Hearing Tonight on East Deck Site

A hearing will be held before the East Hampton Town Board tonight on a request to change the zoning on 4.2 acres of oceanfront property in Montauk — the East Deck motel site at Ditch Plain — from resort to half-acre residential zoning so that it may be subdivided into four house lots.

 The subdivision is under consideration by the town planning board, but cannot proceed without a zone change, which appears likely given the recent history of more extensive plans for the site and comments by Marguerite Wolffsohn, town planning director.

A limited liability company that bought the site in 2013 from Alice Houseknecht had at first proposed turning the old motel into an elaborate private club. That prompted opposition and a campaign to have the town purchase the property. Town officials turned that idea down, deciding it was not economically feasible.

The property owners have agreed, the planning director told the town board on Tuesday, to grant a large lot easement, which would prevent any further subdivision, and a scenic easement to protect the oceanfront dunes. In addition, she said, the shoreward property line extends well onto the beach but the owners have agreed to guarantee public access in front of the house lots by filing legal covenants and restrictions.

Under those conditions, Ms. Wolffsohn said, the division of the property into four separate lots and the construction of one house on each, is considered a better alternative than having a motel operate there. The residences will generate less septic waste and traffic, Ms. Wolffsohn said, and would be built farther back from the beach and away from a coastal hazard zone than the motel building.

The hearing on the zoning change begins at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.