Money Well Spent

A first step is important, signaling, as it does, a sense of direction, and of priority. So the Southampton Town Board’s initial proposal to spend significant revenue from the newly minted Community Housing Fund shows how this money will best be used. Town officials will start with a project that can easily be a tone-setter, and with luck a trend-setter.

First and foremost, it’s a confident move out of the gate: a proposal to buy 3.8 acres along Montauk Highway in Water Mill. The price is significant, $4.3 million; it will use up a sizable share of the revenue that had been collected in the CHF’s first year of existence, 2023.

But it’s money well spent, for several reasons. To start with, this first investment ticks a very important box: It is east of the Shinnecock Canal, solidly in the part of the town where affordable housing can do the most good. There will be projects all over the town, but this first project could take vehicles out of the daily “trade parade” and make the commute for many workers more manageable. That’s enormous as a first move.

Also, the parcel, currently owned by the Euell Family Trust, is pricey but big enough to allow for a cluster of housing opportunities. Special zoning will be required, since it’s currently zoned for 1-acre residential lots — zoning that helped reduce suburban sprawl locally, but which has swung the pendulum a little too far in the direction of part-time residential. Kara Bak, the town’s director of housing and community development, has said the property could be developed for as many as 36 affordable rentals or owner-occupied townhouses. That’s not going to solve the problem, but it will provide answers for three dozen individuals or families.

Finally, the town has done the legwork in advance and seems to have a project with local support, from the Water Mill Citizens Advisory Community. It might not end up being unanimous in the hamlet, but it’s a hurdle to get the CAC behind such an idea up front. It’s located right on the highway, which has its pluses and minuses, but it could provide a template for putting density along main corridors, where it should be less impactful.

There’s a way to go before this project wins approval, and a lot of questions to answer. Still, with a first project on the table, Southampton Town has started the conversation in all the right ways. To solve a crisis, that truly is a great first step.