Southampton Village's Fall Calendar Runs Right Past Its Pending Decisions

On October 24, Little Lucy's Halloween Pet Parade will leave Agawam Park. The parade, now more than two decades old, goes down Main Street and Jobs Lane and back to Agawam Park. On Jobs Lane, the costumed dogs will pass the shops and courtyard at 38-40-42 Jobs Lane. A newly formed committee is trying to keep that courtyard from being torn down. Under Agawam Park, where the parade starts, the Village plans to lay electrical lines for an algae harvester and a solar array.

That overlap runs through the rest of the season. Between now and the Parade of Lights on November 28, almost every public event in the village takes place a block or less from a decision that hasn't been made yet. Those decisions cover a courtyard, a dog park, a left turn and whether Saturdays stay quiet. The quiet months are when the Village Board, the land use boards and the State Legislature settle how downtown will work by next Memorial Day.

Two Lists for the Same Stretch of Fall

Here are the dates side by side. Several of them fall in the same week.

The season has already lost one date. SAC's Fall Market, set for October 11, was canceled for weather, and the arts center's home page lists it that way. SouthamptonFest went ahead on October 2 and 3. Its Saturday program in Agawam Park had a noon chowder contest, children's activities, live music and a farmers market at the Chamber's office, 76 Main Street.

Jobs Lane Holds the Season's Programming and Its Loudest Debate

Most of the fall's indoor events are at one address. Southampton Arts Center, at 25 Jobs Lane, opened "East End Collected 9" on October 3. It runs through December 27. Paton Miller and Christina Strassfield curated the show, which brings together Suffolk County artists working in several mediums. Center Stage's radio-play version of "The Great Gatsby" has four performances: Friday, October 23 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, October 24 at 2 and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, October 25 at 2 p.m. The same building holds a Halloween Silent Disco on October 30, and costumes are encouraged. On November 5 it hosts a Paint + Sip with artist Deborah Acquino, priced at $35 general and $30 for members.

Down the same street, Jobs Lane Court at 38-40-42 Jobs Lane is the biggest unresolved land use question in the business district. The Southampton Press reported on September 16 that the plan would demolish the current shops and courtyard and build three connected, multistory buildings set much closer to the street. The Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation approved the plan in April 2025, and the Planning Board approved it over the summer. The last step is the Zoning Board of Appeals. That application hadn't been filed or put on an agenda when the paper reported the story.

The Save Jobs Lane Committee formed to organize before that hearing. It is circulating a petition and asking residents to write to the ZBA, the ARB and the Village Board. Susan Madonia, co-owner of Ann Madonia Antiques next door, explained her concern to the Press:

"To take away such a beautiful [space with] trees and plants and [a] fountain to put up something that's so big and out of scale and out of character — I don't think it's going to enhance the shopping and the charm of the street."

The Southampton Association supports the committee. In the same article, its president, Jay Diesing, put the debate on fit rather than whether the site gets redeveloped. "We recognize that the owner's entitled to have a redevelopment there," he said, "and so we just would like something that fits in with the wishes of the community and the code and what's already here." The current building counts as a noncontributing structure in the historic district. The committee's attorney, David McMaster, told the Press it is still out of character with the buildings around it.

The Dog Park Is the Part of the Sewer Plan Residents Can See

The Jobs Lane question is about one building. A bigger change is moving forward on Windmill Lane, and the dog park is how most people will see it. The Village's plan for a central business district sewer depends on a land swap. The 6,000-square-foot former Southampton Press building at 135 Windmill Lane, next to Rogers Memorial Library, would be demolished and turned into a new dog park. Underground leaching pools for a treatment plant behind the ambulance barn would then go beneath the current dog park at Lola Prentice Memorial Park. The Town and Village bought the Windmill Lane site with $3.4 million from the Community Preservation Fund.

The swap needs approval from Albany. Senate Bill S9364, sponsored by Sen. Anthony Palumbo with Assembly companion A10407, would let the Village take the current park out of parkland use only if it dedicates 135 Windmill Lane as parkland. The bill was still in the Senate Local Government Committee at last check. The bill text also gives the size difference. It lists the current park at 2.478 acres and the replacement parcel at 1.10 acres. If the new site's fair-market value comes in lower, the Village would have to add parkland or make park improvements. The bill's memo calls the replacement a "new and improved dog park" and says basketball courts would move as well.

Five residents have sued to stop the swap. They are asking the court to enforce a 1962 deed and a 2019 injunction, and they have also filed a civil contempt petition over the Village Board's vote in support of the legislation, according to the Southampton Press.

The next date residents can act on is October 22. The Southampton Press reported that the Board will take written comments on the draft scope of the generic environmental impact statement through that meeting. Once the scope is final, the review is expected to take six to 12 months. Lisa Rickmers of H2M architects + engineers told the Board that a generic statement was chosen because sewering could allow development "that might not be possible on the current septic paradigm." At the hearing, Trustee Rob Coburn pointed to nitrogen damage in Lake Agawam as the reason for urgency. Residents who spoke raised traffic and parking during construction and afterward.

Hill Street, Hildreth's and the Roads Getting Dug Up

Traffic is the main worry in the sewer debate, and the Village is already testing changes. A pilot running weekdays from September 14 to October 30 bans left turns onto Hill Street from 3 to 7 p.m. at several cross streets, including Halsey Neck Lane. The left turn from Lee Avenue onto Hill Street is now banned at all hours. In the Fall 2026 Village newsletter, Trustee Roy Stevenson wrote about the tradeoff: "since traffic flows like water, impeding it in one area may cause it to increase in other areas." The flyer gives October 30 as the pilot's last day.

The same newsletter lists work that will change how downtown looks and drives over the next year:

• The pedestrian easement just north of Hildreth's Department Store will be repaved in brick, replacing the uneven asphalt. It lines up with the crosswalk to Chase Bank on the east side of Main Street.
• The MTA will keep repainting the Long Island Rail Road trestles over North Main Street and North Sea Road.
• PSEG will restart its project to carry power from the West Prospect and North Sea Road substation to Water Mill. When that's done, North Sea, Willow and North Main get repaved at PSEG's expense.
• The western half of Hill Street will be repaved in 2027. The eastern half was done this past summer.
• Repairs and restoration on the World War I Monument are about to start.
• The Village will plant 200 trees this fall and spring to replace trees lost in the July 4 storm. That brings the total planted under Mayor William Manger to 800.

Saturdays, and One New Shop on Hampton Road

One proposal would change weekends for everyone in the village. The Board has been considering limits on construction and landscaping on Saturdays. Stevenson's newsletter column calls the idea good "on the face of it" and notes that public comment raised several valid counterpoints. The Board's September 22 draft agenda included a proposed resolution to adopt the Chapter 78 amendment. No report has confirmed that it passed.

The retail item to follow is Citarella's wine and liquor shop next to its Hampton Road market. The Southampton Press reported in July that the shop had been approved, with owner Joe Gurrera planning a mix of imported and New York wines and spirits. That report gave no opening date.

November 28 Ties It Together

The busiest date on the late-fall calendar includes a ceremony connected to Village Hall's own building. On Saturday, November 28, before the Parade of Lights and the Christmas tree lighting, the Village will mark 25 years since the police moved out of Village Hall's upper floors and into the Windmill Lane building that also houses the Village Court. The space they left in Village Hall is being renovated, with a new interior fire stair and a rear entrance facing the parking lot. A week earlier, Boots on the Ground Theater Company opens "A Colonial Christmas" at Southampton Cultural Center. It runs November 20 to December 13.

Between the parades, the Mayor holds walk-in office hours at Village Hall on Tuesday mornings from 10 to 11. You can also book a time through his assistant, Karen Bontempo.

How the sewer scope, the Jobs Lane Court application and the Saturday work rules turn out will affect downtown property owners well past this season. If you'd like to talk through what any of these could mean for your home on or near the village core, Bill Williams is happy to walk through it with you. Schedule a Market Consultation with Bill.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.