Duryea’s Plan Questioned

A controversial proposal for Duryea’s Dock in Montauk — to remove all the structures on the site and replace them with a restaurant and an open deck with a total capacity of 353 patrons — was tabled on April 22 before the East Hampton Town Planning Board could consider it.

The applicants, a limited liability corporation based in Delaware, bought the two properties involved, on either side of the private Tuthill Road, about a year ago for about $6.4 million.

There are a number of problems with the proposal, according to JoAnne Pahwuhl, the town’s assistant planning director. For one, one of the properties lies in a residential zone. The new owners propose to demolish that structure and use the space for the parking and septic system the restaurant would require.

Ms. Pahwuhl warned that before that can happen, a determination must be made as to whether land zoned residential can be used for commercial purposes.

Also, the zoning board of appeals ruled in 1997 that the existing operation was not a restaurant but a take-out business for prepared food. A restaurant would therefore constitute a new business, Ms. Pahwuhl wrote in a memo to the planning board, and the town would have to determine the total sewage flow and parking needed before it could issue it a permit.

Sewage flow is a major concern for another reason. The flow proposed is double the shy-three-acre lot’s maximum capacity. Unlike the current business, which will reportedly operate through the coming season, the new restaurant would fall under Suffolk County Department of Health Services control.

The site is ecologically sensitive, Ms. Pahwuhl said, sitting as it does between Fort Pond Bay and Tuthill Pond. “The project appears very aggressive, given the sensitive nature of the site,” she concluded.

The owners will apparently do more homework before bringing the proposal back to the planning board, Reed Jones, its chairman, indicated on Friday.