Ask what "preserved farmland" guarantees next to a Bridgehampton property, and most people answer with the assumption that a field bought by the town stays a field. That assumption held for twenty-two years at the corner of Lumber Lane and Scuttlehole Road. Then it almost didn't.
In 2002, Southampton Town paid the Babinski family more than $1.8 million to buy the development rights on a 30-acre parcel there, structured as one of the town's first conservation opportunity subdivisions, a tool that, as 27east reported, let a landowner subdivide while the town bought the development rights off as much as 65 percent of the property. For twenty-two years, that parcel sat as a grassy field next to Channing Daughters Winery, one of the more recognizable names in Bridgehampton agriculture. Then in 2024, its current owner, photographer Steven Klein, entered into a contract to sell the parcel to Gabi Morris, whose entity North Edge Stables II LLC filed plans with the Southampton Town Planning Board for an equestrian center on the site: a 19,150-square-foot horse stable boarding 26 horses, a 21,000-square-foot indoor riding arena, a 14,480-square-foot maintenance garage, and three 2,200-square-foot homes for staff. A substantial amount of new construction, on land the town had already paid to keep open, and on a covenant that neighbors say specifically bars commercial development and use as an equestrian riding academy.
The developer's team argued otherwise. That argument is the part worth sitting with.
Why a Stable Might Count as a Crop
Wayne Bruyn, the attorney representing Morris, is a former deputy town attorney who helped draft this era's development-rights language in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He told the Planning Board that those covenants were written in compliance with a 1990s case, Equus Associates Ltd., which found that riding rings, stables, and related structures qualify as agricultural use regardless of what a specific covenant says about riding academies. Federal case law dating back to the 1970s, he added, treats housing for farm labor the same way, which is how three staff houses fit inside an "agricultural" proposal. Two prior horse farms on preserved land had already won approval on the same argument, most recently the 2012 plan for what is now Bright Side Farm in Water Mill, owned by former "Today" anchor Matt Lauer.
Jay Schneiderman, the town supervisor who oversaw this era of preservation deals and who by 2026 was appearing before the board on Morris's behalf, told the Planning Board that buying development rights was never meant to freeze a property in perpetuity. He also described how the town's approach has changed: in recent years, largely in response to public concern over preserved farmland giving way to horse barns or hedges, the town began buying what it calls enhanced development rights, which require the land to stay in food crop production. Lumber Lane's 2002 covenant predates that change.
That distinction remained untested in this case. A neighbor, Charles Platto, spotted the posted legal notice for the project on a fence post and helped organize what became the Bridgehampton Conservation Alliance, a group that hired a legal team from Sive, Paget & Riesel and, by member accounts, had its legal fees quietly covered by anonymous neighbors. Attorney Maggie Macdonald told the board that revised site plans appeared to understate how much of the 30 acres would be disturbed, keeping the figure just under the 10-acre threshold that triggers a more rigorous review under New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act. The Bridgehampton Civic Association, led by president Pamela Harwood, presented a petition signed by 265 residents. Nina Channing, whose family runs the adjacent winery, argued that classifying horse grooms as agricultural labor stretched the definition past recognition. After nearly two years of hearings, the application was withdrawn, a resolution reported on July 27, 2026. A spokesman for the Alliance said the group was relieved, for now, and Platto warned that the same argument could be tried again on other preserved parcels across the East End.
The field is still open today. The application was withdrawn before a final Planning Board vote, so the argument over what the easement allows remains unresolved. A different property, a quieter set of neighbors, or a covenant without Lumber Lane's specific prohibition on riding academies could produce a different outcome on paper that looks just as "preserved."
The Deal That Wrote the View Into the Easement
Compare that to what Southampton Town did just south of there in December 2023, on a much larger and much more expensive piece of ground. The Peconic Land Trust structured a deal to purchase 27 acres at 181 and 305 Halsey Lane from the Topping family, land that had been farmed for over 150 years, for $48 million, with $18 million raised privately, much of it from Lew Frankfort, the former Coach CEO whose Ocean Road property borders the farm. The town then bought what's called enhanced development rights for $30 million from the Community Preservation Fund.
The word "enhanced" is doing real work in that sentence. Unlike the 2002 Lumber Lane deal, the Halsey Lane easement, as Behind the Hedges reported, contains specific language protecting the open vista itself, not just the farming use. Not even a hedgerow can go up around it. The land can't be allowed to go fallow. Once the purchase closes, the Peconic Land Trust plans to sell the property to a working farmer at a steep discount, around $25,000 an acre, through a public request for proposals, keeping it in food production rather than opening it to any use, agricultural or otherwise, that would change what a neighbor sees out the window.
Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, who signed off on the deal in his final days in office, called it the single highest-priced transaction in the Community Preservation Fund's history at the time, a fund that had swelled to roughly $200 million during the pandemic-era real estate boom on the strength of a 2 percent tax on most property sales in town, as Behind the Hedges reported. That fund is the same mechanism that paid for the 2002 Lumber Lane rights. The dollars come from the same place. The protections they buy are not the same.
Two Kinds of "Preserved"
| Basic or older-style development rights | Enhanced development rights | |
|---|---|---|
| What the town buys | The right to build houses on the parcel | The right to build houses, plus specific language protecting the open view |
| What can still be argued | Riding rings, stables, and farm labor housing, under the Equus Associates precedent, even where a covenant addresses riding academies directly | Food crop production only, with hedgerows and screening structures explicitly barred |
| Bridgehampton example | 819 Lumber Lane, rights purchased 2002 from the Babinski family for more than $1.8 million | 181 & 305 Halsey Lane, enhanced rights purchased 2023 for $30 million on top of a $48 million fee purchase |
| What a neighbor can count on | An agricultural use, contested case by case | An open field, by the terms of the easement itself |
Suffolk County pioneered the purchase of development rights in 1974, the first program of its kind in the country, and the agreements Southampton Town has signed since have evolved over five decades in response to exactly the kind of dispute that just played out on Lumber Lane. A parcel preserved in 2002 was written under a different standard than one preserved in 2023. Both carry the word "preserved." Only one guarantees the view stays a view.
The Question to Ask Before You Buy Next to a Field
If part of a Bridgehampton property's value rests on an adjacent field staying open, "is it preserved" isn't the diligence question that protects you. The question is which kind of preservation covers that specific parcel, and when the rights were purchased. A basic agreement may permit exactly the kind of buildout that just played out at Lumber Lane. A newer agreement with enhanced or vista-specific language is a different and stronger commitment. Both are public record, held by the town and by the Peconic Land Trust, and worth reviewing before treating a neighboring field as a permanent feature of the property.
Does this only affect equestrian uses? The Equus Associates precedent is specifically about riding and stabling facilities, but the broader tension, that older development-rights language restricts land to "agricultural use" without settling exactly what that means, applies to any use that can plausibly be argued as farming.
Is the Lumber Lane field protected now that the application was withdrawn? The withdrawal ends this specific proposal. It doesn't change the underlying easement. The same 2002 agreement remains in place, and a future owner or applicant could bring a similar plan back to the Planning Board.
Where can I check which type of agreement covers a given parcel? Southampton Town holds records on its Community Preservation Fund acquisitions, and the Peconic Land Trust publishes information on the conservation projects it has structured, including the specific easement language attached to each one.
Buying near open land in Bridgehampton is still one of the clearer ways to lock in a view that most of the market can't replicate. It just requires reading the easement, not the field. James Giugliano works this market from the ground up and can help you check which kind of preservation actually covers the parcel next door before you write an offer around it.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
