Government

Pledging “leadership, perspective, and common-sense solutions,” the East Hampton Town Republican Committee’s slate launched its 2023 campaign last Thursday with a fund-raiser at the Blend at Three Mile Harbor restaurant in Springs.

A bill that passed in the New York State Assembly, but has yet to win approval in the Senate, would restrict the use of popular pesticides known as neonics, which are commonly used on lawns to kill grubs but persist in the environment and are affecting populations of pollinators and causing water contamination.

With growing calls to rein in the rampant development and redevelopment characterized by outsized houses and abundant lot coverage in East Hampton Town, Councilwoman Cate Rogers announced a new zoning code amendment work group that will begin with an assessment of residential zoning and, “where needed, reducing house size, clearing, total lot coverage, how we classify natural grade and below-grade development, and other sections” of the code.

East Hampton Town is expected to participate in a new and expanded demand response program this summer, with eight town-owned buildings reducing stress on the electrical grid during periods of peak demand by switching to on-site emergency propane generators for brief periods.

A process that began eight years ago came to a sudden ending last week, as the East Hampton Town Planning Board voted 5-to-1 to allow a 70-foot cell tower at St. Peter’s Chapel in Springs.

With all hurdles overcome, Southampton Town is poised to become the first municipality on Long Island to implement a community choice aggregation program, a model that replaces the utility as the default sole supplier of electricity or natural gas and gives municipalities the opportunity to seek lower prices from alternative suppliers.

The long-awaited renovation, which has been split into three phases by the East Hampton Village Board, is underway. First up: a new softball diamond, tennis courts, and walkways, all set to be complete by summer, along with the restroom. Left out of this early work are pickleball and the baseball field.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to address a statewide housing shortage by building 800,000 new residences over the next decade has been removed from the state’s 2024 executive budget. Widely panned here, it would have effectively eliminated “decades of work put into creating our own local zoning, building, and environmental regulations,” an East Hampton Town planner told the town board last month.

On Wednesday, when the East Hampton Town Planning Board holds a public hearing concerning site plan approval for Rita Cantina, a restaurant near Maidstone Park in Springs, the public may be a bit frustrated, because the hearing concerns only parking and the legalization of an existing fence.

End Citizens United has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s First Congressional District, his 2022 campaign for Congress, his campaign treasurer, and his 2020 State Senate campaign violated the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act and F.E.C. regulations.

A couple who lives next to Herrick Park in East Hampton Village is seeking to stop the village from building lighted pickleball courts in the park and making other improvements there. Meanwhile on Friday, the village board agreed to amend the village code regarding pickleball courts and impose a six-month moratorium on conversion of tennis courts and other playing courts on residential property to pickleball courts.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has temporarily closed multiple waterways on the East End to the harvesting of shellfish and carnivorous gastropods because shellfish there have tested positive for saxitoxin, a neurotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP, high levels of which can cause severe illness and death. To date, East Hampton Town waterways have not been affected by the neurotoxin.