The Negative Impact of 'Tuckahoe Center'

Last Friday to the Southampton Town Board. Rather than discussing whether or not they should even consider this 58,000-square-foot monstrosity, which requires down-zoning the property from Highway Business to Shopping Center Business, the board instead focused on green building initiatives and aesthetics, as though their approval were a fait accompli.

No effort was made to question the Morrow team to demonstrate the need for another gigantic supermarket and none of the absurd statements were subjected to any substantiation.

Not one Town Board member questioned the false assertion that the "the trade area” — a concept created by the team — would serve 48,000 people (the actual number according to census track data is closer to 8,000). Which raises the question of whether the board members ever bother to read the reports submitted by the developer(s).

There was no discussion of the most crucial aspect of this application: the impact of adding hundreds of cars an hour to an already over-trafficked section of County Road 39. No one spoke of the impact to residential streets like Magee Street and Bishop's Lane and creating a highway out of Hill St.

The board instead appeared to ally itself with Mr. Morrow's plan even before voting on whether or not to allow the application to proceed. Councilwoman Bridget Fleming went so far as to say the shopping center would be “truly enviro-sustainable” and that it would serve as a model for future development. “Future development”? What else do they have in mind?

Discussions of green roofs and solar panels are nothing more than a distraction. This attempt by Ms. Fleming to redirect attention to lessening environmental impact is precipitous as well as ludicrous when you consider that the idea of building such a shopping center in the first place is a direct affront to the very concept of enviro-sustainability. The negative environmental impact of the mere existence of such a shopping center would far outweigh the impact of its current non-existence.

According to the town's unfolding County Road 39 Land Use study, which recommends a continued focus on low-traffic generating businesses, and a maximum building size of 15,000 square feet, a suburban shopping center of this magnitude should not even be considered due to its massive size alone, the high traffic it would generate and because it is not in keeping with the repeatedly stated goal of preserving the resort area ambiance.