Unable to have our voices heard by the Southampton Town Board, members of the town-appointed Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) resigned en masse in late 2021 to pursue the formation of an independent civic association. The Bridgehampton Civic Association, or more familiarly BridgeCivic, was born.

As members of the CAC and now BridgeCivic, we have taken aggressive positions on a number of projects that have come before Southampton Town’s various elected and appointed boards — opposition to a downtown Bridgehampton CVS, an expanding Art Market Hamptons, a second shopping center at what is now open space across from the Bridgehampton Commons at the gateway to our Hamlet, a fraught Sag Harbor fire truck museum to replace a beloved local farmstand, and advocating for the improvement of sidewalks, lighted crosswalks, a traffic light by Candy Kitchen and other measures to enhance pedestrian safety, new tree planting and maintenance on Main Street, and other matters.

The lack of enforcement of many aspects of the Southampton Town Code is among our main frustrations. When reviewing boards like the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals grant variances and special exception permits for certain projects, we question whether those boards aren’t, in effect, rewriting Town Code without legislative or due process. We have also seen instances when the Building Department, the Planning Board, and Code Enforcement are slow to follow up, sometimes resulting in violations that are not cured on agricultural easements for years, if at all, including on residential properties, on Aquifer Protection Overlay Districts, wetlands, with noise and dark skies compliance, and illegal signage, etc. BridgeCivic takes a holistic view of the land-use and development issues affecting the region to work toward efficient resolutions.

We had also proposed and supported a number of initiatives, such as a comprehensive tree planting and replacement plan, a proposal for preservation through the CPF of the Gateway property across from Bridgehampton Commons to protect the wildlife and wetlands of Kellis Creek and Kellis Pond and preserve the scenic views that are the gateway to Bridgehampton, and an historic overlay district for protection of historic properties throughout Bridgehampton, including on back roads.

As an independent civic association, we hope to be more effective on these issues, including by educating the community at large, and look forward to continuing the very cordial relationships we have developed in our years of volunteer service with many of Southampton Town’s elected and appointed officials and staff members.