Town of East Hampton Wins $9.9 M Federal Grant to Buy Flood-Prone Properties

PHOTO: East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell visits Napeague-Lazy Point with a resident of Mulford Lane, Amagansett.

The Town of East Hampton has been awarded $9.9 million in federal grants to acquire flood and erosion prone property along the water in the Lazy Point neighborhood of Napeague. The town plans to turn the land into a protective buffer against future storm damage.

The funding was secured after the Town of East Hampton partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service under the United States Department of Agriculture, with the support of the Nature Conservancy.

The grant, which was awarded through the federal Emergency Watershed Protection Program, will be used to purchase approximately 16 properties on Mulford Lane and Bay View Avenue—some vacant, some developed—from eligible property owners who have expressed interest in the program. Improvements to the parcels will be razed, and the land will be restored to its original and pristine condition to better serve as a floodplain and storm buffer.

Steve Graboski, a Bay View Avenue property resident, endorsed the purchase plan. “This will be a good thing,” he said, “people will be able to reclaim the value from their properties. I’ve lived down there for over 30 years, and the nor’easters are the storms that really affect us the worst. The erosion is like a chip-away effect, chipping away the shoreline over the years.”

The Town of East Hampton Supervisor Larry Cantwell spoke optimistically about the purchase and also lauded the efforts of Kim Shaw, the Town of East Hampton Environmental Protection Director. “We are facing the stark reality that development should not exist along some areas of our coastline where long-term erosion clearly exists and flooding potential in low-lying areas can threaten lives and damage property,” he said.

The Town will work to preserve parcels that might otherwise be developed on land that is vulnerable to storm damage.

Shaw said the Town of East Hampton is looking forward to restoring the natural condition of the acquisition so that water quality, wildlife habitats and floodplain resiliency improve.

he Nature Conservancy issued a statement praising the effort as essential to efforts to stem the cost of rising sea levels and excessive nitrogen pollution from waste and fertilizers.