East Deck Motel to Go

A little more than a year after a plan to convert the shuttered East Deck Motel on the ocean at Ditch Plain in Montauk into an elaborate private club was scuttled after coming under heavy fire, a different proposal for the site was before the East Hampton Town Planning Board last week.

As fierce as the opposition to the prior plan had been, the new one, which would subdivide the 4.24-acre property into four house lots, received qualified praise and endorsements from a number who fought the original plan.

Before the planning board can act on the new plan, the property would have to be rezoned by the East Hampton Town Board from its resort designation to residential. The planning board agreed at its Nov. 18 meeting to forward their comments on the application to the town board.

The property contains the now dilapidated 28-unit East Deck motel as well as a swimming pool. They would be razed, with new vegetation planted around the site, which is now almost entirely cleared. The East Deck predated the first town zoning, written in 1957. The property faces one of the most popular surfing beaches in the Northeast.

The site was purchased for about $15 million in 2013 from Alice Houseknecht by ED40, a limited liability company organized in Delaware. Delaware is among a few states that do not require disclosure of the identities of an L.L.C.’s owners. Last year, however, the principal partner was identified as J. Darius Bikoff, who owns preperty at the nearby Montauk Shores Condominium. Mr. Bikoff was the founding partner and chief executive officer of Energy Brands, which markets Vitamin Water and was purchased by Coca-Cola in 2007 for over $4 billion.

The first work done on the property by the new owner was massive dune restoration, which received approval from town officials and Montauk community leaders. When the plan for what that dune would protect became public in July of 2014, it aroused a wave of protest. An online petition against the project, posted by the Ditch Plains Association, gathered about 5,000 signatures in a short time and the proposal was withdrawn the following September.

The L.L.C. then proposed selling the idea among Montaukers, but when the cost of the dune restoration was added to the $15 million purchase price, the value far exceeded the amount the town was willing, or would be able, to spend. The property was put on the commercial market, reportedly for $25 million, but no buyers came forward.

Since that time, opponents of the original proposal were able to meet with the developers and together they came up with an alternate plan. Former opponents offered support for the new plan at the planning board meeting last week.

“This was a very controversial issue,” Laura Michaels, head of the Ditch Plains Association, told planning board members last week. “We were a coalition. We worked closely with the owners.”

The new plan is for four narrow house lots of about an acre each running from Deforest Road to the restored ocean dune. At least three of the lots would need variances from the zoning broad of appeals because they are only 90 feet wide instead of 110 feet, as called for by the town code.

Before signing off entirely, Ms. Michaels asked the board to cap the square footage of each new house at 4,000. She pointed out that nearby houses range from 800 to 2,000 square feet. She also asked that either a covenant or scenic easement be required to ensure that the public would always have beach access and that only sand would be used to protect the dune.

“It’s fair and it’s right to say the community was deeply concerned with the prior application,” Jeremy Samuelson, head of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, told the board. “Coming out of that, the owners of the property reached out. ‘Okay, what else can we do?’ We saw that as a great opportunity.”

Eric Schantz, a senior planner for the town, presented a 14-page memo to the board. In it, he pointed out that as it stands right now, owners of the property could open a 28-unit motel. The difference in septic flow between that and what is being proposed is immense, dropping from a possible maximum of 6,300 gallons per day to only 1,200 gallons, he said.

It was a point Mr. Samuelson elaborated on, telling the board that water from the property flows north, toward Lake Montauk, and that the reduced density would be a vast improvement over the allowable hotel usage.

“In addition, my organization has put on the table the notion of a conservation easement,” Mr. Samuelson said. This, he said, would assure that the public would always have access to the popular beach.

“I have never heard Jeremy Samuelson be more eloquent in support,” Job Potter, a member of the planning board, said.