maybe. >> Exactly. All right. That might be something. Is there a grace period of a year or something like that to I I mean, you see what I'm getting to? It's it's a >> only kind of I think that like with all zoning, there's there's allowable uses. And so if you own this property and I have to move out of town, I sell the property and that person's allowed to do whatever is allowed by zoning. So they presumably could tear it down and construct a single family home if that's what the zoning allows or they could keep the multiple residents and keep the rents affordable and keep that use going. So to me it works itself out. I mean you're allowed you're allowed to do what

182you're allowed to do and regardless of who owns it, the use exists. >> So even if it what you even if it's a bankruptcy and assets are sold off and this is an asset of the company, the use would still >> stay for well if you buy any property and you buy a property that is currently a restaurant but you want to make a grocery, you know, you're allowed to do what you're allowed to do. So I would hope that somebody would purchase it and I think that if you look at how non-conforming uses have they have been gobbled up by people who want to you know take advantage of that. So I would hope that people would buy it and >> well this won't be non-conforming but I understand. >> No I know but

183I'm saying like if if somebody has a 4unit you know structure on one acre I would hope that the person who buys that or you know acquires it wants to continue that use. >> Would they be prevented? They they have to become come to what the you know the underlying zoning. >> Yeah, they they could they they could convert it into like a single family residence if they wanted to if that's what the zoning allows but in no scenario would they be able to keep four apartments and charge you know have rents that aren't affordable. >> Exactly. That very nice. >> I mean you just you have to follow the rules. It's u to me that's clearcut. I mean, there's going to be interesting business things that happen, but I think that happens with parcels

184anyway, and you just have to abide by zoning. >> Agreed. >> Okay, Eric, you want to go through your list, please? >> And what can I say one other thing? We there Eric did provide the the actual code, and so on the first page, there's the part that's being struck through. I do think that we should be specific about because this is what the presentation was great, the conversation is great, but the the code is the code. And so if there's any details in here that don't conform to what our intentions are, I think we should discuss. The one substantive thing that I had was the 400 ft uh to 300 minimum. Sorry, Erica. >> Yeah, no worries. Um so what what I had um was that perhaps having a requirement um for sustainable landscaping

185um as a reminder you know it is proposed and in that draft code that these would all go in front of the planning board. So they're going to be reviewed uh with a site plan. So that is an an easy enough requirement. The planning board already encourages use of native plants, drought tolerant plants. um requires that any invasives be removed from landscaping and screening plans. So, you know, th this would sort of further something that they're they're already doing. So, um sustainable landscaping being one requirement. The other two kind of related were um solar ready and all electric. Um, I will say not to um refute those, but just to say for the board, you could have those be hard requirements. You could also have them be suggestions for the town board. So, in other

186words, something to the effect of, you know, all units must be solar ready, you know, as determined by uh the building department or or someone an expert. All units must be all, you know, all electric. Um or you could say, you know, um the planning board is encouraged to, you know, work with the applicants to to have them be this way, have it be a softer, um not a hard requirement. I I'll let you discuss that. Um but I guess the one thing in this though is that I do we did craft this and we do envision it being an option also for you know and again totally dependent on which properties you would give the AHO designation to but for let's say you know an older home um or you know the a lot

187that has an existing single family residence that wants to do a relatively cheap interior partition. Um, so I I you know, as this is crafted, it's meant to also apply to that situation and it might be a lot more difficult um for that individual who is also, by the way, presumably a just a private homeowner and not a business. >> So we al we had this situation come up in in uh uh what the state requires. It's a 50% more renovation. There's numbers that we can target so that it doesn't >> keep people with smaller projects from being able to do that. We we we have examples of that. Gotcha. So, it's like a a substantial expansion kind of uh provision. >> So, I just want to call out if we're reviewing the code in

188255501. Uh I think we had a different discussion. It says this shall be unlawful unless in the affordable housing overlay district, but I thought we came up with an idea that people could come to us with uh singular properties, right? But then we would still have to we would have the planning department. So somebody comes to us, we refer it to the planning department, they take a look at it. We would still have to have a public hearing to put an AHO on that property. >> Yeah. I mean, the issue is is how we expand the AHO if it's an individual case. Like this could only take place in an AHO, the the conversation we had was if people ask us to designate a particular property, we then designate it as an AHO, right? >>

189As opposed to public hearing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Any zone change would be >> Yeah. And sort of There's sort of two ways that a zone change will come up. One, and I believe is the the better way, um, is in a comprehensive look at where to add, you know, substantial areas of AHO. Um, the other though, and any property owner in the town is fully within their rights and it's c a codified process, anyone can petition the town board for adding the AHO or or changing my zoning from A5 to A2 or, you know, anyone can petition the town board. So, and you know that because you've already had that. Um I know there's a property on 3M Harbor Road uh that has asked the board about adding the AHO so that they can do

190um staff housing. Um so it really could come up either way. >> Yeah, I I just Googled the all electric building code and it's uh basically um it's going to be required of most new buildings to be all electric starting in 2026. The code's going to be phased in with buildings of seven stories or less required to comply starting in 26 and larger buildings following in 2029. So Jake, you'll do your research, but this may have already been decided for us. >> Yes, that's what I was saying. >> Um, and also then number three, dimensional regulations. We talked about minimum lot area required and I think you >> Yeah, I I was thinking more like 40,000 square feet, not 20,000 initially. >> I I would be in favor of the 20. I mean, it goes

191back the same with the ADUs. I think the it just limits how much we can provide by having the larger lot. >> Yeah. I'm good with 20. >> I I think so on 20,000 foot you would be able to put two units. Mhm. >> I think uh I think an acre >> for maximizing the potential of what you could put on a on for affordable housing. I think four units really should be the minimum. >> Well, we wouldn't be maximizing anything then. We're just we're restricting it on the smaller ones because on a halfacre you couldn't do four. It's true. But it would be be more opportunities for more units. I understand where you guys are coming from, but we're not preventing the four on the 1 acre. just allowing the two on a halfacre

192in the proposed scenario. Yeah, I just would like to promote the four on an acre >> and I I would prefer to start right now with you with with the acres zone and for with the four 40,000 right now we went down to uh you know the detached to 20,000 maybe even lower also support also but I think with this new code 40,000 right now is is a good starting point to see how it affectuates itself and rolls out into >> Yeah, that that's fine. My my only concerns are again is being more restrictive that we're doing this because there's not a lot of properties of more than three acres. >> There's not a ton of properties more than one acre and so are we going to find a property that is 3/4 of an

193acre we think would have been perfect and isn't allowed. So I I I do feel that 20,000 is appropriate but noted that we don't have consensus there. >> Okay. So, we could get this revised and bring it back to the work session on Tuesday because we can't notice it until the 21st anyway. So, c >> can I can we see a clarification of what we're revising though because sustainable landscaping I I am not in favor of of a stricter code for this type of development than any other. So, do we have consensus that everybody wants to add in code for multiple residents that requires a different type of landscaping than we required on for regular residents? I would like to see it across the town on regular residents. But certainly separate conversation. >> I think

194that if we're opening up opportunities and thinking about the future because we really can't go back in time and change these regulations 20 years ago if we knew what was going to happen with this stuff that uh I don't really think it's an impediment not to have a manicured Kentucky blueg grass lawn that has to be irrigated. I think it saves money to do to do sustainable landscaping. And I think again we can't work in silos where we're ignoring everything else and just you know uh only applying it to certain circumstances. I I think it's important uh for the future um and for drinkable water etc and for pollinators and for all the things we talk about all the time to apply those rules. I would like to see across the board. >> I I

195share Kate's concerns. However, I think to do that, I think that should be an overall code change that affects every properties. I don't think we should be focusing that on these properties because I think the housing need is so great. >> And if it's as important that important issue, which I don't disagree with, and we were to change it townwide, it would immediately apply to this as well. So again, if we do it only for this where there are no units available and don't do it for us to the town, I don't think we're making an environmental improvement, but I think we're being still more restrictive for affordable housing. >> So I think part of our job is to not just always say, well, this has always been this way and if we're not going

196to go back in time and change it, but we're looking for future planning, right? we're building the these are new units that would be built again subject to the to the existing if it's an existing or if it's a new development and I I don't see an impediment for uh landscaping to not to be sustainable. I don't understand how you don't have to put irrigation in, you don't have to do this. How is that an impediment to being able to build these? >> Well, I just think generally stronger stricter rules for this than everything else. I don't think we would do much environmental good if this is a big problem, but we didn't draft legislation to to do it in every residential case, but only for affordable multiple residences. So, >> so I'm I'm in

197well, we're doing with all town projects as well. And I think that we should start promoting these ideas by being an example of of this in our new construction and not just saying, well, we didn't make other people do it in the past or we didn't have the knowledge. So, can can I just ask er Eric, how is it done when it goes when a site plan goes before the planning board and h what's the language that's used um for for this lane? >> So, what we almost always require, you know, the first layer of review will come from the planning department um in review of what was submitted for the planning board. We always uh prohibit the inclusion of any invasive species. Um we always recommend use of native species. Um but as long

198as something is not invasive, you know, if it's ornamental but not native, it's usually allowed. Um they're getting more towards the need for irrigation um and specific types of plants. Um there isn't anything that prohibits use of irrigation just generally. Um, but most landscaping plans don't include that. Um, you know, maybe to start uh plantings, but honestly with this, I don't think it would be that difficult or that ownorous on the applicants. I mean, especially if what we're talking about at the end of the day is sort of less than more. So, in other words, we're talking about not having irrigation systems, um, having plants that are drought tolerant. Um, you know, I I don't know that it would necessarily be problematic to have that as a requirement that there be sustainable um landscaping. >>

199What does that mean in in precise words though? Cuz a requirement that sustainable landscaping to me doesn't What does that mean? I mean, unless I'm mistaking the term, I I think it just means uh something that doesn't require extensive you or any use of fertilizer, irrigation, is a native plant species, is drought tolerant. I mean, uh perhaps you could correct me if I'm wrong because you're you're kind of using the term sustainable landscaping. We don't >> would a lawn fall into that category? >> Yes. a a Kentucky bluegrass lawn that is not a natural uh land landscape that you have to perpetually fertilize and water to be able to have it live. I think that's not that's an example of not of unsustainable landscaping. >> Yeah. I I >> but having grass with clover that

200doesn't get fertilized >> or watered water is fine. >> Um I think that also again silos, right? So, we're talking about, oh, we don't want to put an impediment on uh on these projects, but we're also we're we're seeing massive uses across the town for land watering, for landscaping that's impacting our groundwater. And setting the example, I think, is something that we do. We set the example for how to do it a better way that that that lessens impacts, overall impacts on the community. And these aren't impact you see within a month. These are longer term impacts that we're seeing now. If we could go back in time and change some things, we certainly would have and I really I I don't I the question is how is this an impediment to anyone providing affordable

201housing? >> Well, you just re reminded me like right now S County Water Authority has got us at a level one, right? And people are supposed to be who do water their lawn. If your house ends in an even num a number, you can water on an even day. But if it falls on an odd number, they're asking you to, you know, water on an odd day. So in order to conserve. So I mean, I think that Eric can find the language u because they're doing it now when they're when they're doing the memos that they're writing to the planning. >> I agree. I think I think to Ian's point, sir, like this should be applied townwide, not just to these projects. I'd like to bring that forward, but I think we start by leading

202by example. >> Well, but if we do our own projects, then then I agree we can set our own standards and make sure that it includes everything. This is legislation that's supposed to create opportunities for anybody. So, they won't only be our projects. And I mean, I also just would have to voice concern, you know, well, first of all, I I think that the specificity of these words matter and we aren't being precise enough that, you know, what is it like what kind of grass is okay and what kind is not. I think it's going to be tricky to do that. Um, but also we want landscaping to be successful. So, if we just say you can't irrigate and then somebody plants, it's a drought right now. >> I haven't irrigated in seven years. I

203have really nice clover and stuff growing in my backyard. >> So, I'm not in favor this right now. I may have to break >> pesticides or or any fertilizers in years. >> David, >> yeah, I'm not I'll use the word prefer. Go to site plan. Let them at site plan. uh find out what's what's most most sensitive use uh sustainable native be very honest native vegetation there's a lot we put out there and the deer brows and people are spend tens of thousands of dollars uh on something that's going to eaten that's a whole separate story but what happens when we're trying to almost allow for more density and sometimes in some of our our community our neighborhoods we need to be able to screen that at times and allow the site plan and the

204planning board to be able to give the recommendations or the or the definitions to the applicant and sometimes that's not going to be able to be done by we're not going to be able to screen uh screen the neighborhoods through native or sustainable landscaping. So I would give the preference to the the planning department in the planning board personally and not make it a required but preferred might be the word I would use on there as far as going to the electric. Yes, I think we'd make that required for so for solar to be prepared for solar. >> Okay. So, preferred sustainable native landscaping, but have the the properties be solar ready and have the properties be all electric. >> I'm comfortable with that. >> I I don't think we should have a more strict

205require I mean, so take a scenario. Somebody's either going to build a 4-unit, you know, affordable multiple residence development or a, you know, mini mansion. in the affordable multiple residence scenario, they would have to meet a stricter standard than for the mini mansion. That makes no sense to me. >> So, to me, what we're talking about is so now I'm I'm I'm going to build a multi- residence. I'm making a choice between uh you know, an electric stove, induction stove, and a gas stove. I'm making a difference decision between an electric dryer and a and a gas dryer. I I I don't think that that's too much of a burden to ask people to use electric all electric appliances. >> I mean, I would love to bring all electric back. I we didn't have support

206when when it first got brought to the to the uh board um in two different presentations. We we did not have consensus on that. But if the board's expressing now that they'd like to see that again, I'm happy. >> We we decided that there there we wanted this the state was like on the precipice. it goes into effect 2026. We knew that there were going to be lawsuits and we didn't want to be, you know, the one that drove that or have to defend against it. And it was something that gave people plenty of notice to ramp up to 2026 when they had to go all electric. I mean, I'm still good with that decision we made. I mean, 2026 is five months away. >> Yeah. Again, my thing is just whether it's a burden

207or or whatever we want to call it, it's a restriction we would be applying to only affordable multiple residents, but not in the scenario of a wealthy home that we've all sort of talked about. So, I don't understand the why we want to be more strict. >> We've done it already. We set precedent. We can't go court. >> No, it's but that's different. That's our project. So, we're funding it. We can do what we want to do. This is legislating. I I so I think if you go through the things I think that we have consensus for preferred sustainable native landscaping and let the planning board and the uh department handle that but I think we've got consensus three to two for solar ready and all electric. I don't know where you I'm I >>

208aren't we asking Jake to find out if the these new state regulations apply to these developments? But I think regardless that sounded like three of us were good with all electric. >> I again for a private developer I I just don't see it as what the burden is. >> I guess if just one point would be if you have an existing property and the utility set up for that property is gas and you know not solar you are imposing that extra cost on them to create affordable housing. That's not something I want to have happen because I want to deliver affordable housing. >> So that's why it would apply just like the state code is going to apply and things that we do in building uh to enforce things on a certain percentage of it

209of of upgrade we have. If it's less than 50%, it doesn't apply. If it's less than this, it doesn't apply. We we write those in specifically to protect um people from having to go out of their way for existing structures. What we're really looking to do is again plan for the future and start to direct where we want the future to go, >> our new construction. >> So, Eric, do you have enough details there of how you would, you know, I'm I'm not in favor of that change, but I do want to make sure we have some concrete, you know, we can put it in the code and and bring it back. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, I was going to I I think Jake is going to look into some of the issues regarding

210the all electric. The solar ready aspect, which I see is sort of two different elements or requirements. Um, it's my understanding there's some kind of policy of when that has to be done, that there's like a a rule about substantial expansion. I think that's what you were saying. Um, >> yeah, there's rules about substantial expansion. we have them, you know, we we have rules that trigger that as well. >> Okay. So, I want to get um more information on both of those just to craft the wording um appropriately. But, uh I think I think with knowing that there's going to be that further um you know, looking into uh what the the rules are, I can I have what I need to to craft an an amendment. >> Yeah. I mean, in conjunction with the

211town attorney's office. I don't know who got Jake assigned as the attorney to work with Eric on this, but >> Oh, it's you. >> Oh. Oh, Britney. So, Britney will be can assist you. Okay, great. >> In the lot area, did we have consensus on that? I think we did, right? It's going to be to 40,000. >> Yeah. I think I think David, Kate, and myself were more comfortable with 40 initially. And I will also make the change that the minimum um size of a unit is 300 square feet with 300. >> Yes. Okay. So it's 400 goes to 300 square feet. >> Beautiful. Thank you. It's good to see you, Eric. >> Thanks a lot, Eric. >> Yes, Eric. It's good to see you. >> Hopefully we'll have you back next week. >> All

212right. Yep. And um just so you know too um so I will uh draft a revision first um and and uh send it around to you uh ahead of that. Just want to make that clear >> and please work with Britney. Okay. Lastly is Ditch Plane's June reconstruction. Kate Catherine, could you pull that up please? >> Thank you, Catherine. I appreciate you running the presentation. So this is a brief update on uh the ditch plains dune reconstruction project. I just wanted to remind uh the first slide um after the title we can go to the next slide that will just uh it just is a summary of the uh project milestones to date. So uh 20 uh $2.5 million was secured from Governor Hokll for the project in addition to matching town funds. uh we

213contracted with Dr. Henry Bokenvich who was the director of Somas coastal ocean uh action strategies institute and laboratory to give us a model of what he thought would be most protective for the ditch plains neighborhood. Uh we then contracted with uh coastal science and engineering which is an awardwinning team of scientists and engineers who specialized in problem solvings in the coastal zone. Um we also uh worked with a team a staff team as well from natural resources department and the planning department in the uh design of this uh project. We uh had a complete design applied to the DEEC earlier this year for a permit to which is the permit that we need to be able to do this reconstruction of the dune and we received that permit on uh July 31st, 2025. And then

214our next steps, which is on the next slide, Katherine, thank you. Um, we are securing easements from the private property owners and we'll issue a request for bids. >> Oh, bids. Yeah, >> We'll go out for bid for contractors for the build and then we will reconstruct the dune. Uh, this is meant to take place in the fall of this year. Um and then the last slide is the uh approved uh plan on the permit from the uh DEEC of where the dune will uh be constructed. As you can see for the parking lot areas uh in order to maintain public access. We are not building a dune across uh that area. What we will do is what we've done in the past and again these are approved plans by the DEC. will plug those

215with sand uh with something coming in uh that we've done on odish uh success >> when there's when there's a storm. >> Yeah. A storm approaching. Um we've had very good accretion um on on ditch the burm of the beach this year, but we still are at a no profile for a dune. And in order to protect the neighborhood, the will be constructing a dune. Um it is based on uh funding opportunities that exist right now on FEMA in the event of uh damage to the dune in a storm. Um of course that's up in that type of funding is up in the air as well. Um but we are going to build it to the uh design standards that Dr. Bukanvich first uh set out for us in order to protect the ditch planes

216neighborhood. Um and uh that's where we are at the moment. So, um, we have we know that the bids will be going out soon. >> Uh, they're going out September 4th and they're due back September 25th. >> So, we're moving ahead basically moving ahead with the project. We'll stabilize the project uh for over the winter um and make sure that we'll uh be able to have vegetation on it as well. And of course, that vegetation, everything that happens is part of the DEC permit. >> Yeah. I just want to say Kate, thank you for moving this forward. I think this is a really important project. I know it takes a lot of work to get it in order. Um, and I know the dune's going to look different. Um, but I've heard nothing but positive

217feedback and support from people who use that beach. I think it'll be a more resilient, safer coastline and and and again, I know it's been a process. So, thank you for moving along. >> Yeah. And the Thank you, Ian. The support from the neighborhood. I mean, we saw unprecedented flooding uh in that neighborhood um with three just three unnamed storms that happened over December 2023 and 2024. So, um we were so fortunate that uh the FIMP project, the renourishment of that beach happened right after that. Um and now this is uh uh what we want to do for ditch and I know that David through uh the fimp project was we are working on having ditch included as a betterment um in terms of for the army corps project but this is something that we

218all we all agree is is critical to happen as soon as possible to protect that neighbor as much as we can. >> Yeah I I echo my colleague sensment. Thank you Kate for for bringing this forward. Um it it's you know we we understand the economic benefit of this beach to the town as a whole. Um the surf community, the surf culture and the businesses have built up around that in the town are huge. Um so this is critical. I I just looking at the aerial, you know, the one thing that, you know, I know we've talked about both internally is the hard structure in front of the um the trailer park, you know, obviously has had an impact on the erosion in this beach um to some degree. What have we kind of planned

219for in terms of the June to kind of bear that impact as it goes forward? >> So, the dune will not be reacting with the uh with the the tides. it's it's being placed far back enough to not be in the title uh area. But also I have to say that both Dr. Bukanevich and and Coastal Engineering did not attribute what was happening at Ditch >> to that structure. Um which is >> how I you know hard structures are not something I would ever say are important unless you're at the point where um nothing else is going to work and we're not at that point yet. We're still looking at natural solutions. Um, but it is a permitted structure. So, I don't think we there's any action that we can take. >> Thank you. >>

220So, I look for the process moving forward. I think everyone has to recognize that this dune that's going to be built there is going to change the profile of that beach. Uh, but it's going to be a more sustainable and protect the neighborhood again economically also then too. But there's going definitely going to be a profile change there from a large amount of sand that's added to it. So if you have any questions, please reach out. >> Yes. >> Great. Okay, we are now going to move on to liaison reports. Tom, >> thank you madam supervisor. One second. Pull it out. >> Um the amigance assistance advisory committee met last night. We had the Amagansit fire chief as the guest speaker. There was discussion around the fire for July fire um in the Nep area.

221Um recap was giving the chief's meeting. um questions that did come up you know that um I advised people on first was you know the concept of evacuation in the event of a larger fire what people should do about that um I've advised people as before please go to the town's emergency preparedness web page um additionally we have geo fencing in place that should there be an incident in that area you can be contacted by text um one thing that committee sorry community members did bring up which I think is a good concept is uh it might be worthwhile in the next few months to put some signage out in in the town uh just warning of fire risk especially in that Nep area to avoid people throwing cigarettes out the window etc. the old

222smoky the bear concept um additionally some good news for Amagans that I delivered to them last night um with regards to Cranberry Hall Road Bridge. So as people are aware that the funding for that bridge was approved in the MTA's 2025 2029 capital plan with that critical step completed the procurement package has now been approved and has been advertised for proposals. Uh it's anticipated this will be awarded by the end of this year uh with the project team's help. They're hopeful that the um uh they will begin work on that project at the uh next year. Um fire marshall's office. I just wanted to deliver some stats from the fire marshall's office as to what they've been up to year to date. Um you know key numbers here. Commercial fire inspections were at 1350 uh

223on properties. Um public assembly inspections they've done a thousand this year. Uh the fire marshall's office has issued 233 notice of violation. Um they've performed 178 technical and construction assistant projects. They've issued 62 tent permits. Uh they've issued 20 uh traffic tickets. Please do not park in front of fire hydrants. Remind us to the public. Um 60 business permits issued. Uh 20 ADA inspections, 50 building and equipment plan reviews. Um and 33 fire investigations. uh performing a huge amount of work uh late into the night. Just want to pass my thanks on to all members uh all employees in that department for the great job they are doing. Um public safety um raised to me by some of the fire chiefs Edge Street. Um there was another instant this weekend. There was an EMS call

224there this weekend and the responders were nearly hit by vehicles passing. Um you know the parking in the the side of the roads there is hugely problematic. Um I have reached out to uh county legislator and wel to discuss this and kind of come up with some new proposed plans. It's it's a problematic area but it's something that we will have to take action to address in the future because >> they didn't close I thought they closed the road down. They didn't close the road down. >> No, they had to close the road down after that occurred. Yeah. >> Um so so of of major concern. Um I I had the honor of attending the Eastville Community Historical Society event this week. Um it it was a charming and very well attended event. Thank you

225to Dr. Key for coordinating that. Um I encourage residents if they can to visit that site. Um there's some fantastic artwork in that building as well by local artists and it commemorates the history. Um really great to attend. So there was that >> and thank you for giving them the proclamation. and it was their 40th annual fish fry and they wanted to honor some of the elders that had started that uh that effort. So, >> I appreciate you going to >> No, it was it was great and I have to say it was some of the best carrot cake I've ever had. Thank you to them for that. Uh and then then just lastly for my leaders and reports um for the tick committee. So, I I don't know if we're aware but uh Senator

226Gillibbrand recently called for 12 million for the development uh for the Department of Defense tick born disease research program. Um this is obviously a huge issue out here. Um uh Assemblyman Shioone I know has been working in Albany to kind of get this to the top of the agenda as well. Um we've we've been meeting as a committee throughout the year. We're now into the stage about prevention tactics. So we've had initial discussions around the four poster program um you know tubes to address small mammals um you know managing the deer population as well to do this. that there's some things I think actions we could take as a town that could really mitigate this. Um so if there is funding available at a federal or a state level is something that I'd like for

227us to pursue and potentially match to kind of start to address this across the town. Um that's it for my le report. >> Great. Thanks Tom. David >> I'm going to punt everything to next next week. >> Okay. >> You're welcome. Chris Walsh. >> I'm up. >> Yes. You're up. >> I'm going to uh uh talk about uh St. Matthews Chapel. Uh I'm going to take my lean report time to talk about St. Matthews Chapel. Um this past Sunday I uh attended the Calvary Baptist Church barbecue which is back to everyone's delight and um deliciousness. Um and I uh sat with the pastors and um talked about uh uh the topic of St. Matthew's Chapel uh came up. And for folks that don't know the St. Matthews Chapel uh for more than a century was

228the center of an East Hampton community of indigenous black and white worshippers and it was uh rescued from demolition in in 1776 and put onto a private property. Uh there have been efforts uh this church was erected in 1852 um and it was throughout its life as a church was the uh the Freetown building was at the center of a multithnic community. Um, in fact, uh, Stephen Talkhouse was eulogized. I've I've met people that have been baptized and got married in in the chapel as well. It's quite small. And, uh, back in 2022, there was some efforts to, uh, to talk to the, uh, private property owner about, uh, restoring the Freetown Chapel back to uh, Freetown um, and the Calvary Baptist Church or or an appropriate location. And I just uh after speaking to

229people in Freetown uh and Prudence Caribbean's efforts to uh bring the history of Freetown to the future um I I will be pursuing taking this effort uh up again um on behalf of uh the residents of Freetown. >> Thanks Kate. That's it. >> Uh yeah, just a brief report. First of all, I always say this when nobody's here anymore, but another, you know, tribute to the library and and providing this space with the turnout that we had. I think it's just great to see and that happened last month as well. So, greatly appreciated that that you allow us here and it's it's great to see so many people um enjoy it. Uh egg advisory has been cancelled for this Thursday. Well, canceled maybe that's not even true. They they never really intend to meet throughout

230the busiest part of the part of the season, but just so everybody knows, there will not be egg advisory meeting this coming Thursday. Um, property management committee will meet next Wednesday at 4:30 at town hall August 20th. Um, one of the main things we're talking about is the management plan for the Osborne Homestead. And and recently I was reached out to by a couple of people from Wayne Scott who sort of did it with trepidation, frankly, and said, "Oh, when's the appropriate time to talk? Should we wait till the public hearing?" And the answer is no. Don't wait. Um, we're drafting a plan now. I want to hear from everybody. And I I promise you I'll listen. I won't promise you I'll agree, but I'll listen. And the best time to have your voice heard

231is from the very beginning. Um, of course there will be a public hearing once we have a draft plan, but that plan will only be better for having comment. So, if anybody has any strong thoughts about that, uh, make sure you reach out and we can incorporate them. And of course, everybody's welcome to attend, uh, that meeting. The Parson's Blacksmith shop will be open on August 23rd. I'll remind you again next week. Uh, that coincides with the farmers market. Um, you know, right across from Ashwag Hall. I encourage everybody to check it out. that building has been uh cleaned up by the Springs Historical Society. And again, I'll do my my weekly plug of the 50th anniversary of the Springs Historical Society with all sorts of great events. And um a week from Saturday, the

232Parsons Blacksmith Shop being open will be one of them. Uh lastly, uh I, you know, want to share some what I think is very, very good news. We closed on a property for the uh home ownership program, affordable home ownership in in town. And and frankly, there's been some some frustration here with closing on deals based on a a ground lease. We used to own the land and and lease it to somebody and that has caused problems recently with lenders and uh state organizations and like I said, it's been it's been pretty frustrating. I know people in the public sometimes want things to move more quickly and uh this was one that was was frankly baffling that you know, all these organizations trying to provide affordable housing were finding reasons why, you know, it didn't

233work. But John Jill Nikki, Eric Shance, and a number of people worked with, you know, outside council with the state. Um, and we switched to a deed restriction. So, we'll be selling the land in totality, but with restrictions in place to make sure that the affordability is maintained over the long haul. So, I I just see that as a momentous thing. It's been too long since we've closed. Um hopefully we have a document in place now that will facilitate um transfers and it mirrors more um you know accurately what people are doing in in traditional transactions. And so I think that's really really good news and and again just want to recognize Jean Jiki who who who did a lot of the work here and and Eric Chance as well and of course Jake. >>

234So that's all I have. >> All right. So uh during the summer I usually give the East Hampton Town Police Department weekend activity update. So, this is Friday through 6:00 a.m. Monday. They had 242 calls for service, nine total arrests, 17 residential noise complaints, eight commercial noise complaints with one violation issued, six accidents, 24 aided cases. Um, they wrote six summones for town ordinances, four open alcohol, two public urination, their supplemental shift, which works late Saturday night. uh wrote tickets for four stopped in roadway, two moving violations, and seven parking summones. The sand castle contest at Atlantic Beach went out went off without any incident. We also had SLA investigators out on Sunday afternoon and inspections were performed with PD, fire marshals, and code enforcement. Uh right now we're in the throws of 2026 budget

235meetings with department heads. So, uh, town board members have been meeting with their liaison as the liaison and we're, you know, getting, uh, what the department heads are looking for in 2026. Um, fire protection districts. There was a public comment on Thursday night where Mr. Buddha was asking, uh, what the breakdown was for the two different uh, fire protection districts. So the in 2026, the Northwest Fire Protection District, it's $2.56 million and the East Hampton Water Supply and Fire Protection District is 1.3 million. And in 2027, the Northwest Fire Protection District is 2.6 million and the East Hampton Water Supply and Fire Protection District is 1.36 million. And lastly, I know uh Big John said it. We have a um ri big celebration coming up this Friday 2 to 4 at the Mont Talk Playhouse

236and uh for the ribbon cutting and I had the privilege of going through the building last Friday and I just want to say it's a wow. I spoke to Jen Akona who's the um board president now and she took um former board uh board members and board presidents through and they were in tears. So uh really exciting. I hope you all can join us. Uh we've actually asked LTV to film film it so that um because I think they have over 200 people signed up right now uh to attend. But it's um it the building's stunning and it's going to be so welcomed by our community. So let's go to resolutions. >> Kathy, can I just say I'm sorry, two omissions. Uh one of which is LTV. I also want to acknowledge their effort in

237making the the Montalk Library a space as well. Um they did a lot of work to make this h happen. And then also Habitat for Humanity was a partner in that home sale that we just did and I want to acknowledge the work that they do. Uh Diane Manders and their whole team have been great and I hope to work with them again in the future. >> Sounds good. Thanks >> Tom. >> Yes. I'll start with resolution 20251092. Uh this is to authorize attendance of the food managers course at the human services department. Be it resolved the town board hereby authorizes Miss Michelle Pasilico senior citizen program advisor Holly Miller assistant cook and Selena Cze assistant cook to attend this training at a registration fee of $50 per employee total cost of $150. >> Second.

238>> All in favor? I >> I'm pleased to be a able to offer resolution 2025 1093. This is appoint seasonal lifeguards in the recreational department for August 2025 retroactive to August 10th 2025 means position and pay rates listed below. >> Second. All in favor? I >> 1094 accept a donation to the Montalk Playhouse in a budget modification where the town of East Hampton uh has been aware that the Montalk Playhouse Foundation making a donation to the town for recre recreational to facil uh recreational equipment to the Montalk Playhouse uh from the gentleman named Brian Camp in the amount of $15,000. We're increasing the revenue line for gifts and donations in the amount of $15,000 and an expenditure line in the amount of $15,000. This is going to go to sporting equipment. I thank Mr. Cantamp.

239>> Second. All in favor? >> I >> 1095 is a water quality grant extensions. Uh multiple ones. The first one, the project sponsors the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology. The next one is for the MAL Historic, sorry, East Hampton Historical Society or Wastewater Treatment uh treatment improvements. Again, these authorizes one-year extensions. >> Second. All in favor? >> I have resolution 1096. It's to amend urban renewal map SP-4-2, urban renewal parcel 161, and this is to move an access point. Uh the town board held a public hearing on July 3rd to consider this um moving the access point, and this will go uh take the access point for that parcel from Harbor Boulevard to Park Street. This is a type uh let's see this is a uh under the provisions of SRA uh

240a negative declaration and resolve that the town board hereby approves the modification to move the driveway access from the parcel from Harbor Boulevard to Park Street with said driveway being no closer than 50 ft to the eastbound travel lane of Harbor Boulevard. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I resolution 1097. This is to authorize a transfer of funds. Um, the finance department is hereby authorized a transfer $220,000 from Nap Peak Beach Construction to the land building upgrades. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Resolution 1098. This is to authorize an appraisal for Suffach County Tax Map number 300-144.01-1-76.001. Um, this is to authorize an appraisal uh for a lease prao in the amount of $600. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Resolution 20251099 is a list appointment to police

241officer police academy and this is for six individuals Abraham Bado Julie Catalanada Corin Inju Tyler Kilnik Michael Lecher and this is for them to attend the police academy effective August 17th 2025 and their annual salary will be $66,54867. 7 cents. Second. All in favor? I. >> Resol resolution 1100 is to amend resolution 2025 952 John Low to begin police officer police academy. So we had put uh Mr. Low um on an unpaid leave of absence waiting for the academy to start. So his leave of absence will end on August 16th. He'll be back on the payroll uh August 17th and so that he can attend the academy. Second. All in favor? >> I. >> 11:01 is to authorize the use of the town credit card for police department training and this is in a cost

242not to exceed $1500. Second. All in favor? >> I. Resolution 11:02. We held a public hearing uh last Thursday. This is for the 2025 agreement with the village of Sag Harbor for the East Hampton Road Protection District and the payment of $67,8118 shall be made for such services for the 12-month period of 2025. Second. All in favor? >> I. >> And I believe that's what we have. So, do I have a motion to go into exec session? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for litigation, CPF, public safety and personnel. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you everyone for joining us and thank you LTV. >> We have a time. >> Yeah. Um, >> thank you everybody. You are off the air. Thank