a Letter to the Editor of the East Hampton Star

August 17, 2020

Dear David,

Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott claim that incorporation as a village will halt the threatened “industrialization” of Wainscott. C.P.W.’s focus has been on Beach Lane. They seem to have overlooked the 77-acre sand pit north of Route 27 where the real industrialization risk lies. The resulting and disturbing irony is what the village government group has proposed seems likely to lead to a large-scale industrial development that should concern us all.

Let’s be clear: There is no industrialization threatening Beach Lane, and thus none to save it from. Running the offshore wind power line down Beach Lane will involve temporary, disruptive, construction activity, but Beach Lane will be restored to its current bucolic state following completion of that construction.

What would be affected by incorporation is the future of the sand pit site, the plan for which threatens long-term, irreversible damage to Wainscott. How does Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott propose to deal with development of the sand pit? So far as we can tell, it doesn’t.

C.P.W.’s village budget doesn’t provide a penny for dealing with the development of the sand pit. Its free, volunteer village government would be unlikely to have the time, the expertise, the resources, or the legal support to withstand the pressure for that development.

Furthermore, C.P.W. has declined to even say whether it supports the Wainscott hamlet study or opposes the sand pit development plan. The absence of a position or a plan in this regard is deeply unsettling to those of us who are united in our concerns with the whole of Wainscott, indeed with the whole of East Hampton. I suggest that it is neither smart nor prudent to trust the C.P.W. group with the future of our hamlet, our town.

What the group should do if truly concerned with the future of Wainscott is support the Town of East Hampton in its implementation of the hamlet study and the restriction of the development of the sand pit. All the money that C.P.W. is putting behind its incorporation drive to spare itself from short-term construction disruption would be far better spent in advancing the acquisition of the sand pit to preserve it as public land for recreation and green space.

John Hall
Wainscott, NY