FEMA Rules in Play at Ditch

T.E. McMorrow

Sep. 10, 2015

T.E. McMorrow

Rebuilding or replacing a trailer in the Montauk Shores Condominium usually stirs controversy when applications come before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. The complex, on the ocean at Ditch Plain, is a collection of trailers that have been converted to residences. But one question the Z.B.A. and the condominium’s board have not asked until now is whether the new trailer would be compliant with Federal Emergency Management Agency rules. The answer, according to Ann Glennon, head of the East Hampton Town Building Department, is a resounding “no.”

“I’m not going to issue any permits,” Ms. Glennon said Tuesday. She spread out a survey showing the elevations needed for new structures in the trailer park. Almost all of the properties south of Cross Drive, meaning most of the trailer park, are in a FEMA flood zone, where new structures are to be from 14 to 22 feet above grade.

Britton Bistrian of Land Use Solutions is the first consultant who has been asked by the zoning board if the new structure her client planned would be compliant. Initially the answer was no. Her client, Mike Lukacs, who owns unit 22 of the condominium, asked for a permit to build on the dune and for variances for a deck and a shed as well as for setbacks from the bluff crest.

The original hearing for the application was held June 16, but the record was left open to allow Ms. Bistrian to explore the FEMA question. She discovered that the proposed new structure would have to be 16 feet above grade to comply with the law and asked the firm J. Constantine Architecture to revise the plans.

The property is about three feet above grade and the firm drew plans for a series of beams to raise the trailer to the required height, essentially creating a two-story building, although the lower level would be used only for storage. The shed was removed from the plan.

The Z.B.A. closed the hearing Sept. 1, having received Ms. Bistrian’s response, and is likely to consider the revised application during its work session on Tuesday.