Boarding Houses, East Hampton Style

East Hampton Town’s double standard on group housing is something that deserves attention.  

Consider the Ross School’s plan to use two identical eight-bedroom houses now under construction in Springs as dormitories for some of its growing and high-paying boarding student population. This has alarmed neighbors, concerned that the single-family character of the streets will suffer undesirable changes. Then consider that the town tries to take a tough line on other group houses, whether occupied by members of the summer shares crowd or Spanish-speaking laborers.

Those living near the buildings under construction or any of the other estimated 25 to 30 Ross houses for boarders scattered around East Hampton and part of eastern Southampton Town are right to ask, “What’s the difference?”

The answer lies in an unconvincing town legal opinion dating back about seven years that the dormitories are exempt from the rule that no more than four unrelated persons can occupy a single-family residence because the students live as a family, with teachers or other adults in the place of parents.

It is very difficult to swallow the claim that small numbers of Ross’s transitory groups of students, two or more to a room, who take all their meals with the rest of their classmates on campus, constitute families. Yes, the Ross dorm houses have resident adult supervision, but the authority rests with the school administration. It is true that boarding schools and colleges have disciplinary and other rights under the doctrine of “in loco parentis,” but to apply that to local zoning regulations, as the town does, is absurd. That no complaints have been registered about existing Ross boarding houses while complaints are frequent about shared summer or work-force houses is irrelevant.

Thinking about it further, share house residents, who from time to time shop, cook, and eat together, would be families, too, by the town’s bad arithmetic. More so, perhaps, any number of immigrant laborers’ houses could well be occupied by people who are related by common ties in their countries of origin, and therefore may have far better claims as families. It all gets ludicrous pretty fast once the town starts bending the rules for one group and not another.

An answer, as has been suggested in a town study of affordable housing, whose recommendations are likely to be adopted soon, is to allow and regulate dormitories. The study’s authors intended this to meet a clear need for safe, legal, seasonal work force housing, but it could also be applied to student accommodations, which are also likely to be seasonal. An obvious, essential requirement would be modern methods of dealing with wastewater, like so-called micro-septic systems, for example. Sited properly away from ecologically sensitive areas, this would be a far better approach for all concerned.