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Village Study Proceeds Planners Hear About Coastal Zone Proposal Thomas Thorsen, East Hampton’s Town planner, last week informed Planning Board members of various “inconsistencies” between the Coastal Zone Management Plan being drawn up by County officials, and the Town’s own Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Thorsen’s report was based on information supplied by his assistant, Gene Cross, who has been serving on a special citizens’ advisory committee involved in the formulation of the CZM plan for Long Island. Mr. Cross had been given a glimpse of “what the CZM plan has in store for East Hampton” at a recent meeting in Hauppauge, Mr. Thorsen said. The plan is being drawn up by the Bi-County Regional Planning Board with money provided by the Federal government under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. The Regional Board has been working on the project for two years, looking at such problems as coastline erosion, drainage, pollu tion, and energy, and is scheduled to formulate recommendations to deal with the problems and manage de velopment along the coast by early next year. The final report will be submitted to the Suffolk Legislature and to all ten Town Boards in the County. Offshore Oil Service Mr. Thorsen said the preliminary presentation of the CZM plan viewed by Mr. Cross indicated Fort Pond Bay in Montauk would be listed as a “potential” site for construction of a facility to service offshore oil/rigs. The plan would not recommend the Bay for offshore oil-related activities per se, John Collins, the Philadelphia plan ning consultant who has been hired to study problems in the central business district of East Hampton Village, has begun making plans for improving traffic flow, increasing parking, and beautifying the area. The plans, three in all, were dis cussed at a recent meeting between Mr. Collins and the special committee appointed by Mayor Douglas Dayton to advise the planner in his work. They were also discussed last week at a meeting of the Village Planning Board. There are some proposals common to all of Mr. Collins’s plans, including one to improve traffic flow through the Reutershan parking lot between New town Lane, and Main Street. This would be accomplished by replacing the parking spaces along the fence which divides Herrick Playground from the parking lot with a two-way “through” lane along the Playground and the side of the A & P between Main Street and Newtown Lane. Motorists currently “weave” their way through the parking lot when cutting between those two streets. An Island The three plans also propose a landscaped island down the center of Main Street between Huntting Lane and Newtown Lane. Mr. Collins sug gested the island as a way to make it easier to cross Main Street, and thus afford more business to the east side of the street, where there is little parking. The island would be planted with trees, he said, so it would also contribute to the “garden-like” atmo sphere of the Village. The large elms which currently provide much of the greenery in the central business district will not last forever, Mr. Collins warned. A third proposal common to all three plans is one to improve traffic flow at the intersection of Route 27 and North Main Street by extending the median between the Brooks store and Rowe’s Pharmacy, thus creating a longer left turn lane for motorists headed east on Route 27 who want to turn onto North Main Street. “Mini-Mall” In addition to these recommenda tions, Mr. Collins's first plan would create a “mini-mall” along Newtown Lane, and three new parking lots. One lot would be behind Schenck Fuels Inc. on Newtown Lane, another would be on property owned by Barry A. Bistrian across the tracks from the Village railroad station, and the third would be an extension of the lot behind the Bank of New York on Main Street. The mini-mall would consist basically of widening the sidewalks in several places on both sides of Newtown Lane, eliminating the parking lane in the process. The purpose would be to make it easier to cross the street and to provide more space for landscaping along the street. Mr. Collins’s second plan includes the same recommendations for a mini-mall and parking, although it calls for an even greater extension of the lot behind the Bank of New York, an extension that would necessitate ac quisition of at least one home along The Circle. The second plan also calls for acquisition of property south of Mark, Fore, & Strike, the Reutershan lot, and Herrick Playground, owned by Law rence A. Baker, Deborah Perry, Fred erick A. Terry Jr. and others. The property, surrounding and including the historic “Gardiner Brown House,” would be used for a new Village Hall, new police headquarters, new post office, additional parking, and possibly some more tennis courts or other recreational facilities. This proposal is not a new idea. The Comprehensive Plan drawn up for the Town and Village in 1967 proposed the same, noting that the “large frame mansion” on the Baker property would “appear to offer excellent opportunities for conversion into a Village hall.” It also advised locating the police station on the Baker property. This proposal seems guaranteed to arouse controversy. The second plan drawn up by Mr. Collins suggests, in addition, the use of three parcels, two of them adjacent to the parking lot north of the Newtown Lane shops, for new multiple-family housing. The third parcel recommend ed for such use is an empty field behind the Schenck’s fuel tanks next to the railroad tracks. Walking Distance ' Housing in those three areas would be within walking distance of the central business district, and thus would allow shoppers access to stores without the burden of automobiles. The third plan, the most ambitious of all, includes the new Village Hall proposal, but adds to it a “through” Continued on Page 4 Ecological Infighting A study that was not written embroiled South Fork environment alists recently in a complicated squabble that consumed much energy, time, and money. The issues appear to have included tactics, egos, and money. Whether there was any point in doing the study at all any more, in the “11th hour,” was one question that arose. The study is now underway again, in new hands. The squabble sprouted amidst a flowering of interest this summer in saving the South Fork’s farmlands from the increasingly obvious prospect of residential development. This pre servation campaign has included the formation of at least two new organ izations, the Farmlands First Commit tee and the Friends and Neighbors of Sagaponack; reorganization of a con servancy the Group for America’s South Fork formed several years ago but never used, the South Fork Land Trust; and a lawsuit filed two weeks ago by the FANS and GASF, contest ing the Southampton Town Planning Board’s tentative approval of plans to turn 48 acres of Sagaponack potato land into 29 house lots. The Economics It is also supposed to include a study of what would happen to the South Fork’s economy if development of farmlands were allowed to continue. This would compare the increased tax revenues accompanying development, plus any increase in local employment and private income, to the increased costs of providing municipal services for new homes and the loss of farm income and employment. Presumably it would conclude that development is not a good buy, as did a more general study by Dr. Leon Hammer of Springs that was published seven years ago by two now-defunct conservation groups. That study's title was “The ‘Best Buy’ Is Open Space.” The new study is intended to give the Farmlands First Committee and its allies documented evidence to back arguments for stricter local. County and State legislation to preserve farm lands. It would be used, for example, in lobbying for a second phase of the Head of the Harbor John Spear Another P lan For Town Airport County’s program of buying up farm development rights. According to Nancy Goell, executive director of the Group, it will provide “the basic information for anything anybody wants to do.” Specialist To write the study, the Group last month hired Dr. James Horst, a specialist in agricultural economics who is employed by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. He is expected to finish it by December. Originally, the study was supposed to be written by Joel Schatz, a highly- reputed energy consultant from Ore gon. It was to be financed with a $10,000 matching grant from the J. M. Kaplan Fund, a charitable foundation that previously had provided the Group with a number of much smaller grants that helped meet its operating expenses. Mr. Schatz was hired last June, when Farmlands First was formed, at the suggestion of Richard Kaplan, a Continued on Page 12 Casino gambling, offshore oil drill ing, the Town Police Department, a plan to improve the East Hampton Town Airport — such were the subjects treated at last Friday’s Town Board meeting. Acting on a “home rule” resolution introduced by Councilman Larry Cant well, the Board voted 5-0 to oppose casino gambling here. Supervisor Eu gene Haas said, “I feel it’s the attitude of most of the inhabitants of East Hampton.” On offshore oil drilling, the Board split along party lines, with the three Republicans passing a resolution of Councilwoman Mary Fallon’s in sup port of Suffolk County Executive John V.N. Klein’s 24,000 - square - mile sanc tuary proposal. No Compromise Councilmen Cantwell and Eamon McDonough, the Board’s Democrats, demurred on the ground that no compromise should be struck at this time. “We shouldn’t compromise before our back is to the wall,” said Mr. McDonough. Councilwoman Fallon said that Mr. Klein was appealing to the United States, Supreme Court from a recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision that would permit the drilling. A spokesman for Mr. Klein’s office said Tuesday that Mr. Klein had both requested that the Supreme Court hear an appeal and had made requests of the Department of Interior, includ ing the sanctuary proposal. The spokesman deferred to Mr. Klein, who was in Washington, D.C., that day, on the question of whether or not Mr. Klein would pursue an appeal should Interior grant his requests. “The Important Thing” Mr. Haas said at the meeting that he had “always been in favor of offshore oil drilling; the important thing is to make sure the wells don’t leak.\ He likened Mr. Klein’s proposal to “a setback requirement.” On the subject, Deborah Perry, a Democratic candidate for Councilwom an, read a statement calling on the Town to draw up an “oil-spill contin gency plan . . . We must know what to do, who to turn to, where to find resources to fight oil spills. Spills can be controlled; the damage to the marine environment can be minimized, but we must begin.” Prompted by criticism of the Town Police Department that she said she had heard from residents during her campaign, Councilwoman Fallon read a brief statement taking Suffolk County District Attorney Henry O’Brien and ■ Channel Seven “Eyewitness News” to task for allegedly unwarranted attacks cn the Department, which, she stated, • was “not corrupt.” “Politically-Motivated” Mrs. Fallon said the District Attor ney’s investigation last fall “was promp ted by an over-zealous, politically- motivated District Attorney who turn ed up absolutely nothing.” “The grand jury turned up nothing,” she continued. The Channel Seven reports had been a “trial by allegation,” she charged in offering her “official regrets for this ordeal” to the Depart ment. Later, Mrs. Fallon said, concerning her statement that the grand jury had “turned up nothing,” that incidents involving former Sergeant Bruce Bald win, who was found not guilty last June following a trial on charges of an alleged seafood theft, and Officer Sam Mezynieski, who was reinstated with the Department last January following a five-month suspension without pay, were known prior to the District Attorney’s investigation. “We knew about the Baldwin and Mezynieski incidents before that. We did our own investigation,” Mrs. Fallon said. Moriei Changes Questioned about grand jury charges, including perjury and issuing a false certificate, pending against Sergeant Charles Moriei, Mrs. Fallon said, “I think those charges are false.” She said the Board had yet to see a grand jury report said to be critical of the Department's Chief, John Henry Doyle. An Appellate Division decision on whether or not to make that report public has apparently yet to be rendered. The latest plan to improve the Town Airport, which lies about a mile north of Route 27 near the East Hampton- Southampton Town line, was pre sented by the Town’s five-member Airport Development Committee on Friday by one of the members, Bill Stegman, chief pilot of McConnell- Wetenhall Company. 1971 Study Essentially, it was a scaled-down version of the 1971 Parsons, Brincker- hoff, Quade, and Douglas study, which was immediately shelved by the then Board, apparently because it was deemed grandiose and too costly. The Committee said its proposal would qualify for 97.5 per cent aid, if the Town acted quickly. The Committee recommended scrap ping two of the Airport’s three run ways (the 2,500-foot 4-22 and the 4,242- foot 10-28) and, as had the Parsons study, recommended building a new runway, 7-25. The runway figures are reciprocal points on the compass'from which the zeros have been removed. Continued on Page 18 Schwenk Promises Suit Just a blink of time ago, it was a favorite place for then Suffolk Repub lican chairman Edwin M. (Buzz) Schwenk to meet people for lunch. As the ducks swam around outside, Mr. Schwenk, leader of the GOP in a County which in 1968 gave Richard Nixon the largest plurality of any in the nation for President, would talk about or deal in politics. One day six years ago, Mr. Schwenk was using a lunch with a reporter at the Lake House in West Sayville to launch a campaign to help prevent Vice President Spiro Agnew from being bumped off the 1972 GOP ticket in favor of ex-Texas Governor John Connally. Then, the views of this Republican leader with strong connec tions to the Nixon White House carried large impact. Back at the Lake House last week, however, it was a different Mr. Schwenk and another time. Strain was written in his eyes. His voice cracked at times as he spoke to an assemblage he had called of news people. At his side were his wife, a daughter, and his lawyer. Mission Mr. Schwenk, now under indictment for allegedly stealing $245,000 in Suffolk GOP funds, was under the gun of the first elected Democratic District Attorney in Suffolk history. Mr. Schwenk was announcing a $25 million damage action he was filling against the DA, Henry F. O'Brien, and the County. And, he spoke, again and again, of a sort of a mission. ‘Tm going to pursue this case if it takes the rest of my life,\ said, several times in several ways, the man who for nearly a decade was a principal figure in Suffolk politics. “I don’t take this as a political charge. I take it as an attempt to destroy Edwin M. Schwenk. . . I want justice done in this case, $25 million is not going to do it. I’ve been severely impaired. I’ve been hurt . . . this is all Tm going to do the rest of my life.” Over at the DA's office in Riverhead, Mr. O’Brien saw the Schwenk suit as a political shot. “It’s just a false and frivolous lawsuit,” said O’Brien, in the midst of a reelection campaign. “We’re ready for trial. It has been scheduled for this month.” Mr. Schwenk's claims “could be raised at the trial,” said Mr. O’Brien. Who Stood By Mr. Schwenk’s eyes seemed to water as he spoke of his “friends and former friends” no longer friendly with him and troubles trying to get back into banking. A private telephone company, Teltronics, which Mr. Schwenk, of Southampton, serves as Suffolk repre sentative for, “stood with me, not many people have,” he said. The lawsuit charges that “upon information and belief’ the District Attorney had “knowledge of and had possession of certain evidence which clearly tended to exculpate” him from the claim of embezzlement but the DA “deliberately withheld the informa tion.” Thus, the paper signed by Mr. Schwenk went on, “the claimant has suffered severe emotional injury, his Continued on Page 8 he said, but because of the Bay’s depth and its proximity to a railroad siding, it would be identified as an “excellent\ site for such use if the need ever arose. Offshore oil-related facilities along Fort Pond Bay would be “inconsistent” with the Town Comprehensive Plan, Mr. Thorsen noted. The CZM plan would also recom mend the acquisition of property to “link” existing parklands, Mr. Thorsen said, specifically property between Northwest Creek County Park and Cedar Point Park, and between Hither Hills State Park and the new Napeague State parklands. The Napeague stretch is too sensitive environmentally for motel use, the plan would state. Lazy Point Lazy Point, a residential area ad jacent to the new Napeague State park, would be one of the parcels recommended for acquisition. The Town Trustees own most of Lazy Point, and lease house-sites. The Town Comprehensive Plan does not currently call for such property acquisitions. However, there is senti ment among Town officials that exist ing parklands should be linked. It is therefore possible this particular in consistency between the Town plan and the CZM plan will be eliminated as the Town plan is updated in the coming months. Mr. Thorsen said the CZM plan would also call for the acquisition of Gardiner’s Island by the State or Federal government to prevent de velopment of the Island. This technic ally is another inconsistency between the CZM and the Town Comprehensive Plan, since the Town has zoned the Island for one-acre residential use. Many people locally, however, would also like to see the Island kept in its natural state. Mr. Thorsen said he thought the Island should at least be upzoned to two-acre residential. Sag Harbor Another recommendation that would probably emerge from the CZM plan, Mr. Thorsen said, would be to limit Sag Harbor’s waterfront to recreational use, and to phase out such things as the fuel storage tanks located on the shore of the harbor. Sag Harbor has no comprehensive plan, which is where the inconsistency arises on this recom mendation. Lee Koppelman, director of the Nassau - Suffolk Regional Planning Board, cautioned in a phone conversa tion last week that the CZM plan for Long Island was not yet complete, so there really were no “recommenda tions” as yet. It was “premature” to say the plan would advise land acquisitions in East Hampton to link up existing parks, Mr. Koppelman stated, because the plan had not yet been approved by the Regional Planning Board. Nothing was definite at this point, he stressed. Island Acquisition Mr. Koppelman, however, was will ing to confirm some of Mr. Thorsen's statements to the Town Planning Board. The final CZM plan would recommend acquisition of Gardiner’s Island. He was confident of that, he said, because no one on the Board wanted to see the Island developed and it was already County policy to keep Continued on Page 3 VOL. jxCHl, NO. 6 OCTOBER 13, 1977
