As with garments, house layouts go in and out of fashion. With a frock, the hem might go up or down or the seams fit tighter or looser. Houses can go from warm and cozy to light and airy. These days, a master bedroom on the first floor is as de rigueur as skinny jeans, and it goes without saying that the bedroom must have a bathroom of its own.

       “It’s a trend that’s been going on for a while and has percolated to every price point from under a million to multimillions,” said Nanette Hansen of Sotheby’s.

       The absence of one might not be a deal breaker, according to Bruce Pellman of Brown Harris Stevens, since “everything is selling [right now],” but if the seller wants to get “close to the asking price” he’d better have a first-floor master suite. “A house without [one] will also sell, but at a discount from what the seller had in mind.”

       The graying of the population is surely an issue. “Buyers are no longer willing to walk upstairs to go to bed,” Mr. Pellman said. “Unless they’re very young buyers, people with money are thinking, ‘I don’t want to be climbing up stairs in 10 years.’ ”

       Gene Stilwell of Town and Country Real Estate agrees. “All of us baby boomers are getting bad knees, and don’t want to climb stairs. One of the biggest mistakes we made five years ago,” he said, referring to a renovation of his own house, “was to put the laundry room upstairs near the master. In about five years I’m sure we’ll be putting it back downstairs.”

       There is also a trend toward “multigenerational living,” according to Chris Chapin, an agent at Douglas Elliman, who believes that a shift is occurring in which the postwar nuclear family is giving way to a larger family unit that includes grandparents. “There are huge benefits to having several generations” living under one roof, he said. “Studies have shown that there’s a higher survival rate for kids, and that they’re more well adjusted if their grandparents, who have life experiences that can be critically important, are around. This is bigger than real estate . . . people want to have their loved ones nearby.”

       And if anyone has the wherewithal to keep several generations living together in peace, it’s affluent Hamptoners who can afford to tailor living arrangements for optimal comfort and convenience. “It’s about privacy,” said Mr. Pellman. “Back in the day, bedrooms and bathrooms were upstairs. Now people want a wing dedicated to the husband and wife, away from the children.”

       Even if a couple does not live with their parents, “buyers in their 30s and 40s will often have them visit, and sometimes grandparents,” said Ms. Hansen.

       So a ground-floor master is “a big deal,” said Mr. Chapin. It’s not only a question of keeping one’s own family close at hand, it’s also a question of rentability. “If you don’t have it, you’ve eliminated a big pool of prospective tenants — people 60 and over, people with bad knees.” Or, the children of that demographic.

       Real estate agents, who have their fingers on the buyers’ pulse, are advising builders to make sure they build first-floor masters. Not that there are many local builders who haven’t figured it out. But with builders increasingly coming from farther west breaking into the Hamptons market, “if they come to us with a plan, where’s there’s no ground-floor master, we’ll say, ‘No, you have to do it,’ ” said Mr. Chapin. “If it’s just as easy to put it in, why not?”

       Not only new houses are following the latest style.  “People are retrofitting older houses where they had a den or extra room, and repurposing them with a bedroom and bath,” Mr. Chapin said. 

       Let’s not ignore the fashion for multiple bathrooms. “If a house has four bedrooms, we’re recommending four and a half bathrooms, or five and a half would be better,” said Mr. Chapin. That translates as one bathroom in each bedroom for the requisite en-suite configuration; then extras. “The high-end houses have 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms,” he said. “Or 7 bedrooms and 8 baths.”

       Another trend in the same vein is a demand for houses with elevators. Ms. Hansen recently sold a house in Sagaponack for circa $3 million with “all the bells and whistles . . . the builder earmarked huge closets in a column for a future elevator.”

       Believe it or not, she said, “They’re actually quite common. I’d say the majority of recent construction and renovation in high-end houses includes elevators.” She pointed to examples on Further Lane and Lee Avenue in East Hampton. “They’re not that expensive. They can cost as little as $30,000.”

       For those who don’t want to go that route yet, said Ms. Hansen, “for people thinking ahead, it makes sense to have two master bedrooms, one up and one down. It makes a lot of sense.” 

     Opponents to the proposed 555 development plan in Amagansett received an early Christmas present Wednesday night when East Hampton Town Planning Board’s chairman Reed Jones announced that the application had been withdrawn by the owners of the former Principi farmland on Montauk Highway.

     Mr. Jones began the meeting with that announcement. The call, he said, had come an hour before the scheduled meeting, which began at 6:30.

     On Dec. 4, the Suffolk County Planning Commission voted to recommend against the creation of a new senior housing zone for the project. Without the commission’s approval, the town board would need a majority-plus-one vote to create the new zone, and only three of the five board members were in support of it.

     The agenda for the planning board’s penultimate meeting was a busy one and the session went well over two and a half hours, but even after receiving the news they had been hoping for, opponents of the 555 plan did not leave until the proposed zoning change needed to make it possible was discussed.

     The board had been asked by the town board to weigh in on whether a new senior housing zone should be created, which would have allowed up to 100 units on the 23.5-acre property, currently mostly vacant. The land is now divided into three parcels, which would be merged into one. The 555 proposal was to build 79 condominium units on a single merged property.

     The zoning change is still on the town board agenda for next Thursday. The seven-member board was basically unanimous in saying that the town needs to explore a senior zone, but that this proposed zoning change was not the way to go. Diana Weir pointed out that the proposed new zone would cut reduce the required setbacks from Montauk Highway.

     “What jumped out at me were the other properties that could be merged,” Patrick Schutte said, concerned that the change would serve as a precedent for other large parcels of land in the town.

     “If this is a real need, how big does it need to be?” Ian Calder-Piedmonte asked. Mr. Calder-Piedmonte has been skeptical of the proposed zoning change. “If the town board is asking me about my opinion on this, I am opposed,” he said.

     Bob Schaeffer ran off a list of concerns that the zoning change raised for him: “The density issue. What does it do to our taxes? Setbacks. There has been no study of what our seniors need.” J.P. Foster echoed the need for a study.

     Mr. Schaeffer also pointed out what he sees as a flaw in the town code. Because the 555 proposal was brought forth as a condominium plan, as opposed to a normal subdivision, it was not held to the same land-used standard. In a normal subdivision, he pointed out, 70 percent of the land would have had to be preserved as open space.

     Mr. Schaeffer pointed out that politically, the measure now has almost no chance of passing.

     Nancy Keeshan said she believed the topic of affordable housing for all East Hampton residents needs to be explored. “We won’t have any seniors if we don’t have any young people,” she said.

     In the end, the board voted 7-0 to recommend against adoption of the zoning change.

       That East Hampton is changing is evident at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center on Gingerbread Lane Extension in East Hampton, where 110 children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years are offered day care and prekindergarten classes.

       Early on a recent Tuesday morning, a group of 17 4-year-olds sat in a half circle as their teacher, Arlene Notel, read aloud from “What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees.” While the class is not designated as bilingual, Ms. Notel alternates between English and Spanish, whether describing the sun and the moon or counting the days of the month. “The majority are bilingual,” she said.

       After circle time, the children ate snacks, either provided by the school or brought from home, everything from pretzels to orange slices to canned peaches.

       The East Hampton Day Care Learning Center changed its name to the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center two months ago, honoring a longtime benefactor who is now its honorary president. Maureen Wikane, who has been its executive director for 16 years, said the name change was also intended to help spread the word that the center offers more than day care.

       New York State has recommended universal pre-K for 4-year-olds but has not provided any funding. The East Hampton School District’s half-day program for 4-year-olds is provided at the center free of charge. Most other South Fork districts offer half-day prekindergarten programs, as well. Bridgehampton and Amagansett offer full-day pre-K for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds, and Montauk offers a full-day program for 4-year-olds.

       At the Early Childhood Center, parents have an option to pay for an extended-day program for prekindergartners. The center also has fee-based full-day programs for 3-year-olds and toddlers.

       Were financing not a constant worry, Ms. Wikane would like the 4-year-old program to be full-day and also to provide full-day 3-year-old pre-K at the center. Of the Early Childhood Center’s $1.3 million annual budget, Ms. Wikane and the 11-member board of directors are tasked with raising $350,000 each year — and that’s just to make ends meet.

       Raising money from second homeowners poses a challenge, Ms. Wikane said, although some, like the actor Alec Baldwin, have been significant donors. The center also benefits from book fairs and from its annual holiday party and silent auction at the Palm restaurant in East Hampton. It was reported that local businesses were particularly generous in providing raffle prizes when the party was held on Dec. 8 this year.

       Ms. Wikane said the center subsidizes every child in order to keep parents’ costs down. Parents whose children are not in prekindergarten pay $250 a week for five full days of child care, including breakfast, lunch, and two snacks. The toddler program has a waiting list, with some parents waiting as long as six months to secure a spot, Ms. Wikane said.

       Ms. Notel has taught pre-K for 11 years. Having studied Spanish in college, she said she became more fluent on the job, particularly in the past decade as the number of students speaking Spanish at home increased. “Although I want them to be engaged and speaking their native language, the goal is for them to learn English.”

       She teaches two pre-K sections, one from 8:30 to 11:15 a.m., the other from 12:30 to 3:15 p.m. If the program were not highly subsidized with a combination of state, local, and private funds, she believes several children would not be able to attend.

       In recent years, awareness of the importance of early childhood education has grown, with particular emphasis on the years before a child is old enough for kindergarten. Dana Friedman, president of the Early Years Institute, a Plainview nonprofit that works with early childhood programs across Long Island, sees the need for intervention for children whose families have few resources as particularly acute.

       “When poor children are in high-quality programs, they arrive at school better prepared and require less remediation, and in 40 years are more likely to have a family, a home, and a job,” she said. “You can either pay now, or pay later.” Ms. Friedman said that, while 85 percent of brain growth occurs during the first five years of life, 90 percent of money for education is spent on the years after that.

       “The research is saying they need the full day and they’re ready for it,” Ms. Wikane said, noting that transportation is a particular burden for working parents who are asked to collect their children midday or pay to have them continue in the center’s extended-day program.

       Unlike many programs in other local districts, the Early Childhood Center provides services year-round, which is a benefit to those parents who work a lot more in summer. The center fills a vital need for families in which both parents work, she said. Its doors are open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day.

       “The bank people, the grocery store workers, the landscapers — without their children being taken care of, they couldn’t do their jobs,” she said.

       Alexandra McCourt is one such parent. Her son, Stefano, 22 months, started the toddler program this year. Ms. McCourt is an English as a second language teacher at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, a short walk from the Early Childhood Center.

       She and her husband, who works as a waiter, are raising their son in a bilingual, Spanish and English, home. Mostly, she sees the availability of high-quality day care as a huge relief, enabling her to be in the full-time workforce, while also knowing her child is safe and happy and served nutritious meals. Since becoming a mother, finding consistent child care has proved burdensome. “We don’t have any family here. It’s been really tough,” Ms. McCourt said. “He loves going there. He’s so happy. They all know his name.”

       On Sunday morning, the crew of the Endorphin was busy on the back deck of the 58-foot longliner packing out a trip of tilefish at the Inlet Seafood Dock in Montauk. A large seal drawn to the boat by the fishy hose water pouring from Endorphin’s scuppers kept poking his head out of the water looking for a handout. 

       It was a normal-looking scene except for the fact that Endorphin had arrived the night before after being towed by a Coast Guard cutter from the edge of Atlantis Canyon where it had lost power two days earlier. It had taken 20 hours to traverse the 86 miles to Endorphin’s homeport.

       “Don’t believe what you read,” Capt. Bob Fallon said, going on to explain that contrary to early reports, the crew had plenty of food and was able to communicate by radio. 

       Nonetheless, he said, it was good to see the cutter. Endorphin’s main engine had failed on Friday morning in heavy seas, and with the winter storm that was barreling across the Midwest due to push offshore the next day. The Coast Guard’s sector Long Island Sound received a mayday Friday morning from a “good Samaritan” vessel nearby and dispatched the Boston-based cutter Tahoma. The cutter arrived on the scene Friday night. A Coast Guard helicopter dropped food and a back-up radio the next day.

       By coincidence, Capt. Ed Cubanski, commander of Sector Long Island Sound, was at the Montauk Firehouse Friday night to present commendations to Senior Chief Jason Walter and the personnel at the Montauk Coast Guard Station under his command, as well as members of Montauk’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet for their efforts in the rescue of John Aldridge last summer.

       Mr. Aldridge had fallen from the Anna Mary during the early morning hours of July 24. He was found clinging to longline float buoys after a 12-hour search led by Coast Guard helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in cooperation with members of the Montauk fishing community.

       Cmdr. Jonathan Theel, who had overseen the 1,100-square-mile search for the lobsterman in July, was also on hand at the Montauk Firehouse on Friday and spoke of the Montauk fishing community’s invaluable assistance in the operation. 

       Mr. Aldridge told Coast Guard personnel, “It was an overwhelming experience. I thank you for being there for me,” and turning to the audience he said, “we are all here for each other. Let’s go fishing.”

       Anthony Sosinski, who awoke to find his partner gone from the boat on July 24, said, “The government is not always our friend, but the Coast Guard is. We felt helpless. It’s an emotional thing. You are amazing.”

       Captain Cubanski thanked the East End Task Force that included the East Hampton Town Marine Patrol for covering for the Coast Guard during the res cue. “We are all professional mariners. It’s a team effort,” he said.

       As the commendations were being handed out, the Tahoma began towing Endorphin. Nearly 20 hours later, one of Montauk’s two 47-foot motor lifeboats took over the tow and brought Endorphin through the Montauk Harbor jetties at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

       Petty Officer Brian Jiunta, a member of the motor lifeboat crew, said it was unusual for the Coast Guard to tow a disabled vessel. “There are companies like Sea Tow that do that, but there are circumstances,” he said, such as distance, that were mitigating factors this time. Commercial towers do not go 80 miles offshore. Distance made Endorphin’s predicament a rescue operation, especially given the weather forecast.

       On Dec. 8, the crew of the Montauk Coast Guard’s 47-foot ocean lifeboat rescued Clinton Seyler after his 37-foot commercial fishing boat sank. Mr. Seyler was spotted clinging to a flotation device a few miles off Montauk Point by a birdwatcher just before sunset.

        It’s bordering on cliché to say that the real estate market is very strong right now. If a property is priced right, it will sell, or so goes the common wisdom. But how many houses are priced right? Put another way, how many are overpriced? A lot, it turns out.

      Anywhere from 12 to 15 percent of properties on the South Fork are overpriced, according to Judi Desiderio, Town and Country Real Estate’s chief executive officer. There are several reasons for this. And agents and owners share the blame.

       “I see some agents who are not in touch with the market,” Ms. Desiderio said. “When it’s not moving at the lightning speed they think it should, they’re pushing harder.”

        Naturally, a seller is flattered when he’s told his house is worth a pretty penny, and tempted to flirt with Mammon. But, according to Michael Shaheen of Douglas Elliman, he’d be doing himself a disservice. “If you price it too high,” he said, “when it sells it will get a lower price than if it was originally priced correctly.”

        To that argument, the seller will invariably turn around and say, “The buyer can always make an offer.” Trouble is, they often don’t. There are houses out here that have been sitting around for years.

        “Now they’re getting old,” said Mr. Shaheen, and that’s not a good thing in today’s market, in which shiny and new is the mantra. A prospective buyer will ask how long a property has been on the market. “If it’s been on awhile they’ll figure there must be something wrong.”

        “Overpricing was epidemic from 2003 to 2007,” said Bruce Pellman of Brown Harris Stevens. “People thought they could put on whatever price.” In such a seller’s market, buyers were driven by fear. The thought was, “If you didn’t get an offer in soon, you would lose [the deal]. It was an insane bull market with prices going up 15 percent, practically, a month . . . people still think they can price a house like that.”

        Blame it on the big numbers showing up on transfers. “People think, ‘If they got $20 million, why can’t I?’ ” Ms. Desiderio said. Many sellers want to test the market. “There are always people who say, ‘If you can bring me $20 million I’ll sell.’ ” Otherwise, there’s no rush. “If you want to test the market, we’ll test it with you,” she said. “But if it doesn’t go, don’t shoot the messenger.”

       Sometimes overpricing can work, she believes. If you reduce your price a couple of times, by the time it’s back to where it should have begun in the first place, a buyer can feel good about his astute deal-making: “ ‘Oh, I bought an $18 million house for $12 million,’ ” Ms. Desiderio said.

       It’s not only greed that fuels the Hamptons overpricing phenomenon. “It probably happens a little more out here [than elsewhere],” said Mr. Shaheen. The reason being, “It’s not a primary housing market.” The significance of that is that second-home owners often don’t need to sell.

       “There are an enormous amount of overpriced houses that have been on the market a long time,” Mr. Pellman said. “A lot are in the high end . . . people can sit and hope the market comes up to their number.”

       There are two prominent examples. One in Bridgehampton that started at $75 million has been on the market for more than 10 years and is considered grotesquely overpriced by industry cognoscenti. The other, in Wainscott, has been on and off the market also for many years — currently on. Instead of lowering the price, the owner has consistently raised it, missing last decade’s boom market and continuing to miss the current upswing.

       The vast majority of houses, of course, are not overpriced. “I think what we saw this year is prices coming down to meet the market,” said Nanette Hansen, an agent at Sotheby’s. “I believe that properties are being priced closer to the bone than ever before.”

       When it comes to a property’s selling quickly, she has noticed that it happens when priced within 5 to 8 percent of the asking — “a price a buyer feels he can come into striking distance of and not insult the seller.”

       The sad truth is that “a lot of agents will take a listing — even if overpriced,” according to Mr. Shaheen. It helps the agent, if not the seller. “It might draw phone calls” so that an agent can then direct customers “to a house at a price that’s realistic.” But this is not something he would do, he said.

       As Ms. Desiderio said, “No matter how good a broker is, the broker can’t make the market. The market tells us where the market is.”

       Bruce Howard, 61, well known to Montaukers from his job at the Montauk Post Office, and Louise Meybert, 92, a Montauk resident, traveled to Italy earlier this month hoping to see Pope Francis. They not only saw him, they met him, received a hands-on blessing, and asked him to pray for Montauk.

       “You pray for me,” the pope told Mr. Howard, who reported that it sent chills through his body. “It was amazing,” he said. “I couldn’t believe I was that close to the pope.” He said that he and Pope Francis shared birthdays, Tuesday.

       The traveling companions met years ago through the post office and became friends. Mr. Howard looks out for Ms. Meybert, checking on her daily and bringing her the newspaper that is left in her driveway at the bottom of a steep hill. He also takes her to Mass every week and does her grocery shopping.

       “He’s pretty good to me,” she said.

       For most of her life, Ms. Meybert, a devout Catholic, cared for her sister, who was incapacitated and unable to leave their house. She always wanted to see a pope, she said, “but I couldn’t, because I was always caring for my sister,” who is no longer alive.

       A blast from the past finally got her on the road. Back in 1942, during World War II, she became good friends through the U.S.O. with a man named Mike Clinton. After he went away to service, she never heard from him again. She said she thought he had washed overboard from his ship, and presumed him dead.

       But in the late ’90s the Rev. Raymond Nugent, the parish priest at Montauk’s St. Therese of Lisieux Church at the time, told Ms. Meybert that a man named Mike Clinton from Scotland was trying to get in touch with her. They spoke by phone, and Ms. Meybert became friendly with his wife. They continued their phone conversations for years and the Clintons extended to her an open invitation to visit Scotland whenever she could make it. In 2009, she finally said to Mr. Howard, “Let’s go.”

       At his own mother’s urging, he agreed, but said he couldn’t take time off until the summer. They traveled on June 21, and Mr. Howard said it really was the longest day of the year.

       After that, he said, Ms. Meybert, who uses a wheelchair to get around, got bitten by the travel bug. Until then, he explained, she had never been on a train, boat, or plane. “She was fascinated with everything. She couldn’t believe how much she had been missing.” Since then, the pair has been to Paris, Germany, and other European tourist sites.

       One day, Mr. Howard said, Ms. Meybert told him, “I want to see the pope.”

       “Take her to Italy,” his mother ordered.

       When the two travel, they stay in adjoining rooms and use wall knock signals to convey messages. Mr. Howard always gets an extra key for her room in case of emergency.

       They were told there was a procedure that must be followed for a visit with the pope and contacted officials of the Rockville Centre Diocese, who told them what needed to be done. And off to Italy they went.

       After arriving on Dec. 3, they were required to attend an orientation meeting at the North American College at Casa Santa Maria. They were told not to touch the pope or reach out, and to maintain respect.

       They received their tickets for the Vatican. The next day, along with about 60,000 others, they were shuffled through three huge doors at the entrance to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. They headed toward the handicapped section and approached two Swiss Guards, who told them to sit in seats one and two. “We were right there, right in front of him in the front row,” said Mr. Howard, shaking his head in disbelief.

       After the pontiff’s 45-minute address, which was translated into seven languages, he started walking toward the crowd. People were  yelling at him, “Papa Francois,” said Mr. Howard. He yelled “Jorge,” which is the pope’s real name, and that caught the pope’s attention. He looked directly at Mr. Howard and smiled. “I felt something like a spark go through my body,” Mr. Howard said, beaming.

       Once people had seen the pope close up, they were ushered out of the square, and soon the two Montauk residents found themselves in the small crowd that remained. Pope Francis walked over to them and placed his hand on Ms. Meybert’s head for a blessing. He spoke with her and gave her a pair of white rosary beads that he blessed. “He was so humble. And had such a sweet smile on his face,” she said.

       Mr. Howard put his hand out for a rosary and was told by a guard, no, no rosary for you! “[Handicapped] people live in chairs; they’re the ones that are going to get his attention,” he said.

       And what did the pope speak about that day? “I couldn’t tell you. I was in awe just looking, watching everybody,” Mr. Howard said.

       Afterward, the two were allowed to go behind the Vatican to a walled-in space of many acres, where they were surprised to see rolling hills, gardens, and trees. “It looked like a place in California,” said Mr. Howard.

       Ms. Meybert said she thought the pope was wonderful. “I could go back tomorrow,” she said.

       “I guess we’re going back to Rome,” Mr. Howard said and shrugged his shoulders.

    Once upon a time, in Bridgehampton, a homeowner ordered a new garage door. Alas, the door was mistakenly put on a neighbor’s garage. The moral of the story: They could have used the services of Greg Baker and Anthony Cappa, who have launched Revel Inspired, a service that looks out for the interests of absentee owners, especially those renovating or building a house. During winter when most building and renovating takes place, few homeowners are taking advantage of the South Fork’s cold, dark days. And many don’t trust contractors to do what they promise.

    The primary thrust at Revel is to act as “owners’ advocates” throughout the construction phases of a project. As liaisons between owners and their contractors, tradesmen, architect, and anyone else on the building team, they oversee the entire project and keep the owner up to date with ongoing progress reports. Clients receive their own project website where they can view an activity calendar and photos. A nice thing to glance at while sipping a caipirinha at your third home in Palm Beach.

    “Most people are here to relax,” said Mr. Cappa. When they’re not here, they’re most likely doing anything but dealing with plumbers, electricians, and roofers. “That’s the origin of our name. We’re giving them the opportunity to revel in the Hamptons.”

    Figuring out what owners want is key. “Ninety percent of people can’t visualize what a house will look like,” said Mr. Cappa. “It can be a guessing game as to what they like or don’t like.” A predicament that can result in, for example, a “bathroom being completely installed and ripped out because the marble was slightly different than the sample.” It is their job to “ask the right questions from the beginning to prevent expectations not being met.”

    One of their main functions is to grease the often-rusty wheels of communication between owners and tradesmen. “We’re able to look at things from both sides,” said Mr. Baker. “We’re 100 percent dedicated to the owner, but we can put on a contractor’s hat and explain [a situation] to the owner.” Having both worked in “corporate America managing technology projects,” Mr. Baker at such companies as MTV Networks and Viacom, and Mr. Cappa at IBM and Credit Suisse, “we understand how [our clients] run their lives. New Yorkers want things done in three seconds. There’s constant translation and negotiation.”

    They recently took on a renovation of an ’80s ranch in North Haven purchased in October by Ted Levenson and Vincent Cuticello. Mr. Levenson was impressed that the pair seemed to intuit their needs. When the project’s architect suggested moving the basement entry to the garage, “They told us, ‘You don’t want to do that.’ They were right. . . . They’re spatially very good with floor plans and have a handle on where you can save money.”

    In another instance the duo went so far as to pause the framing of a house in Bridgehampton. “Once it went up, exactly like the architect’s plan called for, we realized it wasn’t going to work for [the client’s] lifestyle.” At issue was a spa with steam room, sauna, shower, and a sitting room, which they realized was “way too small.” Putting their proprietary architectural software to work, they rendered a virtual floor plan and got client approval to reconfigure the space. By stopping the process before it had gotten too far, they claim they saved their client thousands of dollars.

    John Nocera, a contractor who has worked with them on two projects, said “They go above and beyond contractors. They do more hand-holding, take [the client] shopping for plumbing fixtures or tile. They make our life much easier.”

       Anyone stuck in the eastbound morning trade parade that slows traffic on Montauk Highway to a crawl knows that a pretty large percentage of the contractors working in East Hampton Town come from UpIsland.

       But the first phase of a business needs study unveiled by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley last week finds that a full 70 percent of the businesses operating in town are based elsewhere. And of the estimated 1,809 businesses that are located in East Hampton, only 32 percent are located in the proper zoning district.

       The business survey, which was produced by a business needs committee established early this fall, is an effort, Ms. Quigley said, for the town to collect the data it needs to make sound zoning decisions affecting the business community in the future.

       With the clock just about to strike midnight on her term, Councilwoman Quigley presented a resolution at last Thursday night’s town board meeting to allow the committee, made up of local business owners and town representatives, to continue with its current members and to begin the second, and more complex, phase of the study next year after the new town board takes office. It passed by a 3-2 vote, with Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, who will remain on the board, voting against it because, as Mr. Van Scoyoc said, laying out the details of what that phase of the study will address “mandates policy for the incoming board.”

       “You don’t set an agenda; let us put together a business committee,” Ms. Overby said.

       According to the resolution, the next phase of the study would look at 13 different topics, ranging from assessing the needs of local businesses for parking and storage facilities, to an analysis of nonconforming businesses with an eye toward seeing how they can survive without causing undue harm to surrounding residential neighborhoods, to a review of the 111 remaining vacant commercially zoned lots in town.

       “If I were still going to be on the board, I would be very troubled by the study,” Ms. Quigley said at the Dec. 17 meeting. “I would be troubled because a community without business is, frankly, a community that dies on the vine. If we can’t find a way to accommodate businesses, we are in trouble.”

       Of the 68 percent of businesses that are not in business zones, the survey found that 14 percent are in residential zones, and 54 percent operate out of the owner’s home.

       The survey also found that 42 percent of the businesses in town can be classified as home services, such as carpentry, plumbing, or landscaping, 10 percent are professional services, including attorneys, architects, insurance brokers, and banks, 9 percent are food service, 8 percent retail, 6 percent accommodations, and 25 percent classified as “other.”

       The study excluded both East Hampton and Sag Harbor Villages because they are not governed by town zoning laws.

       It found that 31 percent of all busi nesses in town are in the East Hampton School District and 30 percent are the Montauk School District. Springs accounts for 17 percent of all businesses, Amagansett for 15 percent, and Wainscott only 7 percent.

       “Springs, which doesn’t have a hamlet center, has more businesses than Amagansett and Wainscott, which have hamlet centers,” Ms. Quigley said on Dec. 17.

       That is explained, though, because 87 percent of the businesses located in the Springs School District operate out of the home or in a residential district. In East Hampton outside of the village, it is 80 percent while it dips to 66 percent in Amagansett, 59 percent in Wainscott, and only 49 percent in Montauk.

       The study further found that only 4 percent of the lots in town are zoned for commercial and industrial uses, as compared to 94 percent for residential uses. That translates to only 798 acres townwide for commercial or industrial uses, or 2 percent of the total acreage, as compared to 22,696 acres set aside for residential uses, or 64 percent of the total. Another 34 percent, or 1,939 acres, is dedicated to parks and open space.

       “The next step has to be for the town to go through each of every nonconforming business, and find out which ones are permitted, which ones are legal, and which ones are completely illegal,” said Ms. Quigley, who stressed that she was not looking to drive businesses out or ignore the concerns of residents.

       “Do we rezone?” she asked. “Rather than looking for a way to make them illegal, I’m looking for a middle ground.”

       The Dec. 17 work session, the last for the outgoing Republican majority, was marked by a sense of levity that has largely been lacking from the town board’s deliberations this year.

       Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, for instance, joked as Ms. Quigley began her presentation, “She rushed something through again — at great expense to the public!”

       Turning serious, when she had finished, he said that because the town was largely zoned for residential development, local business owners are being squeezed out. “If we upzone from one to five acres, what is the economic impact?” he asked. “You drive generations of families out.”

       Councilman Dominick Stanzione said of the town’s lack of commercially zoned land, “it wasn’t by accident,” and was part of a broader effort to reduce density. He suggested that one way for the town to protect its business community would be to revisit how it looks at nonconforming, preexisting uses as targets to be eliminated.

       “The utility of that zoning tool has become anachronistic,” he said, adding that it “has had a significant negative impact on our economy.”

       “Can we integrate this study into the comprehensive plan,” Mr. Wilkinson asked, “so it doesn’t become a one-off study that sits on a shelf somewhere?”

       Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town’s planning director, who was sitting in the audience, responded that once adopted by the town board, the business needs study would be a tool available for future planning decisions.

    A conservation easement on property near Georgica Cove and the effect of prospective federal flood insurance rate increases on oceanfront properties enlivened discussion at the East Hampton Village Board’s work session last Thursday. Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, explained the issues surrounding the easement and George Yates of the village insurance firm Dayton, Ritz and Osborne updated board members on flood insurance.

    The New York City-based Trust for Public Land holds a conservation easement on a five-plus-acre lot at the intersection of Cove Hollow Farm and Ruxton Roads. The Peconic Land Trust has title to the underlying property. Ms. Molinaro said the Trust for Public Land could no longer meet its obligation to visit the property annually and had offered to donate the easement to the village. Linda Riley, the village attorney, said the board would have to hold a public hearing before  authorizing the easement’s acquisition.

     Barbara Borsack, a village trustee, asked what restrictions were placed on the property. No structures are permitted, Ms. Riley said, and it either must be left in a natural state or used for agriculture. She said the Peconic Land Trust had expressed an interest in letting the property revert to its natural state.

    “Then you wouldn’t have any view,” Ms. Borsack said. “Once it does that, you wouldn’t see anything.” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said that should not deter the board from moving ahead. “I think this would be a nice marriage into properties that somehow are under stewardship, if you will, of the village,” he said. Ms. Riley said hay has been grown on the property, and the land mowed once a year. “You’d probably have more to say about what goes on there if you own the easement than if you don’t,” she said.

    “It’s in our best interest to move ahead,” the mayor said. “We’ll do that by way of the appropriate public hearing, and let the public speak.” The hearing will likely be held next month.

    Mr. Yates provided an update on the National Flood Insurance Program, and predicted sizable premium increases. He reminded board members that coastal properties here had been remapped, including the Main Beach pavilion. “All that oceanfront area is now going to be in . . . the most hazardous flood zone and as a result carries the highest rates,” Mr. Yates told the board.

    “This is part of the reform that happened after Sandy to make the federal flood program sustainable.” He noted that the program is operating with a deficit of approximately $25 billion.

    “Eventually, we’re going to have to have elevation certificates for all those oceanfront properties that are now in more hazardous flood zones,” Mr. Yates said. “Obviously, we can’t elevate all these buildings, so there will be consequences in the fairly near future, probably . . . next November.”

    The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013, introduced in Congress in October, would impose a four-year delay on implementation of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Law, which was passed in 2012 to stabilize the program’s finances by setting rates to more accurately reflect risk. A vote has not been scheduled on the proposed law.

    “ I fear there will be a gradual, four-year roll-on of these additional rates,” Mr. Yates said. “But there’s no other market than the federal program.”

    Quick thinking, a pair of sharp eyes, a lot of team work, and a boatload of good luck saved the life of a Montauk fisherman whose boat sank off Montauk Point just before sunset Saturday. It was Clinton A. Seyler’s second recent brush with catastrophe: He had been in a serious car accident just 10 days earlier, although no one was hurt.

    Mr. Seyler, a 49-year-old lobsterman, had taken his 37-foot boat from the Landing Marina in Montauk Harbor and was just off the Point when it began to take on water, according to Coast Guard First Chief Jason D. Walter, who said on Monday that the boat went under quickly.

    According to Toni Gray, who describes herself as Mr. Seyler’s “significant other,” Mr. Seyler managed to grab a flotation device as the boat went down. The water was cold, about 47 degrees, with the air about 10 degrees colder.

    Without a life ring, Mr. Seyler would have gone under, as his winter clothing absorbed the cold water, First Chief Walter said. It was then that the first piece of good luck occurred.

    Larry and Carol Blieka are nature enthusiasts who were at the Point to photograph the decorated Montauk Lighthouse. “We were a little early for the lights to be lit, so we went over to the snack bar. My husband is an avid fisherman,” Mrs. Blieka said yesterday. She said his eyes are razor-sharp when it comes to looking out over the water, explaining that he was gazing across the water when he spotted what looked possibly like a person.

    “ ‘Carol, you have to come over with your camera,’ ” Mrs. Blieka said her husband told her. She aimed her Nikon D3100 with its 55-by-300 lens at the small object, which Mr. Blieka, a retired  New York City fire chief, estimated was about a half mile off shore. “I took a picture, magnified it, and it was a person,” Mrs. Blieka said. Mr. Blieka tried to call for help with his cellphone, but it ­wasn’t getting a signal. Instead, they used the phone at the snack bar.

    Lt. Tom Grenci was one of several East Hampton Town police to respond. “I was the first one on the scene,” the lieutenant, who lives in Montauk and knows the roads around the lighthouse well, said on Tuesday. He was on patrol on Montauk Highway near West Lake Drive when the call came in, and his knowledge proved critical. The gate on the dirt road down to Turtle Cove was closed, but the lieutenant knew his way around it. “I pulled into Turtle Cove. I had my binoculars. I could see somebody floating. He was trying to lift his head. I radioed in to dispatch.” The sun was sinking.

    Mr. and Mrs. Blieka continued to watch the floating Mr. Seyler, but the current was quickly carrying him out to sea. She said they lost sight of him as he was carried around the Point.

    This is actually the third time that the sharp-eyed Mr. Blieka has spotted a victim in distress on the water. Several years ago, Mrs. Blieka said, he spotted someone’s boat capsize off Cupsogue Beach; Mr. Blieka took his kayak out and saved him. Then, last year, he was with a friend on the beach in Moriches when he again saw someone in the water and helped save him.

    Mr. Seyler’s run of luck continued. This time, the  Coast Guard’s 47-foot motor lifeboat (47301) was just outside the Star Island station in Montauk Harbor on a training mission when the distress call came in. “Any time we leave the dock, we are always ready for S.A.R. (search and rescue),” Petty Officer First Class Dennis Heard said on Tuesday. “He is really lucky we were in the water,” he said.

    The lifeboat, one of two 47-foot lifeboats at Star Island, dates to the 1990s and is powered by Detroit twin diesel engines, each capable of 430 horsepower. The craft is able to reach a speed of 20 knots, the equivalent of about 23 miles per hour.

    The crew needed that power to reach Mr. Seyler in time: The trip took about 15 to 20 minutes. Mr. Seyler was brought on board as the sun was setting. “It was a couple of hundred yards east of the Point. The victim was suffering from hypothermia,” the first chief said.

    Now a new race began: to save Mr. Seyler from rapidly sinking body temperature. The Coast Guard crew was met back at its base by Montauk Fire Department’s emergency medical technicians. Ms. Gray had been alerted and was also at the scene.

    “I was in the ambulance as they were trying to find a pulse,” she said Tuesday. “The E.M.T. guys were unbelievable. At the end of the day, these guys saved a life. People take them for granted. They were amazing.”

    Still in life-threatening condition, Mr. Seyler was taken to the overlook on the Montauk Highway at Hither Hills State Park, from which he was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, Lieutenant Grenci reported. There, Mr. Seyler was resuscitated, so much so that he was able to check out of the hospital before the Coast Guard could finish interviewing him. The mission was accomplished. First Chief Walter said they would be in touch with him soon to tie up some loose ends.

    On Tuesday, according to Ms. Gray, Mr. Seyler returned to the hospital as an outpatient. “You have to be very careful with hypothermia,” she said.

    According to an East Hampton Town police accident report released Monday, Mr. Seyler had been driving Ms. Gray’s 2009 Jeep eastbound on Pantigo Road in East Hampton the day before Thanksgiving, with Ms. Gray in the passenger seat, when he lost control of the vehicle. The Jeep left the road, crashing “into a tree and through a fence,” the report says. Neither driver nor passenger were hurt.

    “If he hadn’t been seen by that birdwatcher, nobody would have seen him as he shot past the Point,” First Chief Walter said. “I’m just glad this fellow’s family is celebrating this holiday, instead of suffering,” Mrs. Blieka said yesterday from their Rocky Point home.