After a hearing before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday night, Fred and Joanne Wilson’s plan to build a family compound in Amagansett appears poised to clear its last hurdle.

It was the couple’s second appearance before the board. On Aug. 30, they asked permission to tear down a seven-bedroom house at 15 Seabreeze Lane, built just three years ago, and replace it with a four-bedroom house, using the extra space for amenities such as a theater room and a game room. The board okayed that project last month.

The Wilsons, who bought the lot at 15 Seabreeze in 2000, bought the neighboring parcel, number 9, earlier this year. That parcel has a three-story house on it, unusual in East Hampton Town, where the limit is two. The Wilsons’ attorney, Andy Hammer, explained that the house was built before the zoning code took effect.

It will be torn down and replaced with a 4,890-square-foot two-story house if the board allows it. There are dunes and wetlands in the area, so a permit must be granted before construction can begin. “This is where he wants his family to spend the rest of their days now,” Mr. Hammer said.

For the board, there were two major selling points in the proposal; first that there will be a new septic system on the property, and second that an existing swimming pool, just 27 feet from wetlands, will be removed. The pool is no longer needed, Mr. Hammer said, because 15 Seabreeze Lane already has one.

David Lys, a board member, asked if the Wilsons would be amenable to having scenic easements on the property. Mr. Hammer indicated that would be fine. No one spoke in opposition to the application.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has signed state legislation that will allow the Town of East Hampton to create tax districts to pay for the underground installation of public utility lines. 

Sponsored by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., the legislation was the result of the installation by PSEG-Long Island of an aboveground, high-voltage electric transmission line along a six-mile route through East Hampton Village to a substation on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett. Residents along the route and others, concerned about the visual, safety, and health impacts of the overhead lines, had pushed to have them removed and installed underground, but PSEG refused to bear the expense.

The new law would permit the Towns of East Hampton, as well as Southampton, to create “underground utility improvement districts” that could enter into agreements with utility companies, such as PSEG, to place electrical, cable TV, or telephone lines underground or to replace overhead lines with an underground system.

Special tax districts require “yes” votes by those living within them before they can be established. Once established, the towns would collect taxes to pay for the installation.

“We need to protect our energy system, and a great way to do that is by selectively undergrounding our utility infrastructure,” Assemblyman Thiele said in a press release. “New York, in general, needs to build an electric grid that is stronger, more resilient, and smarter. Long Island, and more specifically, the Town of East Hampton, is particularly susceptible to northeasters, tropical storms, and hurricanes,” the release said.

A utility tax district would pave the way for better systems, Senator LaValle said in the press release, while providing “the opportunity to share costs or spread them out over time.”

The conversation at Monday’s meeting of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee focused on the fate of Montauk’s beaches and downtown business area, and who would foot the bill for future erosion-control projects.

In an extended question-and-answer session with East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the town board’s liaison to the committee, the committee was ready to look beyond the Army Corps of Engineers, whose projects for Montauk have been in the spotlight.

Mr. Van Scoyoc reported that the town had begun thinking about new sources of revenue. State funding, designating some type of coastal stewardship district, or implementing a local excise tax on tourism-related products and services are preliminary ideas, he said.

Ed Braun, chairman of Concerned Citizens of Montauk and of a subcommittee on economic models for Montauk, said that in past years words like “retreat” or “taxation district” were not heard in public.” Now, he said, he has observed those ideas emerge from whispers, especially when it comes to opinions from outside experts.

“As you know, the town budget is very austere now. So if you’re really going to collect the kind of revenue you need to have some sort of project for that, you need to talk about creating an erosion-control district. . . . It may be the discussion of whether or not you broadly tax across the whole town or a more specific, limited district for those who have the most benefit from the cost,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

On the idea of an excise tax, Mr. Van Scoyoc said such a tax was “important in a community influenced so heavily by people who don’t live here year round. Resorts, ski towns, they add a tax onto almost anything you can purchase, almost across the board, in order to meet those demands.”

Among others who spoke at the meeting was Janet Van Sickle, who was doubtful of how much help the federal government would be. “Once upon a time, we sort of routinely relied upon federal help to come in and save communities, and that seems to be happening less and less because there’s more and more demand elsewhere. There’s the endless wildfires out West, the flooding. The federal dollar is being asked to go in many directions.”

“It seems like every few months Congress is fighting about shutting down the government. Who knows what is going to happen after the election,” Marcy Waterman said.

The question was raised of how much of the Suffolk County hotel tax money raised in East Hampton Town was returned in the form of services. Mr. Van Scoyoc said it was not much. “That’s a question we’ve been after from the county for decades now. . . . I would suggest that it’s unlikely that we get our fair share back from the county,”  he said.

Mr. Braun had a suggestion for town action. “Because consensus is so important and would take some time to build, rather than wait for the courage to come out of these groups and dare to say ‘taxation district’ or ‘additional funding,’ put some models in front of us that come from other communities,” he said. He suggested that the town research what is being done in other communities and come up with four or five possibilities. “Which of these things would fit Montauk?’ I think we should push to get to that point where we see examples of actual funding that would apply.”

Zeldin Focuses on Veterans

Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican seeking re-election in New York’s First Congressional District, hailed the unanimous passage in Congress of the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act. The act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a management plan for a suicide hotline for veterans and to develop a plan to ensure that every communication received by the hotline is answered individually in a timely manner. Mr. Zeldin is a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

“There is absolutely no reason that a struggling veteran who calls the suicide hotline should ever be sent to voicemail, especially since the V.A. receives tens of billions of dollars each year for veterans’ health,” Mr. Zeldin said.

Last week, Mr. Zeldin participated in a Veterans Affairs Committee field hearing at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center intended to assess deficiencies at the center. Last month, a 76-year-old veteran committed suicide in the parking lot of the medical center, where he had been a patient, and the center’s operating rooms were shut down in February due to decaying conditions.

“All allegations regarding the care of our veterans must be taken very seriously, which is why my office shared this information with the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in order to conduct a full and fair review of the information,” Mr. Zeldin said at the hearing.

Last weekend, Mr. Zeldin attended a fund-raiser in Patchogue to raise awareness of the epidemic of veteran and active-duty service member suicides.

Throne-Holst Hits Zeldin on Guns

Former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, the Democratic Party’s candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District, continued to criticize Representative Lee Zeldin on gun policy this week. A release issued by Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign said that Mr. Zeldin’s position is more conservative than that of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, who announced his support for legislation that would prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying firearms. Mr. Zeldin endorses Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

“Lee Zeldin’s hard-line position on common-sense gun safety is so extreme even his party’s presidential nominee cannot support it,” said Andrew Grunwald, Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign manager. “First District voters deserve a representative in Congress who will address gun reform head-on and put forward legislation that will protect Americans from senseless gun violence.”

Gabrielle Giffords, the former representative from Arizona who was critically wounded by a mentally ill gunman in 2011, and her husband, the retired Navy captain and astronaut Mark Kelly, endorsed Ms. Throne-Holst’s candidacy last Thursday.

In endorsing Ms. Throne-Holst, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also criticized Mr. Zeldin on gun policy. Mr. Zeldin, he said, “has voted time and again against common-sense gun legislation on the federal level, and has reinforced the inaction and gridlock crippling Washington.”

East Hampton Town

New Clean Water Committee

A new clean water and community preservation committee, with members from local conservation and advocacy groups such as the Nature Conservancy, businesses, elected officials, and other concerned citizens, will meet tomorrow morning at 11 at the East Hampton Town commercial dock at Gann Road on Three Mile Harbor. To be discussed is the case for a “yes” vote on Election Day on a referendum that would extend the life of the community preservation fund program and expand its use for water quality protection.

The group, which is urging residents to approve the proposal, will discuss the importance of the preservation fund in land preservation as well as the key role it can play in stemming nitrogen pollution in local waterways.

Now, $10 for Airport Parking

Long-term parking at East Hampton Airport now costs $10 per day, after the institution of a paid parking system this week. The meters require use of a credit card. Short-term parking, for up to 30 minutes, remains free of charge.

Other projects at the airport that are moving forward, according to a report last week by Jemille Charlton, the airport manager, to the town board, include the construction of a new aviation fueling facility, anticipated to take place this winter, construction of a new section of taxiway, for which plans will soon be solicited, and an investigation as to the state of repair of runway and taxiway pavement at the airport, which is in process.

Other ongoing projects include extension of a perimeter fence and clearing or topping trees in an area along Daniel’s Hole Road, in order to meet Federal Aviation Administration runway clear-zone requirements. The town was put on notice some time ago that that situation must be remedied.

Southampton Town

Regarding Energy Efficiency

The Southampton Town Board approved two amendments to its code regarding energy efficiency at a meeting on Tuesday night. The first promotes solar energy systems as an accessory use. Ground-mounted solar panels with at least a 5,000-kilowatt output that take up no more than 4,500 square feet will be exempt from clearing restrictions. Homeowners could clear up to 2 percent more to make way for such a system. The amendment also more clearly defines solar energy equipment.

The second was in response to changes to the State Energy Conservation Construction Code, effective Monday. The town decided to adopt more stringent requirements for the energy efficiency of newly built or substantially reconstructed houses of between 4,501 and 6,500 square feet. Applicants will have to submit a certificate verifying that the house design meets the home energy rating system index, a nationally recognized industry standard.

Bullying Awareness Month

The town will recognize October as bullying prevention and awareness month with two programs that will provide information and resources for families about bullying and cyber-bullying through the Southampton Youth Bureau. The programs are scheduled for Oct. 20 and 27 at the Hampton Bays Community Center and Southampton Town Hall. According to a town board resolution, the youth bureau’s 2011 Teen Assessment Project Survey showed that 21 percent of teenagers reported having been bullied or harassed.

To Maintain Noyac Roads

Four roads in Noyac are now part of the town’s highway system. Northview Drive, Old Noyack Road, Northview Hills Court, and Eastview Court have been accepted after review by Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Alex Gregor, which means the roads will be maintained by the town, including plowing during snowstorms.

Grants Available

The town will soon be accepting applications for 2017 grants for organizations that provide services to town residents. Human services grants are available for organizations that provide services like counseling and child care, while cultural arts and recreation grants can help organizations that offer visual or performing arts and recreational programs.

Applications will be available on the town’s website starting Monday. Copies are also available at Town Hall. The deadline for submission is Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.

Southampton Town

LIPA-Town Settlement

The Town of Southampton and Long Island Power Authority have reached an agreement that ends a multiyear dispute and ensures that taxpayers west of the Shinnecock Canal will not have to pay for lines that were buried. In 2008, the town asked LIPA to bury transmission lines along a four-mile stretch from Southampton Village to Bridgehampton after residents complained 60-foot-tall poles would destroy open vistas. LIPA agreed to bury the lines at a cost of $11.1 million, which was to be paid over a 20-year period from customers in a “visual benefit” assessment area. The town was responsible for any unpaid charges.

In 2013, however, LIPA filed suit against the town in State Supreme Court seeking to recover more than $200,000 in delinquent payments. The charges have accrued to more than $470,000.

After taking office in January, Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and LIPA officials sat down and agreed that $150,000 in interest would be waived and the billing process for past-due charges for customers in the visual benefit area would pay the fees rather than the municipality. LIPA also agreed to waive future interest.

The supervisor said it would have been unfair to charge taxpayers west of the Shinnecock Canal for visual improvements that only benefited residents east of it.

While the settlement has been signed by the supervisor and Thomas Falcone, LIPA’s chief executive officer, is also must be approved by the court.

$5 Million for Clean Water

New York State has granted the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Center for Clear Water Technology $5 million for the creation and testing of alternative wastewater treatment systems in pilot projects to address pollutants threatening ground and surface waters, according to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. In partnership with the Town of Southampton and Suffolk County, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo established the Center for Clear Water Technology in 2014.

In a move that Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman called among the first of its kind, the town is preserving the Southampton Golf Range on County Road 39 in Tuckahoe through the community preservation fund. The town purchased a recreational easement on the 13-acre property for $6.5 million in a deal that closed on Friday.

The easement allows for the continuation of the existing uses: a golf range, a miniature golf course, a peddle-cart track, and a seasonal ice-skating rink.

While 4,040 acres in the Town of Southampton have been preserved through the C.P.F. since it was established in 1999, the only other recreational property acquired was the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack.

“We wanted to make sure it stays affordable. It’s kind of an unusual agreement,” Mr. Schneiderman said at a work session last Thursday. The Southampton Golf Range has been a family-owned-and-operated business since 1957, and the Hansen family has no plans to stop.

Councilman Stan Glinka said he had already received a lot of positive feedback from the community about preserving such “an iconic place.”

The preservation of the property also maintains the mostly open vista on the property. That area of County Road 39, a main corridor to the rest of the South Fork, is zoned highway business and could have become a car dealership or a restaurant, Mr. Schneiderman said. Under the recreational easement, 80 percent of the property must remain open.

The town will have control over the types of recreational activities allowed and the fees charged.

East Hampton Town officials will listen to comments from the public on a proposed moratorium on the development of commercial sites in Wainscott at a hearing at Town Hall on Oct. 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

During the moratorium, no approvals for subdivisions or site plans for certain properties would be issued for one year in order to allow the town to complete a planning study of the hamlet and to implement any new land-use regulations that might arise from the study.

In-depth studies of the commercial centers of each of the town’s hamlets were called for in the town’s most recent comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, but were not undertaken until earlier this year. Consultants held meetings last week focusing on Montauk, the final hamlet to come under scrutiny in the process. Draft recommendations and options for policies or regulations will be prepared and submitted for review by town staff, elected officials, and the public, and hearings will be held on proposals before their adoption by the town.

Wainscott is unique among the hamlets, according to the town board resolution that set the hearing, because of its high traffic volume and its commercial development stretched along Montauk Highway. “Anticipated recommendations include plans for a walkable hamlet center,” according to the resolution, which said that a planning workshop focusing on the hamlet “revealed a great potential for transforming the Wainscott commercial area to remedy this situation while creating a traditional-style hamlet center.” But, it continued, “if development continues along this portion of the Montauk Highway while the study is pending, and the town is unable to implement recommended changes prior to further approvals being issued, opportunities to improve safety and mitigate traffic and other impacts may be lost. “

The moratorium would affect properties that are zoned for central business or commercial-industrial uses and properties in residential zones being used for nonresidential purposes in an area generally along the Montauk Highway corridor in Wainscott. The area included would be south of the Long Island Rail Road line and bordered by Town Line Road in the west and by Hedges Lane and the East Hampton Village boundary to the east. It would apply to applications for new development as well as expansions of more than 25 percent of an existing building, if the increase would result a larger legal occupancy of the site.

Subdivision or site-plan proposals for which the planning board has already held a public hearing and issued an approval would be allowed to proceed. Landowners affected by the moratorium would be allowed to apply to the town board for an exemption, and the board would hold a hearing on the request. Exemptions could be issued only if the board found that a proposal would have no adverse effect on the town’s goals or objectives outlined in the hamlet study plan, that the proposal was in accord with the character of Wainscott and the town as a whole, as well as the comprehensive plan, and that failure to grant an exemption would cause hardship to the property owner “substantially greater” than any harm to the public.

Conceptual plans for a new East Hampton Town Hall — a series of linked, wood-shingled, barn-like structures that would be built on the footprint of the old Town Hall building, which would be razed — got a preliminary nod from the East Hampton Town Board at a meeting on Tuesday, at least to proceed to the next planning stage.

The estimated $8.5 million project presented to the board would include the new building as well as the addition of more parking and better pedestrian and handicapped access to all the buildings on the Pantigo Road municipal campus, as well as final renovations to two historic buildings for use as office space.

The Peach House and Baker House were among the historic buildings donated and moved to Pantigo Road in 2007; several others were linked and transformed to create the present Town Hall, and the old building was abandoned. It has been sitting empty, and, said Peter Gumpel, an architect and member of the town’s architectural review board who has been working with a committee on the new Town Hall proposal, has “very serious environmental issues,” including mold and possibly asbestos. “It just wouldn’t make economic sense” to try to salvage it, he said. Besides, he added, its configuration does not lend itself to the type of open-plan, flexible, spatial design envisioned for the new building.

“That building is deplorable; it’s a falling-down, leaking building,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said.

New construction could include energy-efficient elements, Mr. Cantwell said, including solar or geothermal energy systems, enabling the town to save in the long run on energy and upkeep costs.

The estimated cost of the new Town Hall, excluding the added parking, renovations, and other improvements, is $6.7 million, covering a one-story complex with a basement for storage, totaling 21,000 square feet. The construction would enable the town to house all its offices at one location. At present, a number of town offices are in condominiums on Pantigo Place, adjacent to the Town Hall campus.

“This is a very inefficient system,” said Mr. Cantwell at the meeting on Tuesday. “It’s inconvenient, and it’s confusing to the public.” Having town departments working close to one another would increase communication and make for “more significant interaction,” Mr. Gumpel said.

In addition, said Mr. Cantwell, while the town is moving to a system of electronic records storage, it must still follow legal storage requirements, and “we don’t have a safe place to do that.”

The supervisor said the sale of the Pantigo Place office condominiums could raise $3 million to $4 million. The property on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton from which the defunct wastewater treatment plant was recently removed could also be sold, he suggested. “Together, those sales would pay for this project, essentially.”

“It’s long overdue,” commented Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc.

Under the prior administration, the town received a $500,000 state grant award for efficiency, which was earmarked to develop a new Town Hall campus. Some of the money has gone to the planning and design of the project.

Board members agreed Tuesday to have the building committee, which includes Mr. Gumpel, Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer; Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisitions and management, and Alex Walter, Mr. Cantwell’s executive assistant, develop and present a more specific design, based on the concept presented this week.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board faced a stormy, three-hour session at Town Hall on Sept. 14 when a site plan for a proposed car wash in Wainscott came before it.

 James Golden wants to put up a 4,435-square-foot steel and glass building with 15 vacuum stations. The facility, which requires a permit from the board, would have a detailing area, room for 18 cars to line up, and nine parking spaces. The property now contains a former discotheque, which has fallen into disrepair and is considered unsafe.

As the initial discussion went around the table, and after a lengthy presentation by experts representing Mr. Golden who told the board he had already invested $75,000 for an analysis, Job Potter, a board member, said, “I feel badly for you, in a way. This is a bad place for a car wash.” The room exploded with applause.

“As chairman of this board, I have to think of planning,” Reed Jones said. “I don’t think it fits. This is the most congested part of town,” he said, as the room again broke into applause.

According to a traffic study presented to the board by Mr. Golden, the time it would take to make a left turn onto the highway from the car wash would increase from about one minute during the summer to six minutes. But Eric Schantz, a senior town planner, had previously said the traffic study submitted was outdated and had not been done during the peak summer season.

Besides the traffic study, the board has been presented with studies of the sound emanating from the car wash and its ecological impacts.

Before the board could consider the details further, Mr. Golden complained that the room had been stacked against him. If he had known that would be the case, he could have had 100 supporters on hand, he said.

“Is there a business you would want to see?” asked Gail Golden. “What business would make you all feel good?”

Diana Weir, a board member, responded that a neighborhood business would be appropriate, but Ms. Golden said, “I don’t think HomeGoods fits into a neighborhood business,” referring to the large nearby retail store on the Montauk Highway, which had received board approval. “No, it’s not,” Ms. Weir said.

 “It was all before your time, I get it,” Ms. Golden retorted. “We live here, too.”

She went on, saying, “If you had this feeling from the beginning, you did us a great disservice by asking us to do all these studies, which cost us $75,000. You should have right from the start said, ‘No, we will never approve a car wash,’ because we would not have proceeded. That’s on you, and not on us. Secondly, this is supposed to be a working meeting, not a meeting where people can voice their opinions. That’s the format you set up. I think it is unfair that the room is filled, stacked with people who oppose it.”

 The car wash proposal had been in the news previously and drawn the attention of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee. Ms. Weir asked those in the audience if the planning board had invited them. They responded with a loud, “No!”

Ms. Weir, who has been on the planning board since 2012, pointed out that this was only the second time the proposal had come before the planning board. She added, however, that if the applicant was unhappy with whatever the final decision turned out to be, he could sue the board.

Kathleen Cunningham, a board member who called herself “agnostic” with regard to the proposal, said that given the site’s zoning, “We are going to have to approve some kind of business.” Nancy Keeshan, another member, said, “We haven’t made a decision.”

When the Wainscott residents were given an opportunity to make brief statements, over a dozen made it clear that they thought the proposal was unacceptable. Several mentioned the HomeGoods store.

“A few years ago, another planning board gave an approval,” Frank Dalene said,  referring to HomeGoods, and calling it “an approval for the biggest boondoggle in East Hampton history. . . . We can’t afford another screw-up,” he said.