The Suffolk County Planning Commission has asked East Hampton Town to investigate the impact of potential traffic generated by a proposed bowling alley and miniature golf course at the East Hampton Indoor Tennis Club on Daniel’s Hole Road. 

All eight commission members present at the group’s April 6 meeting, a bare quorum of its full complement of 15, voted to make the request, which was attached to an overall approval of the project. Samuel Kramer, an East Hampton attorney who lives near the site in Wainscott, made the motion to look into the impact of traffic.

In a memo to the town planning board written after the commission’s vote, Eric Schantz, a senior town planner, noted that “the issue of traffic was discussed at the time of the initial review. The board voted not to require a separate traffic study.” 

A couple of board members did express some concern over nighttime visibility on Daniel’s Hole Road. However, the commission’s request for a traffic study does not mention either Montauk Highway or Daniel’s Hole Road, only South Breeze Drive. “The town should investigate with the applicant via an amended traffic report, the proposed operation of the facility, and how it may draw traffic flow from the north,” it says, “to determine whether or not any additional traffic mitigation measures need to be incorporated for South Breeze Drive.” 

The planning board does have the option of ignoring the commission’s request, but only if a supermajority of members vote to do so, meaning 5-2 or better.

“It is very rare to hear from the commission,” Reed Jones, chairman of the planning board, said yesterday. “Usually they kick it back as a matter for local determination.” Mr. Jones said he expected to explore with his fellow members the possibility of overriding the commission’s request.

“I served on the Suffolk County Commission,” said Diana Weir, a planning board member. “The Planning Department did a very thorough review, and were explicit in their memo, which we accepted.” She pointed out that at a public hearing for the proposal held in February, not one member of the public spoke about traffic concerns from the north. Also, she said, the owners of the tennis club addressed the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, where no opposition to the plan was raised. “Everybody was kind of shocked to get this letter,” she said.

 Mr. Kramer, whose house is on a cul-de-sac off South Breeze Drive, was not available yesterday morning for comment.

Those up for re-election in the Village of Sag Harbor hope to stay put come June. While it will be James L. Larocca’s first go-around in a village election, having been appointed to fill a vacancy last year, he has held various positions in government. Meanwhile, Robby Stein is looking for re-election for a third full term on the board.

No other candidates for the June 21 election have come forward, although there are still two weeks until nominating petitions are due. Both seats come with a two-year term.

This time last year, Mr. Stein made a bid for village mayor, falling short to Sandra Schroeder. Both had a year left on their terms as board members. Mr. Stein kept his seat, and Mayor Schroeder appointed Mr. Larocca, who had been on the planning board for about a year, to take over hers.

“I look forward to running in my own right,” Mr. Larocca said. “I’ve enjoyed it enormously.”

Since Mr. Larocca brings experience working at different levels of government, there was no learning curve, Mayor Schroeder said. A lawyer, he served as Gov. Hugh Carey’s deputy secretary of federal affairs in Washington, D.C., and under Gov. Mario Cuomo he was commissioner of transportation. He ran for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in 1998, before becoming a dean at Southampton College. 

“Mostly retired,” he said with a laugh, he is also a playwright, “always chasing a project.” 

His first year on the board has been a busy one, between the residential code revisions, approved on Friday, and plans being made for a waterfront park on privately owned land near the bridge to North Haven. Mr. Larocca has taken the lead on the park project. Although he was mum on any news about whether the village was ready to move forward with condemnation, after hiring an attorney to look into its feasibility, he said, “I’m very committed to that. We are forging ahead.” 

Mr. Stein, a clinical child psychologist with a practice in the village, was appointed to the board seven years ago to fill a vacancy when Brian Gilbride, then a board member, was elected mayor. Mr. Stein later won two elections for full terms. He has been the village’s representative to the Peconic Estuary Program. Outside of the Municipal Building, he serves on the boards of Bay Street Theater and Mashashimuet Park. He said he is running to continue the work he has done on environmental issues and other special projects.

Nominating petitions have been available from the village clerk’s office since April 5, according to the election schedule. Beth Kamper, the clerk, can accept signed petitions starting May 10 and until the 17th. 

Those wishing to vote must register with the Suffolk County Board of Elections no later than June 10. Applications for absentee ballots have to be sent to the village clerk’s office by June 14. 

The election will be held at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Brick Kiln Road from noon to 9 p.m.

If it’s Earth Day, it’s time for citizens with gloved hands and comfortable shoes to prowl the South Fork sands in search of garbage. Let the beach cleanups begin. . . .

Starting out east, the Great Montauk Cleanup begins at Kirk Park on Saturday with a 9 a.m. pick-up of gloves and bags, after which volunteers will disperse to tidy up areas of their choosing. The cleanup is sponsored by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, the Montauk School student council, the Surfrider Foundation, Mickey’s Carting, Camp SoulGrow, the Montauk Playhouse, Third House Nature Center, and Imagination Nation.

In conjunction, the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will host an in-and-out hike on a fern-lined section of the Paumanok Path at 10 a.m. Hikers will collect debris along Montauk Highway on the return leg of the 2.5-mile trip. That group will meet in the parking lot of the Montauk Library. More information is at preservemontauk.org.

Also on Saturday, Dell Cullum, a photographer, wildlife removal specialist, and author of “Eden of East Hampton,” has organized a third annual Shoreline Sweep, a cleanup of beaches from Montauk to Wainscott starting at 9 a.m. and running until about 1 p.m. Volunteers can reach him at [email protected] for specific starting locations and updates.

The eastern Long Island chapter of the Surfrider Foundation is sponsoring cleanups hither and yon Saturday, too: in Amagansett at Indian Wells Beach and at Napeague Lane Beach at 9 a.m., and in Montauk at Ditch Plain Beach at 10 a.m., among others.

The Town of East Hampton, by the way, will provide gloves and bags for volunteers. They can be picked up at Councilwoman Sylvia Overby’s office. Groups looking to participate can call her office at 324-2620.

The South Fork Natural History Museum is also getting into the act, having organized an effort at Long Beach in Noyac that will get under way at 8 a.m. Saturday.

And after all that picking, there will be a time to unwind at 2 p.m. at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. Bagels and water will be served.

Sag Harbor Village’s budget will pierce the state-mandated tax levy cap for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which begins in June. The village board adopted a $9.24 million budget last week.

The general fund budget calls for a 7.69 percent increase, or $660,000, over the current year, about $8.58 million. The hike is largely due to increases in salary, attributed mainly to the settlement of the police and Civil Service Employees Association contracts in the past year, according to Eileen Tuohy, the village treasurer. In the police department alone, there was an increase of 18 percent.

The budget, which goes over the cap by just under $200,000, or three-quarters of a percent, was approved unanimously at a meeting on April 12. The village would have been allowed to raise the tax levy 2.8 percent, Ms. Tuohy said.

Even with the increase in spending and a pierced cap, homeowners will see a small tax rate decrease, from about 2.742 to 2.739 per $1,000 of assessed value, thanks to an increase of about $133 million in assessed valuation. (The Bulova and West Water Street condominiums received certificates of occupancy this past year and are now on the tax rolls.) A property owner with a house assessed at $795,000, for example, will pay about $2,177 in village taxes this coming year, as opposed to $2,179 in 2015-16.

The village board also approved a budget for its sewer fund of about $643,000. That reflects a 10.58 percent, or $61,494, increase. The board put aside $75,000 in its appropriated fund balance for the general fund, and $20,000 in its sewer fund.

Though the larger issue of ownership of the beach remains, the East Hampton Town Trustees have lost a battle in their lawsuit against a West End Road property owner who constructed a rock revetment in 2013 and ’14.

On April 4, State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tarantino denied the trustees’ petition to annul the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals adoption, in January 2015, of a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. A negative declaration means that an environmental impact study will not be required of the applicant.

The Z.B.A.’s 2015 ruling revisited an application by Mollie Zweig of 11 West End Road, whose property was damaged during Hurricanes Irene in 2011 and Sandy the following year. In 2013, the board granted Ms. Zweig approval to construct the revetment on the ocean beach in front of her house over the strong objections of the trustees, who not only asserted their jurisdiction over the beach but charged that the Z.B.A. had not properly assessed the project’s environmental impact. Construction of the revetment began that year on Veterans Day, when the courts were closed, and the trustees filed an Article 78 court challenge to the determination.

Three days after construction began, the trustees won a temporary restraining order to stop the project, which involved removing a rock groin, building a dune with 4,000 cubic yards of sand, planting beach grass, and installing sand-fencing.

In February 2014, Ms. Zweig applied for a permit from the trustees, as that board had insisted she was required to do. The following month, Diane McNally, who was then the trustees’ presiding officer, said the application was incomplete; it was later withdrawn.

Nonetheless, Judge Tarantino lifted the restraining order and the revetment was completed. At that time, Brian Matthews, an attorney representing the trustees, said that the lifting of the restraining order should not be seen as a resolution in Ms. Zweig’s favor. The court had acted entirely on the grounds of finding “no irreparable harm,” Mr. Matthews said.

In November 2014, Judge Tarantino ruled that the zoning board’s SEQRA determination had been incorrectly categorized as a Type 2 action, meaning the project had been found not to have significant adverse environmental impact. Instead, it should have been categorized as an unlisted action, requiring further review.

That led to the Z.B.A.’s 2015 vote on a new environmental assessment form prepared by the applicant and Gene Cross, a consultant to the village. The Z.B.A reached the same conclusion it had in 2013, that the revetment “will not result in any moderate-to-large impacts, and therefore will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment,” Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, said at the time. The board again adopted a negative declaration pursuant to SEQRA, ending its review process.

The trustees then filed a new Article 78 challenge and continued to seek an annulment of the negative declaration on the grounds that the Z.B.A.’s review was improper and failed to involve other agencies, and that the environmental assessment form contained inaccuracies.

Judge Tarantino’s ruling this month stated that the Z.B.A. had followed proper procedure, and noted that the trustees had not contradicted Ms. Zweig’s assertion that “the vast majority of the properties abutting the Atlantic Ocean for a distance of 2,000 feet abutting Ms. Zweig’s property . . . are protected by seawalls and other such improvements.”

The issue of the trustees’ jurisdiction is the subject of separate litigation, the ruling concludes, and the question of Ms. Zweig’s need to apply to the trustees for permission to construct the revetment depends upon that outcome.

“It is undisputed that the trustees own and govern the ‘commonlands’ running from the western border of the Town of East Hampton to the eastern edge of Napeague pursuant to the Dongan Patent” of 1686, the ruling states. This, said Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk, remains the paramount concern. “This is basically a nonissue at this point,” he said of the April 4 ruling, “because all they’re doing is affirming that the village Z.B.A. did their job. They still have to decide ownership of the beach, which is what the real case is about.”

Saturday will be a PRFECT Earth Day in Springs, when the Perfect Earth Project, in collaboration with the Accabonac Protection Committee, presents a lineup of free events from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. designed to highlight the health and environmental benefits of a toxin-free approach to landscaping.

The talks and demonstrations will focus on steps both homeowners and landscape professionals can take to manage properties without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as on their effect on the environment.

The day will begin with coffee and refreshments served at the Springs Firehouse, followed by a panel discussion from 10 to 11:30 a.m. featuring Edwina von Gal and Sean O’Neill from the Perfect Earth Project, a Springs organization that is working to spread the toxin-free message. Also participating will be Jorie Latham from the Accabonac Protection Committee, Chris Pickerell, the marine program director at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, and Charlie Marder, a Springs resident, proprietor of Marders nursery in Bridgehampton, and an expert in toxin-free landscaping.

Topics will include water quality concerns regarding Accabonac Harbor and other local bodies of water, and what homeowners and landscapers can do to stop their deterioration. After a brief overview, the panelists will field audience questions.

Homeowners and property managers have been invited to attend along with their landscapers for “couples’ therapy”; experts will be on hand to provide counsel on toxin-free techniques and to help set landscape goals.

Beginning at noon, on the lawn outside Ashawagh Hall, there will be games for children and local food. Information on ticks and the use of mulching lawnmowers will be provided at booths set up by various environmental organizations and local organic landscapers.

Paul Wagner, a lawn expert from the Perfect Earth Project, will show how to brew compost tea and highlight the benefits of soil health and how to manage pests organically.

An art show by earthhampton.com, celebrating Earth Day, will be on view inside the hall, and the Springs Seedlings group will sell plants. Job Potter and Friends will provide live music.

Parking remained a sticking point as the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals continued on Friday to review an application from owners of the property at 52, 54, 56, and 58 McGuirk Street.

Keith and Anne Cynar’s .3-acre property includes two cottages that face the street and a back building with two apartments. While they are spread over four street numbers, the land is not divided. The owners’ original plan, which was brought to the board last month, was to convert the back building, which is only 2.4 feet from the lot line, into a single-family residence and to raise its roof by 2.2 feet. They also asked for a swimming pool that would be built on a portion of the parcel formerly used for parking, and now seek to house pool equipment in an existing shed that is closer to the property line than allowed by today’s zoning.

The Cynars’ attorney, William Fleming, told the board on Friday that the proposal to convert the rear building has been indefinitely postponed due to cost considerations, but plans for a pool are still on the table. Its impact on parking dominated the discussion on Friday.

Village code requires two off-street parking spaces for every house; the Cynars now have one space for each cottage and none for the apartments at the rear. What’s more, overnight parking is prohibited on village streets.

Mr. Fleming distributed an updated plan showing five parking spaces in what he called a railroad configuration, with two cars in each of two 40-foot-long rows with a single additional space adjacent to them. “We thought that was a fair number,” he said.

Ms. Cynar told the board that the family has renovated one of the cottages facing the street for their use, and another is used for her in-laws when they visit. “The back building is in terrible condition,” she said, but they hope to renovate it for other relatives’ to use in the future. “We’re not going to have a ton of cars.”

When John McGuirk, a board member, pointed out that the proposed parking would extend over the property line, Mr. Fleming said, “We’re not going to park and block the sidewalk, but we are going to occupy a little of the space. . . . A car is 16 to 18 feet long. There’s going to be plenty of room there so we avoid the sidewalk.”

“Is the idea of having it stacked railroad style, where it comes close to the sidewalk, acceptable?” asked Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman.

“I’ve said it five times now: I don’t think they have enough parking for what they have,” Mr. McGuirk said, especially when the rear structure is occupied in the future. In considering the swimming pool, he reminded his colleagues that it would occupy space formerly used for parking. Larry Hillel and Craig Humphrey, fellow board members, agreed.

“We’ll be glad to put in a sixth parking space if that is what the board wants,” Mr. Fleming said, but his clients would like to “keep the backyard a backyard and not a parking area.”

Mr. Newbold asked that the applicants revisit the design. “Why don’t you come back to us with what you think would work best for your client?” he asked Mr. Fleming. 

“Obviously, my thinking isn’t working,” was the reply.

“We don’t want to be the ones to design it for you,” Mr. Newbold said.

“I think you’re taking a rather passive-aggressive form of not designing it for me,” Mr. Fleming said.

“Not passive-aggressive,” Mr. Newbold said. “Diligent.”

The hearing was left open and will be revisited at the board’s meeting on Friday, April 22.

The board also announced two determinations. Lorie Adams of 19 Ruxton Road was granted variances to construct a tennis court and to keep a fountain, planter, and pool equipment within the required 50-foot setbacks, and to allow 2,391 square feet more of lot coverage than is permitted by code. The excess coverage is half the amount initially requested by the applicant, who agreed to eliminate an accessory building, slate walkways, and other paved areas from the property. The applicant must also install drywells in connection with construction of the tennis court.

The board granted the Georges Family Trust variances to allow reconstruction of a garage and alteration of an existing residence within required setbacks at 83 Newtown Lane. The lot is constrained by a 25-foot right of way providing access to lots behind it, and the board found that allowing the single-family house to remain in a commercial area “will continue to lend an air of charm to the neighborhood.”

The Tom Twomey Series of programs will begin on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. Named for the late chairman of the library’s board of trustees, who died in November 2014, the series, now in its second year, will explore topics including the environment, politics, medicine, and local history, but will also feature a lighter subject, the harmonica.

“They’re really solid programs,” said Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, who will host Saturday’s program, “Colonial Commerce.” “We tried to have a whole range of things to interest different people.”

“Colonial Commerce” will explore a transcription project involving the Culper Spy Ring, organized by order of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Many documents in the project are housed in the library’s Long Island Collection.

Other programs include “The Pond Scourge,” with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, who has sampled waterways on behalf of the East Hampton Town Trustees in recent years, on May 7; “Campaign Theatrics 2016,” with Patrick Healy of The New York Times, on June 4; “Hampturbia in the Age of Escalade Entitlement,” with Preston Phillips, an architect, on July 21, and “Lessons From Katrina: Preparing for the Next Big One Here,” featuring East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Scott Cowen of Tulane University, on Aug. 25.

Of “The Pond Scourge,” Mr. Fabiszak said, “Originally we didn’t think that would get that much interest, but there’s a lot of talk about what to do with Town Pond and Georgica Pond. There has been some great research in how to deal with that, and I hope local officials come and listen to what’s being done. It’s a great launching point for a bigger public discussion on how we’re gong to fix things.”

Live music will be performed on May 21 with “Harps, Harmonicas, and Heavy Breathers: A History of the People’s Instrument,” featuring Kim Field and Randy Weinstein. “They’re great performers,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “We’re excited about that. The musical performance we had last year had one of the best attendances.”

The nine programs, which are free, will take place in the Baldwin Family Lecture Room and include a question-and-answer session after the presentation. Reservations have been requested and can be made at TomTwomeySeries.org, at the library’s adult reference desk, by calling the library, or by sending an email to [email protected].

Programs held on a Saturday will start at 5 p.m., and those held on a Thursday will start at 6. With the exception of the musical performance, each program will be filmed by LTV and available for streaming at TomTwomeySeries.org.

“We felt this series was significant enough that it should have its own website,” Mr. Fabiszak said, “for registration and for archiving what goes on.”

In a brief and quiet work session last Thursday, the East Hampton Village Board designated the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street as the polling place for the June 21 village election. The polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m., and the board authorized Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, to appoint four election inspectors at the rate of $20 per hour. If the inspectors are village employees, they will be compensated at their current rate of pay.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Deputy Mayor Barbara Borsack, and Richard Lawler of the board are up for re-election. Independent nominating petitions can be filed from May 10 through May 17. As of yesterday, there were no declared candidates to oppose them. Individuals can register to vote through June 10 with the county board of elections.

The board also authorized the issuance of $760,000 in bonds to pay the cost of various capital projects. Mayor Rickenbach said that an estimated $230,000 in road reconstruction accounted for part of that figure. Also included is $70,000 toward a municipal fuel depot in partnership with the town, $140,000 for a new payloader for the Department of Public Works, and $220,000 toward a new ambulance. The village will supplement the latter acquisition with $30,000 in current funds.

The board set May 5 at 11 a.m. for a public hearing on a proposed code amendment allowing the expedited review of applications for building permits that incorporate specific universal design features. The amendment is intended to accommodate the housing needs of the elderly or disabled.

Design features include a zero-step entrance, doorways and passageways of a minimum clearance of 34 inches, and at least one half-bath on the ground floor with fixtures allowing sufficient floor space to accommodate wheelchairs or other means of mobility assistance.

The mayor also delivered a personal message to Ms. Molinaro. “On behalf of the board of trustees and everyone in village government, we would like to wish our village administrator a very, very happy birthday,” he said. “May it be a beautiful day.”

Sag Harbor residents can air their concerns or voice their support for proposed village zoning code changes during two public hearings slated for Tuesday.

The proposed amendments stem from work done over the past year, particularly during a six-month moratorium on large-scale residential building projects following public outcry about large houses replacing smaller ones. One of the most contentious proposals has been the introduction of gross floor area regulations based on the size of a property.

New limits on house sizes begin to kick in on properties that are 6,250 square feet (initially, new limits would have affected all properties larger than 5,000 square feet). Smaller properties will be governed by the existing 20-percent-coverage rule. The maximum house size on a 25,000-square-foot lot would be 4,000 square feet. A house any bigger would require a special permit.

In the historic district, proposed changes involve the definition of demolition and the prohibition of solar panels, if they are visible from an adjacent property or street.

Pools are a subject of one hearing, though the village backed off an initial change to setbacks that elicited negative feedback.

The amendments have the full support of the board, Mayor Sandra Schroeder said on Tuesday. “I think it will be an improvement for our village. I really do,” she said, adding that the goal is to try to keep the village as it is. She rebuffed the idea that the changes would have an impact on property values. If the code still needs tweaking, it can be done in the future, she said. “Nothing is perfect, especially zoning. We have to start somewhere, and this is it.”

Tuesday’s hearings begin at 6 p.m. in Municipal Hall.