Marsden Lot Clearing Is Jarring, But Legal, Sag Harbor Officials Say

Heavy tree-clearing equipment rolled onto the roughly 4.13-acre lot on Marsden Street in Sag Harbor last week to prepare the site for the construction of four houses proposed by developer Matthew Pantofel and approved by the Sag Harbor Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review earlier this year.

Pantofel bought the property, which had already been subdivided into four lots, from its owner, Pat Trunzo, after voters turned down a proposal to purchase the land for the Sag Harbor School District in May 2023.

He and his representatives appeared before the board several times over several months, tweaking the designs of the four large houses he wanted to build on the site.

In the end, despite the objection of several neighbors, the board approved all four houses, as well as a landscaping plan for the entire site that allowed Pantofel to remove virtually every tree on the property in exchange for replanting with trees and shrubs.

Bruce Schiavoni, the village code enforcement officer, was called to the site last week by a neighbor who complained about the noise and tree limbs falling on a neighboring parcel, he said. But Schiavoni said when he reviewed the landscaping plan, it was obvious the work had been approved.

Village Board members, asked about the situation following Tuesday’s meeting, said, while they disliked it, there was nothing they could do.

Mayor Tom Gardella said he “was horrified about what happened” when he drove past the site last week. He added that his daughter had seen a large number of squirrels running around the property “in a panic” after numerous trees were knocked down.

But he added that the development of the property was largely a done deal after Southampton Town backed away from a plan to spend $6 million from the Community Preservation Fund to purchase the property with the school district, and voters rejected a referendum that the school district put up on its own.

“What was the alternative?” he asked. “What did they think was going to happen?”