Proposed Sale of Development Rights in Sagaponack Draws Criticism

The not-for-profit Peconic Land Trust is proposing to sell the development rights to land it owns in Sagaponack to Southampton Town. It wants Southampton to use Community Preservation Fund monies (real-estate-transfer-tax-funded) to purchase the rights. But officials and other conservation groups are calling it inappropriate. "People make contributions to the Peconic Land Trust, and the Peconic Land Trust says they are protecting farmland—they can't then come back and say the land isn't protected, so we want the CPF to protect it, and if the CPF won't, then we're going to develop that land," said Richard Amper of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society.
· Preservation Proposal in Sagaponack Draws Criticism [27 East]