Funeral Home Wins A Battle

The Yardley and Pino Funeral Home of Sag Harbor won a victory at the East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals Friday - a special permit to convert the East Hampton Medical Group building, which it owns, to a branch of its funeral home business.

But the success may be "bittersweet," Kenneth W. Yardley, one of the owners of the four-generation family business, said later Friday.

"It's not over yet," he said. "We're expecting to be sued" by the group of Pantigo Road neighbors who hired two attorneys to represent them at four of the five public hearings held on the matter since August 1997.

Possible Action

As of press time, William J. Fleming, one of the neighbors' lawyers, said he did not know if his clients would take further action. "We think there's a reasonable case here," he said, but "the neighbors will have to evaluate the decision."

"It would be nice if an accommodation could be reached," Mr. Fleming added. He noted that the board, and the Suffolk County Planning Commission, approved the funeral home, provided that there is sufficient parking to preclude using Pantigo Road, that plantings screen the premises from adjacent properties, subject to the review of the Village Design Review Board, that outdoor lighting be limited, that there be only two chapels inside, and that any changes to the exterior be consistent with the requirements of the Pantigo Road Historic District.

A Cliffhanger

Mr. Yardley said his family would not alter the building for at least 30 days after Jan. 30, when the resolution will be filed - the period during which the neighbors could bring an Article 78 lawsuit challenging the decision in New York State Supreme Court.

The Zoning Board's vote, with only Joan Denny, the board's vice chairwoman, dissenting, was a cliffhanger. While there had been speculation that whoever lost would challenge the decision, Mr. Yardley said his family had decided that Friday's action, either way, "would have ended it. It has dragged on long enough."

"We were surprised," though, said Mr. Yardley, to whom it seemed "it could have gone either way."

"Threshold Question"

"I was hopeful all along," said Daniel Voorhees, the East Hampton attorney representing the Yardley family. "And I'm pleased with the result."

In explaining its decision, the board wrote that applying for a special permit for a use not permitted by the code, and calling it "more conforming," presented a "threshold question."

The board cited a section of the code that authorizes the board to "grant a special permit for a use not specifically permitted in a particular district, regardless of the classification of the . . . district, but only when the subject premises is already used for a nonconforming use and . . . if the board determines that the proposed use is more conforming than the existing nonconforming use" - in this case a medical arts building in a residential zone.

Not Detrimental

The board went on to explain its opinion that a funeral home would be detrimental neither to neighboring property values, nor to the character of the neighborhood.

Because the property is within the Pantigo Historic District, the Village Board prepared an environmental assessment form, in conjunction with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, that showed that converting the medical building into a funeral home as "more conforming" would not result in "any large and important impacts, and therefore will not have a significant impact on the environment."

Four tenants now occupy the East Hampton Medical Group building, Mr. Yardley said this week, all of whose leases had expired as of Dec. 31, 1997.

A Month's Wait

They include a pediatric group headed by Dr. Gail Schonfield, Peconic Health Corporation, a subsidiary of Southampton Hospital comprised of several internists and family physicians, Lab Corporation, a laboratory, and Radiological Services, an X-ray facility.

Mr. Yardley said that if the decision is not challenged in the next month, the Yardleys and their tenants will reach an agreement as to when they will relocate.

Southampton Hospital has plans to construct a medical arts building at 300 Pantigo Place, but it has not yet received final East Hampton Town Planning Board approval, and it will take at least a year from groundbreaking to complete its construction, Dr. John J. Ferry, the hospital president, has estimated.