My interest in land-use policy 50 years ago on Long Island was piqued when I learned offhand* of a state highway that was to have been built back then, not far from where our home now sits in Water Mill. How could that have been the case, over a route that today features much largerContinue reading “Hamptons Traffic and the Road Not Taken”
Category Archives: Hamptons Land
Affordable Hamptons Housing After Saving Priceless Parcels?
Like many other affluent suburbs or resort areas, the Hamptons of New York is confronting a housing affordability crisis, which is to say that the service and support industries on which the wealthy residents rely cannot reliably staff their operations from nearby residents. This pinch results either in unfilled positions or lengthy commutes for theContinue reading “Affordable Hamptons Housing After Saving Priceless Parcels?”
Legacy of a Suffolk County ‘Moses’
The death of Lee Koppelman, as noted in this Newsday obituary, closes a long chapter of land-use policy on the eastern end of Long Island. Koppelman was Suffolk County’s planning chief from 1960-1988, as its post-war population boom led to pushback from preservationists, many of them well-off New Yorkers coveting weekend and summer retreats. KoppelmanContinue reading “Legacy of a Suffolk County ‘Moses’”
When a Shopping Mall Came to the Hamptons
Articles appearing on the front pages of their weekly papers 50 years ago—Feb. 3, 1972—were a surprise to many who’d begun making the Hamptons a weekend or summer home. Construction was beginning on a shopping center in their idyllic midst. Plaza East would be a first…and remain to this day the only of its kind.Continue reading “When a Shopping Mall Came to the Hamptons”
Milestone: Early Hamptons Farmland Preservation
The great story of land-preservation on the South Fork of Long Island (“the Hamptons”) is losing many of its first-hand witnesses. Another departed this life just before Christmas: John V.N. Klein, who as Suffolk County Executive launched the first major effort to sustain farmland on some of the richest (both in nutrients and dollar value)Continue reading “Milestone: Early Hamptons Farmland Preservation”
The Landfill Squeeze Reaches Long Island
If Americans stand accused of precipitating a supply-chain seizure by demanding too many goods in the past year, their purchasing habits also are perpetuating problems at the other end—the landfills. Many if not most population centers of the U.S. have more trash than they know what to do with. It’s not just the capacity ofContinue reading “The Landfill Squeeze Reaches Long Island”
The Hamptons Has a New Favorite Hedge
There’s been a lot more green in the Hamptons stretch of Long Island in recent years, and it’s not just the incoming wealth tide. Hybrid arborvitae trees of the Thuja standishii x plicata cultivar, or Green Giants, have become the default landscaping choice for lot perimeters as the area’s trophy homes get bigger and closerContinue reading “The Hamptons Has a New Favorite Hedge”
A Path to Pandemic Relief in the ‘Burbs
A shift in residential demand to suburban and exurban locations is nearly a year old in the pandemic. It’s said to stem from households’ desire for more private space (as well as school and crime concerns), combined with greater flexibility to work from home. But public spaces are also an attribute of distance from theContinue reading “A Path to Pandemic Relief in the ‘Burbs”
‘The Hamptons’ Is a One-Industry Place
A “resort” community where there is no central commercial resort can still be a one-industry economy. In the case of the South Fork of Long Island (aka “Hamptons”), the one trick is luxury housing. There’s an extensive commercial/labor ecosystem to support it. Of course, there are the houses themselves—nearly all of them being conceived bigContinue reading “‘The Hamptons’ Is a One-Industry Place”
Tim W. Ferguson 