Home Goods Problem
Facebook woke up this week to the yawning monstrosity in Wainscott that is the new commercial building on the former Plitt Ford site on Montauk Highway. One commenter quipped that the town was “one step closer to looking like Centereach.” Another person summed it up this way: “It makes me sad every time I drive by. It looks terrible and is so big it blocks the sky.”
Even a current member of the East Hampton Town Planning Board who is a former member of the town board weighed in, calling it a “disaster.” The source of the last observation is important, as it comes from Job Potter, who is in a good position to press for changes to the town code to prevent something like this from happening again.
As we understand it, the 15,000-square-foot retail building on the roughly two-acre property will be occupied initially by the Home Goods chain. It gained approval from the planning board in 2012. Because it is in a central business district, no variances were required.
However, as the late developer who owned the property dangled the prospect of a Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or other specialized food store for the site, the planning sessions, at which a more modest undertaking with a reduced presence along the highway might have been achieved, turned instead into what might be called blinky-eyed love fests.
In hindsight, it is clear that as much fault, if not more, can be found in the town’s zoning laws, which should be changed now that there is a better understanding of their inadequacy. The Home Goods property is not alone on the Wainscott portion of Montauk Highway in its designation as central business. This means that a whole string of similarly looming redevelopment efforts could conceivably follow, each as close as 10 feet to their front and side property lines.
It is important to note that, unlike most other central business areas in town, Wainscott’s is on one side of the highway and does not have a municipal parking lot or even streetside parking. Further, given the speed at which vehicles sometimes travel along the highway there, construction so close to the road is a bad idea.
Looking closely at the town’s zoning maps, the Wainscott central business zone extends along Montauk Highway from Georgica Drive to West Gate Road, encompassing at least 20 developable parcels with road frontage. Given zoning’s minimal restrictions, full build-out would devastate the area and create almost unimaginable traffic tie-ups.
One option for the town would be to rezone the entire Wainscott business district to the neighborhood business designation. This would more than double the required setbacks, to 25 feet, and reduce the allowed coverage by 10 percent.
However, a deeper look at the law might be warranted. Changes to zoning rules to make new construction in business zones conform to the prevailing distances from the road of nearby storefronts and other buildings would be a good place to start. In Wainscott, almost all of the businesses along the highway are set back uniformly.
Whatever the approach, the town board must now ask what can be done to save Wainscott.