Community Corner
North Sea Residents Rally Against Summer Camp Plan
Public hearing on application for day camp on Little Fresh Pond is Thursday evening.
Thursday at 7 p.m. in the town board meeting room, the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals will take public comments on a controversial plan to turn in North Sea into a busy day camp with housing for staffers to live there during the summer.
The camp's edge would be on Little Fresh Pond, a 19-acre water body where power boats are prohibited. The Little Fresh Pond Association, which along with the Southampton Trustees manages the pond, is fiercely opposed to the plan. An informal group with an even wider base, North Sea Neighbors, is urging the planning board and zoning board to strike down the camp application, citing increased traffic and development and pollution to the pond, where the DEC has already classified aquatic life as "threatened."
John Gorman, the vice president of the Little Fresh Pond Association, which he said includes between 30 and 35 homes, said North Sea Neighbors was created in response to the camp application, for fear of what it would do to the neighborhood. He expects 75 members will attend Thursday's hearing, which Gorman said the group demanded was scheduled so they could push back against a building department declaration that the application was sound.
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In addition to environmental concerns, in its opposition North Sea Neighbors also cites increased traffic, a plan to widen sections of Majors Path to four lanes, "earsplitting noise" and decreased property values and rental appeal.
The man behind the camp plan is Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic Committee chairman. His attorney, Wayne Bruyn, did not immediately return a call Wednesday afternoon.
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Gorman said Jacobs acquired the property, the , last October after a previous plan to build condos on the site was rejected.
The parcel, which has 10 tennis courts, has not been actively used for two or three years, Gorman said. Previously, there had been a day camp there, but not in at least the past 38 years, since he moved there, he said. But now, Jacobs' attorney maintains that the property has a pre-existing nonconforming use as a day camp, and he is seeking permission to build staff quarters and other facilities, according to Gorman.
