August 24 2005

There has been surprisingly little emotion leading up to Sagaponack’s September 2 vote on incorporation—surprising because such efforts are typically shot through with revolutionary rhetoric and tagged, incorrectly, as “secessions,” implying that the new village’s residents want nothing to do with Town Hall.

In fact, while there is a great deal of community pride behind the latest Sagaponack Village movement, there is almost none of the hostility that was present the last time, in 1998, when the campaign came up short. Then, a group of residents felt slighted—“We just think Town Hall is 10 miles away and it doesn’t even know or understand Sagaponack,” one said at the time—and outraged by the approval of a certain single-family behemoth on Fairfield Pond.

Today, the impetus is defensive in nature: Sagaponack Village proponents are candid in conceding that if there was not a looming fear that the hamlet’s oceanfront would be lopped off and pasted onto a makeshift village called Dune Hampton, they likely would be happy remaining unincorporated. That being said, most believe their concerns and rights will best be addressed by village government, with Southampton Town acting as a big brother of sorts, providing oversight and municipal services when needed.

Nevertheless, next Friday’s vote is a historic one, and it’s easy to endorse a “yes” vote for incorporation. Sagaponack Village will allow its residents to take more control of the development of a corner of the town where undeveloped farmland still exists, and also to settle simple, everyday issues that are important to residents’ quality of life—things like speed limits, beach parking and noise complaints. Will it cost them a few dollars more? Perhaps, in the long run, but it’s hard to put a price on home rule.

It’s also historic because, unlike a failed village like Pine Valley in the 1980s, this is a village without a single issue to resolve, filled with fiercely independent residents who share similar views on preservation. More importantly, unlike Pine Valley or Dune Hampton, it is a community with an identity that has deep, historic roots.

In other words, Sagaponack Village, in the lexicon of local planning, is pre-existing and non-conforming.

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