Lazy Point

At Lazy Point, the lots along Shore Road are not for sale. The East Hampton Town Trustees, the town body formed in 1686 under the Dongan Patent, own those lots and the beach in front of them. The houses on them belong to individuals who lease the ground from the Trustees.

That is the defining fact of this bay-side corner of Napeague, and it changes the purchase completely. A buyer of a Lazy Point lease-lot house acquires the structure and, with the Trustees' approval, an assignment of the ground lease. The land, the beach and the right to renew stay with the Trustees, under rules they adopted in 2019 and can amend by annual resolution.

This page covers the lease lots. Privately owned parcels in the surrounding area are held in fee and governed by ordinary Town rules; they appear below only where a public record ties them to Lazy Point.

What the instrument says

The Trustees' Rules and Regulations for Lazy Point Leases define the place for legal purposes. A lease lot is a parcel on the "Subdivision Map of Shore Road at Lazy Point," dated June 1935 and revised in 1956, as shown on a 1998 survey. Trustee property at Lazy Point, leased or not and including the beach, lies in Suffolk County Tax Map District 300, Sections 84, 85, 106, 107 and 108. The tax-map section number alone does not tell you whether a given property is a lease lot. The lease and the Trustees' lot records do.

The lease

Until 2019 the leases ran one year at a time. Under rules adopted in November 2015, they renewed automatically if the tenant was in compliance, rose 2% a year, and gave a right to rebuild after weather damage. The annual lease was $1,650 in 2015.

In April 2019 the Trustees replaced them with a 35-year "Restatement and Renewal of Lazy Point Lot Lease," beginning April 29, 2019. The Trustees said the longer term was meant to give tenants security and access to loans. The current terms, from the 2019 rules:

• One term for everyone. All lots are on the same 35-year term. A sale does not restart the clock: the buyer takes the remainder of the term. The Trustees may extend a term on assignment, case by case, where needed for financing.
• No promise of renewal. At the end of the term the Trustees may decline to renew or change every term of a new lease, on 30 days' notice.
• Fee. The fee rises 2% a year from January 2019, under a rent schedule attached to the rules. Changes to the rules and charges are adopted at the Trustees' January organizational meeting.
• Financing. Each lease includes a leasehold mortgage rider, which lets a lender take the lease as security.
• Who may hold a lease. Leases go only to individuals domiciled in, and continuously resident in, the Town of East Hampton, with exceptions for certain trusts, minors and estates. Tenants file an affidavit of domicile each year and may not be registered to vote outside the Town. No corporation or LLC may hold a lease, and no more than two people may share one, except for leases in place on March 1, 2003. No tenant may hold more than two leases for lots that do not adjoin.

What changes hands in a sale

A Lazy Point sale is a sale of the house and an assignment of the lease, and the Trustees control the assignment.

1. The seller notifies the Trustees in writing of the proposed buyer.
2. Once the Trustees acknowledge it at a regular meeting, a notice of the proposed transfer is published in the Trustees' official newspaper, stating that the new lease needs Trustee approval and that the buyer must meet the residency rules.
3. The Trustees review the buyer's affidavit of domicile, the contract of sale and proof of publication, with their attorney, and then approve conditionally or ask for more.
4. Transfer fee: 4% of the price paid for the house, half from the seller and half from the buyer, by certified or bank check at closing. If it is not paid at closing, the approval terminates, the lease becomes void and neither party may lease from the Trustees again.

Subletting also needs Trustee permission, granted at most once a calendar year, with a 4% fee on the rent split between tenant and subtenant. If a tenant dies, the estate has 12 months to transfer the house to a qualified person or remove it.

What the tenant may build

The lease lot is still Trustee land, and the rules treat it that way. Expanding or demolishing a house, excavating with machinery, paving a driveway, fencing the lot, or any work that would need a Town permit on private land requires the Trustees' written permission first, applied for alongside the Town approvals. Rebuilding after storm or accident damage must meet current building, zoning, health and environmental rules, and approval is at the Trustees' discretion.

The beach is to hold only sand, native vegetation and a natural shoreline, with no structures without permission. Tenants may not park or store boats, trailers or equipment on the beach or unleased Trustee land without a permit. Lots that were vacant on July 31, 1988 may be leased only by a two-thirds-plus-one vote of the Trustees. Breaking any rule is grounds for ending the lease, which can include removal of the house at the tenant's expense.

The coastal plan

Lazy Point is one of the places the Town's Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan (CARP) is most direct about. The draft plan, reported in April 2022, said portions of Lazy Point and of Gerard Drive in Springs can expect to lose significant land to rising water, to the point where maintaining structures will not be feasible. The Town Board adopted CARP into its comprehensive plan by a 4-0 vote in September 2022. It recommends a mix of accommodation, protection and managed retreat, including relocation and public acquisition of select very-high-risk property for open space. The plan is guidance, not a law, and it does not change any lot's zoning or lease.

The question was raised when the leases were extended. One Trustee who abstained from the 2019 vote asked what the shoreline will look like in 10, 20 and 35 years and whether long leases tie people to land that may change drastically. A 35-year lease on land the Town's own plan expects to lose in part is the central underwriting question at Lazy Point. The flood and coastal-erosion guide explains the maps and permits involved.

Access is a current issue too. The Cranberry Hole Road bridge over the railroad, which serves Promised Land and the Lazy Point area, has been closed to traffic since 2023 as unsafe. The M.T.A. expects to open its replacement in spring 2028. See Cranberry Hole Road.

Bay View Avenue and the beach-access settlement

The shore-protection record next door shows how temporary measures behave here. On Bay View Avenue, near Lazy Point, a wall of one-ton fabric sandbags ("GeoCubes") was placed across the front of two privately owned bayfront properties in 2018. Town code allows such bags only as a six-month emergency measure, with one three-month extension. The wall stayed, and it cut off a path to the bay beach.

A proposed replacement rock revetment ran into Town code, which does not permit one on that shoreline. The Zoning Board of Appeals ordered a full environmental review; the owner sued, lost, and appealed, and that case was still open in July 2025. In a separate suit over the Town's refusal of a temporary permit to replace the bags, the Town Board authorized a partial settlement in December 2024 intended to reopen access to the obstructed beach. The state Department of Environmental Conservation permitted a new layout in June 2025: 115 linear feet of bags with a 40-foot return, replacing the line that blocked the path. A newer Town rule requires a surety bond to cover removal of temporary bags. In September 2025 the Town Building Department permitted the replacement bags, with an enforcement plan. Whether the path has since reopened was not confirmed in the reporting reviewed.

For a buyer anywhere on this shore, the lesson is narrow and practical: trace every sandbag, revetment or bulkhead to its permit and expiration, and every beach path to its recorded right, before treating either as part of the property.

Questions to settle before contract

• Is the parcel a Trustee lease lot or fee-owned land? Get the lease, the lot number and the Trustees' confirmation.
• What is the current annual fee, and how many years remain on the term?
• Does the buyer meet the residency rules, and will the Trustees approve the assignment before closing?
• Will a lender finance the house on this leasehold for the years remaining?
• What Trustee and Town approvals stand behind the existing house, additions, decks and any shore work?
• What do the survey, elevation certificate and flood map show, and what does CARP say about the specific shoreline?

Related pages

Napeague covers the isthmus as a whole. Cranberry Hole Road covers the bay road to the east. Amagansett is the postal and hamlet center to the west. The private roads and beach rights guide covers access questions in general.