Another Hurdle for Restroom

Months after blueprints were drawn and its proposed location delineated, and well over a decade after discussions began, construction of a public restroom in the municipal parking lot north of Main Street in Amagansett is once again on hold.

At a meeting of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee on Monday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell told the gathering that the town encountered a stumbling block when it was discovered that a septic system it had allowed a restaurant to build on town-owned property in 2009 is not far enough from a private well on an adjacent property.

‘If that well or septic is not moved, we have no bathroom.’

— Kieran Brew, ACAC Chairman

While the proposed restroom meets all of the Suffolk County Health Department’s requirements, Mr. Cantwell told the committee, the location of the restaurant’s septic system is in violation of those county regulations, precluding the Health Department from issuing a certificate of occupancy for a restroom on any part of the town-owned parking lot.

In 2009, Mr. Cantwell explained, the town board granted an easement over its property for installation of a septic system serving the restaurant at 231 Main Street, then called Mezzaluna. The septic system, whose location had already been approved by the Health Department, was installed in conjunction with interior renovations at the restaurant. However, Mr. Cantwell said Monday, the survey accompanying the restaurant’s application to the Health Department failed to disclose the existence of a well on the adjacent property at 247 Main Street owned by Tina Piette, an attorney whose office is located there. The restaurant’s septic system does not meet the required setback from the well.

The Health Department, he said, “will issue a permit to construct the restroom facility but not to occupy or use it” until Ms. Piette’s property is connected to the public water system, which, in the department’s view, is the town’s responsibility. “They have asserted that the town would be responsible for providing public water for her building in order for the restroom to be opened.”

That, he said, “is a major stumbling block. The town is not going to pay to connect private property to public water. In fact, we think it would be illegal.” He said that the town would revisit the easement granted to Mezzaluna to determine if any terms or conditions had been violated. Also to be reviewed, he said, is the 2014 site plan approval for an application submitted by Ms. Piette, who intends to redevelop her property with a two-story structure comprising commercial and residential space.

Ms. Piette, who opposes the restroom’s proposed location, directly behind the Amagansett Library, said she was surprised by the development. “I had no idea until just now that this was all connected to the bathroom,” she said at the meeting. “To hear at this meeting now, for the first time, that a C of O for the bathroom would be tied to my application for site plan review, which has already been granted but may now further be reviewed, is quite disconcerting at so many levels it’s not even funny.”

Should she tear down the existing structure on her property and construct a new one, she said, “I would hook up to the public’s water. But that’s not happening this summer or next year. It’s when and if I have an investor willing to come in and do this project.”

As to the restroom’s proposed location, that “was not discussed in any way until October of last year,” she said, pointing out that a 2009 County Health Department approval for a public restroom was for a different location than the one chosen last year by a subcommittee of the citizens group.

Mr. Cantwell expressed frustration over the latest obstacle to a project that he has been working on with the committee since he began attending its meetings in January 2014. The Health Department, he said, “issued a permit and authorized Mezzaluna to locate the septic where it is today. Yet they will not take any action with respect to that septic system.”

Alex Walter, Mr. Cantwell’s executive assistant, echoed that frustration on Tuesday. “Why Suffolk County is holding us responsible just because it’s our parking lot, after they gave the permit, and we didn’t issue the easement until after they gave the permit . . . . We’re struggling to figure out why they’re holding us responsible,” he said.

Ms. Piette has to abandon her well, Mr. Cantwell said, and connect to the public water supply for the restroom project to proceed. But that is a business decision that is hers to make, and it relates to the timeline of her construction project. “We can’t control that,” he said. Alternatively, he said, the restaurant’s septic system would have to be moved to a conforming location.

Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, suggested that all parties try to find an acceptable solution. He proposed relocating the restroom toward the rear of the lot, “and then, since it seems like the responsibility for this current situation was a faulty application — assuming it was an honest mistake by Mezzaluna — if they would pay to have Tina’s water line run . . . we might have a restroom.” The building housing the restaurant, now called Sotto Sopra, is owned by Randy Lerner, who holds several properties in Amagansett, including Amagansett Square.

“If that well or septic is not moved, we have no bathroom,” Mr. Brew summarized. “That’s the reality we’re dealing with, and it means we still have a problem that needs to be solved.”