Parsonage Lane, Sagaponack

Parsonage Lane is a farm-field road in the Incorporated Village of Sagaponack. Its documented character comes from agricultural reserves: fields left open as a condition of earlier subdivisions or kept as private farm preserves, not public parkland. The road shows the difference between a preserved field and a field that is merely open better than any other in the village.

Two reserves are on the record. A 10.5-acre agricultural reserve was imposed by the Town of Southampton in 2002, before the Village existed, as part of a clustered subdivision. A separately owned 35-acre reserve abuts it. A nearly 34-acre private agricultural preserve on Parsonage Lane, zoned residential but kept as a crop field, was before the Village in 2018 over a proposed eight-foot deer fence. It may be the same 35-acre reserve; the reports do not say.

How a subdivision reserve works

A clustered subdivision concentrates the house lots on part of a tract and leaves the rest as a reserve, open land restricted by the subdivision approval. On Parsonage Lane, the 2002 Town-imposed easement requires that work on the reserve be "designated and intended" to promote agricultural production. In 2014 three adjacent lots of about 1.6 to 2 acres were sold together with that reserve, which shows a reserve can travel with the house lots that look at it.

Three points for a buyer:

• Who enforces it: the reserve was imposed by the Town before Sagaponack incorporated. In 2014 the president of Peconic Land Trust said he knew of no Village authority to enforce Town easements. In 2021, State law gave the Village power to enforce development-rights interests acquired by the Town or County within the Village. Whether that law reaches a reserve created by subdivision approval, as opposed to a purchased development right, is a question for counsel.
• What it allows: "agricultural production" includes fences, irrigation, crop changes and equipment. The 2018 deer-fence application shows how a farm use can change a view.
• What it does not do: a reserve does not stop the house lots around it from being built to their full zoning envelope.

The agricultural-reserves guide explains the alternatives: fee ownership by the Town, purchased development rights, private conservation easements.

Zoning

Village zoning has single-family districts R-40, R-80 and R-120 and an Agricultural Overlay covering the Bridgehampton and Haven soils. In the overlay, a subdivision must preserve 35%, 50% or 65% of the land as open space, depending on the district, and the Architectural and Historic Review Board has review jurisdiction. The zoning map sets which rules apply to a given Parsonage Lane parcel. The 2014 report placed the reserve parcels about a mile and a half from the beach, so the ocean-beach rules that govern southern Sagaponack are less likely to apply here. Flood zone and wetland lines should still be read from the survey.

Buyer diligence

• Confirm the parcel is in the Village, and find its zoning district and overlays.
• For every adjoining field, get the instrument, who imposed or holds it, and what uses it allows.
• If a reserve is offered with the lot, read the recorded restriction and the subdivision approval before valuing it.
• Check the Village file for pending fence, farm-structure or clearing applications next door.
• Filter comparable sales to Sagaponack. Parsonage Lane addresses also exist elsewhere.

Nearby lanes

Hedges Lane shares the same field system. Daniels Lane lies toward the ocean. Sagaponack Main Street is the village spine. Town Line Road marks the eastern edge.

Considering a Parsonage Lane property?

Request a private pricing review from The Roebling Research Desk for the specific Parsonage Lane parcel: the reserves and instruments around it and who can enforce them, Village zoning and overlays, pending applications next door and the recorded sales that genuinely compare.