Change Laws To Block Big Boxes

Drivers passing the former East Hampton Bowl property on Montauk Highway have been doing double takes in recent days as the steel frame for a hulking new building was erected nearly atop the roadway. According to East Hampton Village, the structure is to be leased to CVS, the pharmacy chain, and meets all zoning requirements. Expect things to look even worse as the frame is sheathed and an approved 24-foot-long illuminated corporate sign goes up.

We would have hoped that in the wake of the HomeGoods store in Wainscott, a debacle if ever there was one, village officials might have taken a look at the law and asked themselves whether changes were necessary. At least East Hampton Town may be on a path toward changes that would restrain future big-box store developers in the parts of Wainscott under its jurisdiction and other commercial areas. 

The new CVS store is the product of good intentions to be sure. Years ago, zoning laws were written to place parking at the rear of new commercial construction in both the village and town. This was intended to avoid what was known as strip-zoning, in which streetscapes become barren swaths of asphalt and freestanding signs, with rows of businesses constructed at some distance off in the rear. As a tradeoff perhaps, property owners were allowed to jam their structures nearly up to the property lines, with sheer, vertical walls extending high. 

Design failures like HomeGoods and the new CVS, which juts much farther out toward the roadway than its neighboring buildings and makes that portion of Montauk Highway canyon-like, are the result. It is so bad that at least one village official, shocked after the beams went up, asked the Building Department whether the building had been properly sited. It had been, and it was perfectly legal. The new CVS runs the risk of devaluing the Red Horse complex across the street by creating a significant aesthetic conflict as well as traffic tie-ups and additional congestion.

What has to happen now mirrors to some degree the initiative under way in the town to understand what is possible in the hamlet centers under current zoning. East Hampton Village must take a hard look at where additional CVS-style boxes could be built and move rapidly to make future ones impossible.