Big House First Test For Village
Sag Harbor Village officials are considering the first request for a house larger than 4,000 square feet since enacting new residential zoning regulations in late March.
Christy Ferer, the founder of Vidicom who served former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a liaison to the families following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, wants to build a new 7,000-square-foot house on a 1.78-acre lot at 10 Cove Road. Because her property is one of the largest in the village, she is eligible for a special permit under the new gross floor area regulations that tie house size to lot size and cap the maximum size of a house to 4,000 square feet on a 25,000-square-foot lot.
Her waterfront property, the largest in the Redwood neighborhood, is approximately 73,682 square feet. The proposed house would meet all zoning and Building Department standards, such as setbacks, her attorney, Brian DeSesa told the board during a brief hearing on Tuesday night. In previous correspondence with the village, Mr. DeSesa said that if the floor-area formula was applied, his client could be entitled to a house
that is 7,895 square feet. However, the code requires a special permit for any house bigger than 4,000 square feet, even if the property could fit a substantially larger house.
Under the new code, the village board gave itself the responsibility of hearing requests for special permits, but the process and application for such permits has only been created since Ms. Ferer first brought her request to the board in late April.
“I’m sorry I’m the guinea pig. I tried not to be,” Ms. Ferer told the board during a hearing on Tuesday night. She had asked for an exemption from the building moratorium over the winter so she could build under the old regulations, but was denied.
Ms. Ferer was upset that the board would not be making a decision immediately. Instead, the board voted to allow her application to move forward to the architectural review board and harbor committee for discussion while it considered whether to grant the permit.
“We do not want to hold up the process,” said James LaRocca, the village board member who suggested it be allowed to move forward without a formal decision. However, he said, the village board would be “bound in no way to approve it or not approve it until we’ve completed our review.”
Mayor Sandra Schroeder was concerned the applicant and the other boards she would appear before may end up wasting their time if the village board ultimately decides against the special permit. Ms. Ferer agreed. She said she could not spend more money without knowing the board’s decision.
“I’m just trying to get a decision here,” she told the board. “It’s costing me a lot of money to carry” — $15,000 a month for the bridge loan she has on the property, she said, adding that she has had to put it on the market. It’s been three years since she put down a deposit, and since then, she said, her plans got mired in two moratoriums, first the wetlands moratorium that started in 2014, and then a second one on any substantial building projects while the village decided on gross floor area codes. “I would urge you to try and explain to me why it’s so difficult to judge this right now,” she said.
“You’ve called me at home with this same plea,” Mr. Larocca said, adding that the process is complicated, including a slew of calculations and two pages worth of standards that have to be met. “This is the first one,” he said. “We are determined to cross every ‘T’ and dot every ‘I’. . . .”
The decision on whether to move forward to the other boards while her application was under consideration is hers to make, he said. However, he would not answer her question as to how much longer he thought it would take the board to make a final decision.
“We want to get it right,” Mayor Schroeder said.
Ms. Ferer said she could not pay for engineered drawings without knowing the definitive square footage, because “the footprint is squeezed.”
Ed Deyermond, another board member, said that was exactly why it is important for the board to look at the proposal carefully. “This is a difficult application,” he said.
Ms. Ferer’s attorney quietly suggested she take a seat, and the board agreed to allow her application to move forward, if she so chooses, while the permit request is under review.
The board has received two additional special permit requests from other property owners, but there is no date yet for those hearings. The applications were not yet complete, with deeds posing a problem for both.
A request to build a 6,529-square-foot house on properties at 55 Lincoln Street and 116, 110, and 106 Hillside Drive East could not be noticed for public hearing, the mayor said. The properties have to be merged into one parcel in order for the request to be reviewed.
Another request, to build a house just over 5,000 square feet on a one-acre property at 48 Lincoln Street, also required an updated deed, though it appeared that paperwork would be forthcoming and a hearing could be scheduled in time for next month’s meeting.
In other news, the village board once again held off on making any decision on what to do about the old Morpurgo house. For several months, the board has been considering having the abandoned house demolished, but decided to wait for the outcome of a bank auction last month.
Mitch Winston, a developer, had the winning bid on the property, but the deal hasn’t been finalized yet. The closing is slated for next week, according to Christian Lipp, one of the brokers from Compass real estate representing Mr. Winston. The new owner cannot legally enter on the property until the deed changes hands.
Tom Preiato, the village building inspector, told the board on Tuesday night that he had no further news about the property. “The property still, in my opinion, stands in an unsafe condition.”
Mr. Deyermond, who had attended the auction and spoke to Mr. Winston, said he was going to cut the new owner some slack. “I’m going to take him at his word when he can legally enter the property that he is going to fence it on all sides.”