A small piece of property in Springs spawned a stormy public hearing at the Oct. 23 meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, raising the question of a landowner’s right to develop versus the greater good of the community.

    The house proposed is very small, only 801 square feet, just 201 square feet above the minimum allowable in the town code. The 12,629-square- foot parcel sits on the south side of Sand Lot Road, in a triangle formed by School Street, Sand Lot, and Springs-Fireplace Road. On the north side of Sand Lot Road is a large swath of wetlands, capped by Pussy’s Pond, which itself is a headwater for Accabonac Harbor.

    Seven of the eight lots in the triangle have been developed.

    “I have been on that street thousands of times,” said Sharon McCobb, a board member and Springs resident, in her introductory comments. Before every public hearing, one board member visits the property in question. “I didn’t know this was a lot. It looks like a pocket garden. It is completely cleared, as you can see, with some nice pine trees on it,” she said as she showed photographs of the site.

    Laurie Wiltshire of Land Planning Services made the presentation on behalf of the applicant, listed as John Minutillo. “The applicants are proposing a modest house and the smallest septic system that can be built,” she told the board.

    She explained the owner’s problem in a nutshell: “Wetland variances are needed because there is no conforming envelope on the property.” In other words, wherever the house is built, it would be in violation of town setback requirements.

    “There is a wetlands to the east across Sand Lot Road,” she said. “Both the [town] Planning Department and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation consider this wetland to be significant and worthy of protection.” For that reason, she explained, the proposed house would stand as far from Pussy’s Pond as possible.

    The applicants, who have owned the lot since 1986, also own one of the surrounding houses, which they use for summer vacations, but their family has grown and they need more space, Ms. Wiltshire told the board. She said that neighboring houses were larger than what was being proposed.

    When she finished her presentation it was the public’s turn, and a stream of opponents marched up to the podium.

    Kristin Hein identified herself as a resident of an adjacent lot. “This triangle of land contains a network of springs, hence the name ‘Springs,’ that ultimately feed Pussy’s Pond and Accabonac Harbor,” she said. “Based on the location, we believe the lot is a perfect candidate for acquisition.”

    “That is not in the purview of this board. That is in the purview of the town board,” Alex Walter, the Z.B.A. chairman, responded.

    Philip Cozzi, Ms. Hein’s husband, told the board that when the area floods, which, he said, is often, the water runs over the property in question. In the flooding of 2010, he said, there were six inches of water there for four months.      “He has the right to ask for the variances. Whether it is granted is the question here,” he said.

    “Are you saying that the applicant should not be allowed to build anything?” asked Don Cirillo, a board member.

    “Yes, that is correct,” Mr. Cozzi replied.

    “As shown on the map it is right on our property line,” said another neighbor, Ron Focarino. “It sounds to me like an awfully long way to go to do something that is obviously wrong.”

    Debra Foster identified herself as a Springs resident and a former town and Planning Board member. “I’d like to know the depth of groundwater,” she said. “This is a nursery. It is very vulnerable. This is where you get that mix of freshwater and salt water. The Tidal Wetlands Act may come in, which includes the federal government and New York State, because it is within 300 feet of a designated estuary tidal wetland.”

    She proposed a compromise, suggesting that the size of the house be reduced to the minimum allowable 600 square feet.

    Margaret Hardy of the Accabonac Protection Committee spoke next. “While it is unpleasant to argue against an owner’s right to develop, this is a severely nonconforming lot. We recommend denial of this appeal,” she told the board.

    Two more neighbors spoke, each parents of young children, each expressing concern that their children might come in contact with contaminants while playing in their backyards if the proposed house was built.

    Joel Halsey of the Planning Department told the board that a question had arisen, as he examined the proposal, about the size of the septic rings, and whether they would be far enough above ground water. The problem may have simply been a technical one, he said — the rings were described in the plan as three feet high when in fact they may have been two feet — but further research would be needed.

    Mr. Halsey said that the Planning Department did not oppose the application.

    A question of ownership then came up. The original owner of the two properties has died, leaving them to his wife. Did she still own them, or was the second held solely by the dead man’s daughter? Ms. Wiltshire was not sure of the answer.

    The hearing was adjourned, with the record kept open for two weeks to answer both the septic tank and ownership questions. The matter may well be brought up at the board’s next meeting on Tuesday, in what promises to be a lively work session.

    Three issues important to the East Hampton Town Trustees were brought to the fore by Hurricane Sandy — shellfish, sand, and public beaches.

    During a quickly scheduled meeting on Saturday, five days after the storm roared through, the trustee board voted to postpone the opening of scallop season in town waters until Nov. 19. The postponement follows the opening delay in state waters until Nov. 13 for fear of contamination of scallop habitat due to storm runoff and overwhelmed septic systems.

    The second issue was thornier. Trustees agreed that permitting people to rebuild eroded dunes to protect their houses was “a tricky situation.”

    “We don’t want to see anyone lose a house, but sand should not have foreign material. We don’t want the panic to pollute,” was how one trustee, Nat Miller, put it.

    “When was the last time you’ve seen a variance denied?” asked Diane McNally, presiding officer of the nine-member board, in observing how wrecked houses were the result of allowing houses to be built too close to the sea. “A long time ago, people knew it wasn’t a good idea.”

    Ms. McNally addressed the town board last Thursday and said that Sandy might make some people think twice about building or rebuilding in vulnerable areas, and she urged the board to stick to the protocols set forth in the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program plan, which sets policy regarding shoreside development.

    The board agreed not to discourage homeowners from replenishing beach with sand and makeshift dune, especially with this week’s northeaster approaching, as long as the sand was “beach compatible” and free of foreign material, rock, or any kind of hard structure. Permits were required, however.

    “Sand alone, okay, and if they plant beach grass they will have to give us a covenant saying they will not claim the new dune as their property,” Ms. McNally said. Trustees have become touchy about the dune grass issue.

    Last March, State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Whelan ruled against the trustees in a suit brought by the board disputing the Macklowe family’s claim of ownership over a grassy dune between their upland property and the sea in East Hampton Village.

    In that part of town, trustees claim ownership of the beach on behalf of the people, starting at the toe of a dune, that is, where dune grass stops and sand starts. In other areas, trustees claim the beach below the mean high tide line.

    Justice Whelan held that the Macklowes’ chain of title flowed from a deed that defined the property’s seaward border as the “average southerly line of beach grass.” At first glance, the Macklowes and trustees would seem to be in agreement.

    However, the southerly line of beach grass had accreted, or grown seaward, over time, thus adding to private property and subtracting from public beach. A loss for the trustees, or is it?

    By the same argument, if grassy dune is taken by storm surge, the beach left behind would become public property. It would seem the same would be true in areas where trustee beach begins at the mean high tide line. If the sea is indeed rising, mean high water will rise along with it, thus adding public area.

    The trustees have appealed Justice Whelan’s decision in the Macklowe case. The outcome could make important precedent either way, according to John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney.

    East Hampton is comprised of 19 election districts, and each one tells a story. Depending on where they live, voters formed two lines at East Hampton High School Tuesday night. Voters from District 14 reported waiting up to an hour that evening to cast their ballots, while for District 1 there was no line at all. The latter district encompasses neighborhoods south of the highway in East Hampton Village. The former district includes areas around Accabonac Road and Town Lane.

    The shorter lines for some districts may have been due to the fact that many people in them had voted by absentee ballot, according to Dinaz Kaprielian, a poll coordinator at the high school location. Longer lines probably pointed to a denser year-round population.

    Andreas Mejia waited in line for 30 minutes at the high school before being told he could not vote there and instead needed to cast his ballot at the Amagansett Firehouse. “They’re just not coordinated in there,” he said. “Why are there so many obstacles here, when in places like South America, you just go to a booth, press an electronic button and it’s done?”

    Some voters, like Mr. Mejia, mistook Governor Cuomo’s order to mean that they could vote by affidavit anywhere, instead of showing up at the place where they are registered, Ms. Kaprielian said, noting that an essential criterion to take advantage of the governor’s order was that a person be “displaced.” She added that she didn’t allow “someone who had trouble walking” to vote by affidavit at her site even though he had traveled on foot for about a mile. “A good Samaritan gave him a ride to and from his correct polling place at the Neighborhood House,” she said.

    Tyler Borsack, an East Hampton resident who voted at the high school, said the “old voting system” was more efficient. He described the optical scan system now in place as “taking a step backwards.” He much preferred the curtained booths in which voters could flip down a switch and then pull the lever to cast their ballot. “The process was a lot faster,” he said. Mr. Borsack said he voted for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, because his “vote wouldn’t count in this state, anyway.”

    Kim Borsack, his wife, said she voted for President Obama. “Romney lost me when he said he would get rid of Big Bird,” she said, referring to Mitt Romney’s comments about cutting funding to public television and public radio. “We have a 2-year-old. You’ve got to like Big Bird.”

    Paul Jones, also a voter at the high school, believed the time he spent in line to vote for President Obama and Representative Tim Bishop was well worth it. “Waiting in line to vote for 30 minutes is nothing,” Mr. Jones said. “It’s like this every election here.”

    Three scheduled poll workers did not show up at the high school, said Chaz Riggi, an inspector there, and at times, he found it difficult to effectively address the multitude of voter concerns.

    Ed Nash, a poll watcher at the Neighborhood House for the past six elections, echoed Mr. Riggi’s concerns. He believes there was a record turnout this election, when on Tuesday night, almost 1,500 voters from three districts had filled in ballots at that location. Like most poll workers, Mr. Nash was on the job from 5 a.m. to at least 9 p.m. He said workers were “overwhelmed” at the height of voting during the mid-afternoon.

    Nancy Quinn of Long Beach, who voted at the Neighborhood House by affidavit, said poll workers were “very helpful and accommodating.” Her house in Long Beach was completely destroyed, and she is staying with her son and daughter-in-law, Ian Quinn and Lara Goorland, at their summer residence in an East Hampton mobile home park. “We don’t know when we will be able to return home,” she said. “It looks like bombed out Berlin.” She added, “My mother lived through the 1938 hurricane, and said Sandy was much worse.”

    Things were comparatively quiet four hours before polls closed at the Amagansett Firehouse, where voters were in and out in less than five minutes, a contrast to earlier that afternoon, when all 24 chairs set aside for waiting voters were filled. Lynda Edwards, a poll coordinator at the site, said she noticed “a heavy Democratic turnout.” She looked forward to transporting the microchip from the voting machines to the Police Department in Wainscott, she said.

East Hampton Town

Totaling Up Sandy’s Damage

    Reconstruction of roads damaged during Hurricane Sandy, including the Star Island causeway in Montauk and Gerard Drive in Springs, where Gardiner’s Bay breached a causeway and spilled into Accabonac Harbor, washing out the road, will cost $1 million, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said Tuesday. Other storm-related repairs, including replacing a stairway to the beach at Culloden in Montauk, could cost an additional $750,000, he said.The town board is expected to vote tonight to issue a bond for the money. The town will then seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for up to 70 or 80 percent of the costs.

More Free Brush Dumping

    In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said Tuesday that the Long Island Power Authority “did an incredible job.” He took time at a town board meeting that day also to thank town employees for their work preparing for and responding to the storm.  The board agreed to offer residents free brush dumping at the town’s two recycling and trash transfer stations over two upcoming weekends. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby suggested the reprieve, in addition to the one the weekend after Sandy, as many residents were still without power at that point and may have been conserving gasoline in light of shortages. The northeaster last week may also have led to a need for more yard cleanup, she said.

    At its meeting tonight, the board is expected to approve the suspension of brush dumping fees on Friday, Nov. 23, and on Nov. 24, Nov. 25, Nov. 30, Dec. 1, and Dec. 2.

    The Veterans Day holiday and the lingering impact of Hurricane Sandy were blamed for an attendance of precisely two at Monday night’s Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting.

    One of the two was East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the town board liaison to the committee. The other was the committee’s vice chairwoman, Sheila Okin, who was to have run the meeting that night for the chairman, Kieran Brew.

    Ms. Okin asked Ms. Overby whether, in light of the extensive damage and delays in restoring electrical and telephone service, the town board had pressed the state or the Long Island Power Authority to bury transmission lines underground. Ms. Overby said it was an infrastructure issue that affects everyone, noting that most of Long Island’s power lines are above ground, as they were a century ago. The expense of burying them on such a large scale would be a primary issue and likely impediment, she said.

    “I do feel that East Hampton was spared,” the councilwoman added. “The wholesale destruction was to the west of us.”

    But, said Ms. Okin, “It could be us next time. We need to have a better handle on what these superstorms are doing to the coastline.”

    Ms. Overby reported that the fund-raising concert held at LTV Studios on Saturday night was a wonderful experience with a lot of positive energy, and raised a considerable sum for hurricane relief. “It was such a good effort. Your faith is restored sometimes,” she said.

    A vote is expected this evening on East Hampton Town’s budget for 2013, after a few last-minute changes were approved by a majority of the town board on Tuesday.

    As originally proposed, the budget totaled slightly more than $69 million  and would result in tax rates of $27.86 per $100 of assessed value to most town properties, a 4.6-percent increase, or a rate of $10.93 per $100 of assessed value for properties in the incorporated villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor, a decrease of 1.7 percent.

    After a brief discussion at a work session, three members of the board voted to add $27,000 to the budget so that an additional ordinance enforcement officer could be added in the summer season. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said that numerous constituents have been asking for increased code enforcement, based on “quality of life” issues that arise in the summer.

    “I’m totally against it,” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said. Citing his previous position in the human resources department of Disney, he said that people believe, erroneously, “that more begets more, and it doesn’t. There’s no correlation between more code enforcement and increased funds.”  Under his administration, he said, the budget has decreased, and more has been done with less.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley also disagreed and discussed a plan to overhaul the town code, using a committee that would include a local lawyer. “I’ve already reached out to Stephen Grossman to put together a committee to look at the code,” she said. “I prefer going down that road.”

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione voted with Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc, and the addition to the budget was approved.

    Also approved by a three-to-two vote along the same lines was an increase to the grant awarded to Project MOST, an after-school program for children at the Springs School and the John M. Marshall Elementary School, at Councilman Stanzione’s request. 

    The entire board agreed to the addition of $40,000 for a deer population survey, the first step in implementing a deer management plan, and to creating a budget line for the state-mandated Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems program, known as M.S.4, earmarking $15,000 for planning work to continue.

    Len Bernard, the town budget officer, could not be reached by press time for the final budget figures.

    The East Hampton Town Board unanimously adopted the 2013 budget at a meeting last Thursday night, calling for $69 million in spending next year, an increase of just over 5 percent from 2012.

    The final budget, which includes several majority-approved additions to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s originally proposed budget, will raise tax rates for most East Hampton residents by 4.7 percent, at a rate of $27.91 per $100 of assessed value, and result in a 1.4-percent decrease for residents of the incorporated villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor, for a rate of $10.96 per $100 of assessed value.

    Following a public hearing and board discussion of the supervisor’s tentative budget, the final spending plan includes a $25,000 increase of a grant to Project MOST, an after-school program in East Hampton in Springs, to a total of $35,000, and includes $40,000 to fund the first phase of a deer management plan, calling for a population survey of the herd.

    The budget also includes $26,000 to cover salary and benefits for the addition of a part-time code enforcement officer. Board members also agreed to add a part-time position for a land steward at a $30,000 salary, and to shift the entire salary for Andy Gaites, a land management department staffer, to the community preservation fund stewardship budget, paid for by the proceeds of a 2-percent real estate transfer tax. The result of that change reduced anticipated spending in the town’s general budget by $30,000.

    Under the terms of the town’s deficit financing plan, through which the New York State Legislature granted approval to issue up to $30 million in bonds to cover budget shortfalls under a former administration from prior years, the town is required to submit its proposed annual budgets to the state comptroller for review.

    In a letter dated Nov. 1, the comptroller’s office found that the “significant revenue and expenditure projections in the tentative budget are reasonable” in the 2013 budget.

    The letter also reviewed whether town officials had acted on previous recommendations made by the comptroller in 2012.

    Last year, the comptroller had suggested increasing a contingency appropriation, or money set aside for unforeseen events. The 2012 budget contained $530,000 for contingencies. This year, the amount was increased to $560,000, the comptroller’s letter said.

    The comptroller also said that the 2012 budget included estimated revenues of $250,000 from the sale of town property, but, the letter said, when the state officials reviewed the proposed budget last year, “town officials could not provide documentation to show that this revenue would be realized in 2012.”

    The expected revenue remained in the budget, the comptroller’s office said in the letter, “although we cautioned town officials regarding the attainability of this estimated revenue.” As of September, the year-to-date and projected revenue from property sales totaled $40,000, creating a $210,000 shortfall in the 2012 fiscal year.

    According to the comptroller’s office, East Hampton Town’s 2013 budget complies with a state law limiting increases in the annual tax levy to 2 percent each year. East Hampton’s leeway was larger than that this year, according to a state formula, because of tax levels in previous years.

East Hampton Town

Free Well Water Tests

    Residents with private wells who are concerned about contamination after Hurricane Sandy can have their water tested free of charge by the Suffolk County Water Authority. The tests will seek to ensure that wells have not been contaminated by bacteria, fuels, or chlorides via saltwater intrusion during the storm.

    The free testing program will run through Dec. 20, although the deadline will be extended indefinitely for residents who have not been able to return to their homes by then because of extensive storm damage. Those who wish to schedule a water test have been asked to call the water authority at 698-9500.

Tallying the Block Grant

    The proceeds of an annual federal Community Development Block Grant to East Hampton Town, which is earmarked for public service and projects that help low-income residents, will be distributed as follows, the East Hampton Town Board decided on Nov. 20: $18,070 to the Retreat, $40,000 to the Whalebone Apartments, $5,000 for work at the town’s skate park in Montauk, $5,000 to Catholic Charities, and a total of $25,500 to the East Hampton Housing Authority.

Working on Wastewater

    Information submitted by consultants who could help the town establish a comprehensive wastewater management plan is being vetted by town staff, including Kim Shaw, the natural resources director, and will be discussed by the town board at an upcoming meeting. A presentation on the various proposals, highlighting their elements, similarities, and differences, is expected to take place at a board work session on Tuesday, with an eye to making a choice as to whom to hire by mid-January.

    Councilmen Dominick Stanzione and Peter Van Scoyoc, along with Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, have supported developing an overall waste management strategy before making long-term decisions about the future of the town’s scavenger waste treatment plant.

Shoreline Brouhaha

    An oceanfront homeowner on Deforest Road in Montauk looking to shore up the coastline has offered to add sand in front of adjacent properties owned by the town to avoid causing further erosion there. A town board discussion of the request for permission to do so, however, devolved into a political squabble, leaving the homeowner unable to move forward on protecting the Deforest Road house.

    When Councilman Van Scoyoc brought the request to the board on Nov. 20, he was criticized by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who said that the matter should have been broached by Councilman Stanzione, as the board’s Montauk liaison, or by Ms. Quigley, the liaison to the Planning Department.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc said he had been filled in by Tom Talmage, the town engineer, to whom he is liaison, and that Mr. Talmage and other town staff could not process the application without town board approval, since placing sand on town land is involved. Ms. Quigley pointed out that Mr. Talmage’s post falls under the Planning Department’s umbrella. The homeowner’s request was tabled, as only Mr. Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Overby were willing to act on it.

For Town Code Review

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said last week that she has chosen several people to serve on a committee that would review the town code for the purpose of making regulations more easily enforceable, including strengthening fines. The members she would like to appoint, she said, include lawyers, “town people,” and “two outside” — Bob Kouffman and Stephen Grossman, who had suggested the idea, Rob Connolly and Patrick Gunn, town attorneys, Catherine Casey of the East Hampton Housing Authority, Alice Houseknecht, a Montauk motel owner, and Amado Ortiz, an architect. The group would work on the project for a maximum of two months, she said.

    Councilwoman Overby asked if other names could be considered and requested a written mission statement describing the committee’s charge and “the parameters of what [it] will do.” Councilman Van Scoyoc asked that the idea be tabled for further discussion, but with Councilman Stanzione and Supervisor Wilkinson’s approval, Ms. Quigley got the go-ahead.

C.P.F. Revenue Up Sharply

    Revenues for the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund totaled just over $6 million in October, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has reported. The revenue, produced by a real estate transfer tax covering all five East End towns, is almost double that of a year ago, when October receipts totaled $3.19 million. The first 10 months of 2012 have produced $50.1 million for the land-purchase fund, a 4-percent increase over the same period last year, and the total for 2012 is expected to be in the $60 million range.

    In East Hampton and Shelter Island Towns, Mr. Thiele said in a press release, there has been a “substantial increase in activity.” Revenues of $15.9 million so far this year in East Hampton, compared to $10.9 million last year, are up 46 percent.

    Since its inception in 1999, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund has generated $772.62 million. The tax program, which provides money to preserve farmland, historic sites, and open space, expires in 2030.   

    With weekends quieter than in the summer, when taxis swarm downtown hamlets seeking passengers buzzing about for a night of festivities, the East Hampton Town Board is taking time to review legislation that regulates taxicab companies here.

    A law put in place before last season required taxi operators to obtain licenses from the town clerk after providing proof of insurance and driver’s license information.

    Complaints continued through the summer about the number of taxicabs — many of which were coming here from out of town to compete for summer fares — the safety of passengers, and the behavior of some drivers.

    A proposed revision to the town code, worked on by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley with Rob Connolly, a town attorney, would tighten the rules, subjecting applicants for annual taxi licenses, both proprietors and drivers, to fingerprinting and a criminal background check, and requiring taxi companies to have a business office in East Hampton in order to pick up fares here.

    An initial draft proposal, discussed by the town board at a Nov. 20 work session, included a requirement that taxi companies have a fleet of at least three vehicles. That provision will likely be dropped from the final law, according to concerns raised by town board members about excluding small-business entrepreneurs.

    The proposal also would bar the use of vehicles more than 10 years old as cabs, or those with more than 250,000 miles on the odometer, beginning in 2014, and increase the fines for unlicensed cabs.

    Licenses would be required for the business, for each vehicle, and for individual drivers, and would have to be renewed each year.

    Ms. Quigley has also proposed setting up a taxicab license review committee, with three members to be appointed by the town board, which would review license applications. Having the existing five-member license review board, which deals with home contractor licenses and complaints, also review taxi licenses, was discussed at last week’s meeting, as was a way to eliminate loopholes, such as subleasing office space, that could allow out-of-town companies to do business here.

    Carole Brennan, the deputy town clerk, reported at the work session that, of 75 taxi companies with town licenses at present, 39 are based in East Hampton.

    “I think generally this is going to go a long way toward addressing some of the problems we saw this summer,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said of the draft revision. The board is expected to finalize the proposed changes before scheduling the new legislation for a public hearing.

    The Nov. 20 meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, held two days before Thanksgiving, proved anything but a holiday for its members, who sat through a stormy four-hour session, almost all of it devoted to one of the most valuable parcels of land in the United States, at 278 Further Lane in East Hampton.

    The property, formerly owned by Adelaide de Menil and Ted Carpenter, was sold in 2007 along with its neighbor, 260 Further Lane — 40 acres in all — to the real estate mogul Ron Baron for $103 million. In the fall of 2008, he built two parallel walls, about four feet apart, between the ocean and the two parcels. The walls make a 90-degree turn that divides his eastern border from his neighbor, Taya Thurman. The hearing was held to determine whether the walls, which are in an area of dunes and wetlands, are eligible for a natural resources special permit.

    From the beginning, everything about the walls has been controversial.  To begin with, they were built without a building permit.

    According to Brian Matthews of McLachlan and Eagan, attorneys for Mr. Baron and 260A L.L.C., the owner of record, the walls were constructed after several conversations with the then-head building inspector, Don Sharkey. Mr. Matthews told the board the surveyor, David Weaver, had assured Mr. Baron that a permit was not needed, as the walls were to be only four feet high.

    According to Mr. Weaver, who addressed the board through an affidavit, Mr. Sharkey gave a verbal okay to the project in April 2008 and again that August, shortly before construction began.

    Later, Mr. Sharkey, who died in July 2009, denied having given those approvals, and Brian Frank, the town’s chief environmental analyst, said he doubted that he did. Mr. Frank told the board it would be unlikely for a head building inspector to give an approval of that magnitude in such a casual manner. “It doesn’t make any sense that Mr. Sharkey would have just said, ‘Go ahead.’ ”

    More important, said Mr. Frank, was that according to earlier aerial photographs of the site, it appeared that the walls had been built right over dunes, disturbing the rare double dune system. Larry Penny, the former director of the town’s Environmental Protection Department, had made that same point in a letter to Mr. Baron dated June 5, 2007.

    “The double dune preserve is unique,” said Mr. Frank. “There is no place else on Long Island where the entire structure is intact.”

    Mr. Matthews, however, cited surveys and studies made for the owner that indicated that little if any duneland had been impacted.

    Even the height of the walls was disputed. Mr. Matthews assured the board that they were only four feet tall, an assertion scoffed at by Michael G. Walsh, attorney for Ms. Thurman and the Thurman Land Trust.

    “Our findings were radically, radically  different than the findings you’ve been presented this evening,” Mr. Walsh told the Z.B.A. members. He said the actual height of the walls could only be determined by establishing a “natural grade” point, and contended that by that standard the walls were over 13 feet high.

    Mr. Frank agreed. Both men concurred that the walls were built using poured concrete with foundations and rebar and not as simple property demarcations. In fact, said Mr. Walsh, their true purpose was to raise the grade of the land to ensure that any house built there in the future would have a panoramic ocean view. He said the walls should rightly be called retaining walls.

    The lawyer and the environmental analyst both said fill had been dumped between the two walls and behind the back wall, which, Mr. Frank said, has allowed invasive species to move into the duneland. Mr. Matthews countered that the fill was from the immediate property.

    Mr. Frank asked the board, “Would I approve this if it wasn’t there already?”

    “We’re not here to make a determination whether these walls should be taken down,” replied the Z.B.A. chairman, Alex Walter.

    Mr. Frank agreed. “You’re here to determine whether the walls are eligible for a natural resources special permit,” a determination that is likely to be made during the board’s Dec. 11 work session.

    In the evening’s only other proceeding, the board heard Philip Giordano’s application to tear down and rebuild a house at 15 Deforest Road in Montauk.