At a Long Island Association breakfast forum Wednesday morning, the town supervisors of Riverhead, Southold, Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island came together to share updates on major projects and regional challenges — from affordable housing and infrastructure to traffic, broadband and the future of the East End economy.
Though the five towns differ in size, geography and political leadership, the supervisors repeatedly emphasized a strong spirit of collaboration.
“I’m very fortunate to work with more really good supervisors here that are really engaged,” said Southold Supervisor Al Krupski. “We have very different paths, but we have so many common areas of interest and challenges.”
Southampton Supervisor Maria Moore noted that East End supervisors and mayors meet regularly at Suffolk County Supervisors Association and East End Supervisors and Mayors Association meetings and often beyond that.
“We just get together because we want to,” she said.
Affordable housing
Affordable housing remained the most pressing issue throughout the discussion. Each town is pursuing creative strategies to address rising costs, limited land and the challenge of workforce retention.
East Hampton Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said that with “90-something percent either built out or preserved, there’s not a lot of land available.”
The town has increased density allowances for affordable housing and is now exploring legislation to allow multiple residences on a single lot. She said, for example, “where it seems fit, we could do, on an acre, maybe a manor house that has four market units — as long as that works within the context of the neighborhood.”
Southold is currently in the midst of what Krupski described as a “massive zoning update” that includes proposals for accessory dwellings and caretaker units for local businesses. “That would alleviate quite a bit of that traffic [from] people living in Riverhead [who] work in Southold and vice versa.”
Southampton has committed $2.5 million annually to housing, including $1.25 million each for zero-interest accessory unit construction loans and a first-time homebuyer down payment assistance program. Using what is left over of those funds, Moore said, “we have in the pipeline about 40 [single family] units…and over 160 apartment units.”
Riverhead’s Tim Hubbard said the town — using tens of millions it has secured in federal, state and county grant money — is breaking ground on a new town square in downtown Riverhead. “It’s going to be the first of its kind on the East End of Long Island,” he said.
Shelter Island’s Amber Brach-Williams said the ferry-dependent island’s limited access makes large-scale development unlikely — but also adds to its charm. “We want to just have moderate growth and manage the growth carefully.”
Keeping legacy industries alive
Krupski and Burke-Gonzalez both addressed the pressures on traditional East End industries like farming and fishing.
“There’s a big shift in agriculture,” Krupski said, citing costs, labor laws and changing consumer habits, and “we’re doing as much as we can to support it. We’ve have numerous meetings during the [zoning] update on [agriculture] definitions — trying to define what agriculture is and [what] agriculture production” is. He said that Southold has a “very robust marine industry” and is working with Suffolk County “so that we can preserve some of this working waterfront.”
East Hampton has used its Community Preservation Fund to purchase farmland and lease it affordably to young farmers. “In two of the three cases, we’ve got young farmers living on the property that they’re farming,” said Burke-Gonzalez.
Traffic and transportation
Traffic remains a perennial East End headache.
Hubbard said Riverhead works closely with Southold to control traffic in the fall when the North Fork is most crowded with pumpkin pickers and autumn tourists.
“We’ve done certain things with making extra lanes in the highway, with road cones, having traffic control officers out there, having no left turns in certain areas,” said Hubbard. “It has helped. It has increased control of traffic, but there’s still a very high, high volume of traffic.”
Southampton is exploring traffic circles in Water Mill and Hampton Bays and looking into expanding the South Fork Commuter Connection, a transit option that Moore said now serves about 300 riders a day. But single-track service continues to limit options, she said, adding that “we need the MTA to provide more sidings” — short stretches of rail tracks that allow trains to pass one another on single-track lines.
East Hampton officials praised recent infrastructure upgrades to the MTA system and credited state lawmakers with securing necessary funding. “We’re grateful that the infrastructure upgrades have been put into the MTA capital plan,” Burke-Gonzalez said.
Broadband and small businesses
Reliable internet access is an ongoing concern across the region.
“Sometimes the internet just … gets really slow because so many people are on it,” said Brach-Williams of Shelter Island, where the year-round population of about 3,000 balloons to 11,000 in the summer. Southold has hired an independent firm to assess coverage gaps, and Hubbard noted that Optimum is investing in fiber infrastructure in Riverhead.
All five supervisors expressed strong support for small businesses, especially during the off-season.
Riverhead’s mom-and-pop shops are making a comeback, Hubbard said. “They’re doing quite well right now.”
In East Hampton, the chambers of commerce meet regularly with town staff. “It’s been a great collaboration,” Burke-Gonzalez said.
Southold is adjusting zoning rules to offer businesses more flexibility, Krupski said — while Southampton is modernizing its building department with new software, according to Moore.
Strained budgets
The supervisors also expressed concern about reduced funding for vital social services.
“These programs … are now asking towns to [help fund them] from their budgets,” Hubbard said, referring to services that assist law enforcement with mental health-related calls.
Burke-Gonzalez noted that East Hampton has the highest poverty rate in Suffolk County. “It costs [our food pantry] $22,000 a week to provide food,” she said. “It costs them over a million dollars to operate.”
Krupski emphasized the importance of senior services in Southold: “We’re a retirement community, and those services are important to a lot of people.”
Similar priorities
Despite representing different political parties, all five supervisors expressed a shared commitment to cooperation.
“We all have public safety as a priority,” Moore said. “Infrastructure. We all have highways that have to get paved, and sidewalks… and water quality issues.”
“The good thing about local politics,” said Hubbard, “is whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or conservative or whatever, at this level, it means the least… A good idea is a good idea, whether it comes from a Republican or a Democrat.”
Final pitch
At the end of the event, each supervisor gave a pitch for why entrepreneurs should open a new business in their town.
Hubbard said Riverhead’s new town square is going to be a game changer. “Get on the train before it leaves the station.”
Brach-Williams promised easier permitting in Shelter Island. “We want to have an administrative track so that it doesn’t take half a year.”
Krupski acknowledged the seasonal economy: “There’s a lot of regulatory process… but we want to help you survive year-round.”
Burke-Gonzalez reminded the audience that East Hampton’s population is growing and aging: “We’ve got more folks living year-round to use your business.”
Moore summed it up for Southampton: “We want to revitalize our downtowns … and we’re getting some new software … to make the processes run more smoothly and quickly.”