Breakwater Sails Away With Lease
Supporters of the Breakwater Yacht Club packed the meeting room at Sag Harbor Village Hall and spilled out onto the stairs Tuesday night to press the board on why the community sailing center’s lease was not being renewed. Though the discussion got heated, the yacht club eventually got its way and will remain in its home for at least the next 10 years.
The not-for-profit community sailing center was 45 days away from the expiration of its 20-year lease with the village. Mayor Brian Gilbride put the club on Tuesday night’s agenda, seeking authorization to reject the its option to renew its lease for another 10 years. The club had sent a letter to the board in December electing to continue the lease for underwater and upland property at a Bay Street site formerly owned by the Mobil corporation.
The following month, Mayor Gilbride intimated during a public meeting that the club had broken its lease in some way and that it needed to be discussed. Since then, he said village officials had not heard from the club.
“The road goes both ways,” Bruce Tait, a club board member, yelled out at the mayor. “The landlord should be the one reaching out. Our lease has been written. If you don’t agree with it, reach out and tell us. But you haven’t done that, mayor.”
Luke Babcock, a member of the board of directors and a village resident, said the club has been paying $3,000 a month, but would pay $6,000 a month under the terms of the lease during the extension. The club has 10 more years left on a Bridgehampton National Bank mortgage, which it has to pay whether it remains on Bay Street or not.
Robert Beres, a sailor and village resident, said he wanted to know what the specific issues were. “Is it purely greed? It’s not a matter of another $6,000; that’s not going to make or break the village,” he said.
While Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village’s attorney, tried to explain some of the back story, the crowd shouted: “What is it?”
Mr. Thiele said he had advised the board before its meeting to discuss the situation in executive session after he heard from Anthony Tohill, an attorney the yacht club hired believing it would be facing eviction. The mayor said he did not believe it had come to that yet.
“I have never heard eviction or anything else,” Mayor Gilbride told the crowd. “But I will tell you firsthand that the lease needs some work.”
Mayor Gilbride said the club was supposed to have hooked up to the village’s sewer system by now, but instead has a septic system. The club flashed documents from the Suffolk County Department of Health indicating that the sewer line does not extend far enough for the club to reach.
Robby Stein, a village trustee, said alcohol was being served at parties held at the yacht club, which also may be prohibited in the lease.
After several testimonials from members of the club, including a trio of girls, and with the crowd getting feisty, Ken O’Donnell, a village trustee, made a motion to approve the club’s option to renew its lease. “I’m not a sailor. I don’t know port from starboard, but I know right from wrong,” he said. Mr. Stein seconded the motion, which was followed by a rousing round of applause.
More discussion followed including about the need to review the insurance. There was even an apology offered from Olaf Neubert, the club commodore, who told Mayor Gilbride he was sorry if he should have reached out instead of waiting for the village to do so. However, he said, “If I see an agenda item, ‘authorization to reject Breakwater Yacht Club’s lease’ . . . I’m asking what spirit is going on here?”
“That was to get the attention to get people down here,” Mayor Gilbride replied.
“A phone call would work really well,” Mr. Tait chimed in.
With the crowd chanting, “vote, vote, vote,” the board finally did, unanimously renewing the club’s lease.
Also on Tuesday, the board approved revisions to the village’s wetlands permit regulations. Rich Warren of InterScience, a village consultant who worked on drafting the code with Denise Schoen and the harbor committee, said the new code will better protect the village. The harbor committee will have sole discretion over applications, in contrast to the old two-tier system in which the zoning board of appeals reviewed an application first and grant variances before the harbor committee had a chance to review the wetland permit requests.
Applicants now have the burden to demonstrate practicable alternatives when asking for variances from wetlands setbacks. Among other changes, the bluff-dune setbacks have been reduced to 50 feet since most lots in the village cannot meet the 100-foot setback.
“These regulations are not going to make it easier, but it’s going to give the harbor committee the teeth that it needs to do the best for this community,” Mr. Warren told the board.
A moratorium on reviews of wetland variance applications will be lifted as soon as the secretary of state receives and signs off on the changes.
Also Tuesday, after several months of review the board enacted legislation that bans single-use, retail plastic bags. The new law was passed, purposefully, just in time for Earth Day on April 22, to coincide with the approval of the same legislation in neighboring municipalities. However, the law in Sag Harbor will not be enforced until June 1 to give business owners the time to use up their inventory of plastic bags.