Recent disagreements between towns participating in Long Island’s Sustainable East End Development Strategies (SEEDS) need to be addressed in a way that does not undermine the project’s main goal.  The planning project, established with an $800,000 federal grant, has been the largest example in the region of a pro-active, community-based planning effort that integrates transportation and land use (MTR #364).

According to the NY Times, Southold supervisor Josh Horton has tried to convince his town board to withdraw from the project and refuses to allocate the required $8,000 yearly contribution to SEEDS in his executive budget for 2003.

Horton is reportedly angry because of a deal between East Hampton and other participants to keep consideration of a ferry route between East Hampton and New England out of the planning process.  Horton said he was told about the deal, which he says is a huge impediment to the SEEDS process, by East Hampton’s new town supervisor, Jay Schneiderman.

Though the details of the disagreement are not yet clear, the East End towns participating in SEEDS cannot allow squabbling over a single specific issue to dissolve what is probably their best chance to direct future development on the East End as a whole.

Clearly, something should be done to rectify the situation if SEEDS planning is not going forward in the open and collaborative way that was intended.  But supervisor Horton appears ready to give up on the process rather than work through the dispute at hand.

Horton’s predecessor, Jean Cochran, was a prime mover of the SEEDS project. If Southold leaders try to withdraw from the process, they will compromise the ability of the East End – and Southold in particular – to shape development and transportation priorities in their communities.

SEEDS website

Public Participation Guides 
Unique Long Island Planning Project (May 6, 2002)

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