An East Deck Rethink
The owners of the former East Deck Motel in Montauk, who had proposed a private club there, asked on Friday to postpone a scheduled appearance before the East Hampton Town Planning Board last night to give the town the chance to negotiate a possible purchase of the property.
“We agree Ditch Plains is a special place and have requested an adjournment,” Lars Svanberg and Scott Bradley, members of the ownership group, known as ED40, said in a press release Friday from Rubenstein Public Relations.
According to Jodi Walker, the planning board’s secretary, the board received a formal letter on Friday from Richard A. Hammer, ED40’s attorney, seeking the delay. Reed Jones, the board’s chairman, quickly granted his request.
The proposal, which called for a two-story building, a restaurant, an Olympic-size pool, and below-grade parking, among other amenities, drew fervent opposition in Montauk, including a petition urging the planning board to require a detailed environmental impact study and a paddle-out over Labor Day weekend during which nearly 200 surfers took to the ocean off Ditch Plain Beach in protest.
In his letter, Mr. Hammer cited “significant public comments received” as a major factor in the decision to ask for the delay.
“The applicant has offered the property for public acquisition to the Town of East Hampton,” Mr. Hammer wrote. “We will, however, revise our plans and improve our presentation for future consideration by the planning board while this consideration by the town board proceeds, and will be in touch with you for future consideration when we are ready for further consideration by the planning board on any revised plans,” the letter said.
East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Friday that the exploratory process needed before any purchase could be made is already under way. Such a purchase would likely be done with money from the town’s preservation fund. Mr. Cantwell said that Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition, was aware of the town’s interest.
Mr. Cantwell laid out the steps involved in the process. First, he said, Mr. Wilson would need to gauge the level of interest of the town’s community preservation fund committee. An appraisal of the property would be needed in order to determine its value and a purchase price would have to be negotiated based on that appraisal. Mr. Cantwell said that it can take “weeks, and even months,” before a final decision is made.
The current owners purchased the property, which is in a resort zone, in 2013 for over $15 million. It had been on the market for some time before that.
Mr. Cantwell pointed out that the town owns beachfront land both east and west of the property.
Mr. Cantwell compared the ED40 proposal to the 555 plan in Amagansett, where the owners had proposed a market-rate senior citizen housing development on Montauk Highway farmland. The town purchased the land this spring for $10 million. Opposition to that plan grew over weeks and months of public meetings and planning board sessions. The opposition to the ED40 plan gathered steam quickly after the details of the application became public. By more than a week before the proposal was to be reviewed by the planning board, the online petition had gathered more than 5,000 signatures.
The overall message the opposition sent was clear, Mr. Cantwell said: “People care about Ditch Plains.”