Big House on Lincoln Jumps a High Hurdle
Sag Harbor Village officials voted Tuesday to allow an application for a house larger than the allowable 4,000 square feet to move forward with the planning process. It is the first special-permit request the board has granted since it adopted new gross floor area limits in March.
The board heard support and opposition for the application to build a house slightly under 5,300 square feet at 48 Lincoln Street, between Harding Terrace and Wilson Place, in Ninevah Beach, a neighborhood that has recently experienced a surge in turnover and growth. The proposed house would be built on two merged properties that total 44,751 square feet, one of the largest lots in the village. A property of that size, through a special permit process, could fit a house of up to 7,000 square feet.
Alex Kriegsman, an attorney for the applicant, Bruce Bronster, told the board the proposal was in keeping with the harmony of the area. Peter Cook, the architect, said that had there been two lots instead of one, then under the village’s G.F.A. law, two houses of 3,700 square feet each could be built, with two pools and two septic systems. “We’re requesting a single home on a lot that could handle much more,” Mr. Cook said.
He said the proposal was compatible with the scale and size of others in the area, and allowed for enough landscaped screening and parking. “You’d be hard pressed to find a house that meets that criteria better,” he said.
Camille Clark, chairwoman of the government affairs committee for Sag Harbor Hills Association, a neighboring community, objected that such a large house would change the low-profile character of the neighborhood. She pointed to a village-commissioned study by InterScience Research Associates, done as the village reviewed its residential zoning code over the winter, showing that the median gross floor area of houses in that area is 1,445 square feet, on lots that average 12,467 square feet. “We think there is also a place for a more modest house and we think it’s important for everyone to have fair and equal access to live in this village,” she said.
Will Sharp, who lives in a 3,000-square-foot house on Wilson Place, said the Bronster house would be an outlier in the neighborhood, and if the board allowed it, they would set a precedent for big houses. “You start tipping the scale in the opposite direction,” he said, and the neighborhoods would end up with large houses like Redwood.
Ninevah, Sag Harbor Hills, and Azurest have “experienced a rush of purchasing of a lot of properties, and it’s because it’s been undervalued. . . . This has never occurred in these three neighborhoods since 1950,” Mr. Sharp said.
“We’ve globalized now, and we welcome that, but we do not welcome change for the sake of change,” said Deborah Jackson, a longtime resident who lives at 41 Lincoln Street. “I want to keep us with the character and sensibility we are so proud of.”
But Steven Schucker of 3 Wilson Place, whose pool would abut Mr. Bronster’s pool, said the proposal was not out of scale for an acre of land. “I dread the idea of two homes on this property,” he said later, adding that the proposal was “a thousand times better than having two large houses.”
Mr. Bronster, a lawyer who has teamed up with Robert Kapito, co-founder and president of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, on other Sag Harbor development recently, told the board he intends to live in the six-bedroom house with his four children. He had spent a lot of time designing the house so that it fit into the neighborhood, he said.
He said he had heard a lot of talk about community and had joined the Ninevah Association, attended its meetings, made contributions, and announced his plans to the association. “I want to be the best neighbor possible,” he said, adding that he welcomed anyone with concerns to speak to him. “The people who have actually spent time with me and reviewed the plans, 100 percent of those people have been in support.”
Mayor Sandra Schroeder said she wanted the audience to understand that the board’s vote to approve a special permit does not mean that the project has approval. The application still needs to be approved by the Architectural Review Board, and could end up smaller.
Robby Stein, the deputy mayor, made a motion that the board approve the special permit subject to a written opinion from counsel, and it passed unanimously.
Mr. Bronster’s is not the first application for a special permit, though it is the first to be decided. A hearing was held last month on Christy Ferer’s request to build a 7,000-square-foot house on a 1.78-acre lot at 10 Cove Road in Redwood. A decision was expected Tuesday, but Brian DeSesa, Ms. Ferer’s attorney, who, with Mr. Kriegsman, also represents Mr. Bronster, asked that a decision be tabled. He said he wanted all members present to vote, and Ed Deyermond was absent.