Light Plan Denounced

Business owners and their representatives spoke out against proposed amendments to East Hampton Village’s lighting code, enacted in 2004, at a hearing on Friday.

Under the amendments, lighting deemed nonessential would have to be turned off between dusk and dawn, and lighting in violation of light-trespass limits could be ordered removed or altered. Foliage illumination and “wall-washing” by upturned spotlights on nonresidential properties would be prohibited. The regulations would also apply to automatic teller and vending machines.

In his first meeting since taking a medical leave of absence in November, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and his colleagues on the village board heard one merchant after another criticize what they called onerous rules that would not only compromise safety and security but impose a financial burden.

Monte Farber was the first to speak. “From every aspect as a store owner, I am against this motion,” he said.

Mr. Farber, who owns the Enchanted World Emporium at 8 Main Street next to Rowdy Hall, cited “a safety issue in our little mews there. It’s hard enough to walk there already. Someone’s going to get mugged.” As a jewelry-store owner, he said he also feared an undetected break-in. “I’m also worried for you all,” Mr. Farber told the board, “because if somebody falls and the reason is because there’s no light, and it can be shown that there was no light because of this motion, they’re going to come after the village.”

David Eagan, an attorney, spoke on behalf of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, who own several restaurants and retail properties in the village. His clients, he said, consider the definition and concept of “unnecessary lighting” to be extreme. “They feel it’s been a bit too narrowly focused on special interests,” he said, asking that landlords and tenants be taken into consideration in the board’s deliberations. “Slow down, reassess it, come up with a more balanced process,” Mr. Eagan advised.

The amendments would require interior lighting on commercial properties to shut off automatically one hour after the close of business, except for display lighting, which would have to go off by 11 p.m. Such a provision would be bad for business, some merchants said, citing nighttime window-shoppers who might come back in the morning.

The village is already very dark, said Ed Dressler of London Jewelers. “In a business where security is a top priority, to me lights mean safety,” he said. Many times, he said, the store’s security alarm goes off and he has to check the building. “I’m not about to enter a dark store and possibly be ambushed.”

Anthony DeVivio, managing director of Halstead Property, told the board that his building had recently been vandalized. According to the police report, several people had climbed onto the roof and spray-painted “Satan is Waiting” on the building’s exterior wall. “And now you’re asking us to turn all the lights off in the village,” Mr. DeVito said. “This is an absolute security risk.”

To darken an already “quiet, sleepy little town,” he said, “will make it look like a ghost town.”

“We don’t know where the problem is that triggered this,” said Margaret Turner, executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance. She said storeowners had gone to great lengths and expense to create tasteful exteriors. “Don’t pass sweeping legislation that hurts everyone,” she pleaded. “Problems already exist with vacancies in the village.”

Susan Harder, the state representative of the International Dark Sky Association, defended the proposed amendments, calling merchants’ fears unwarranted and based on a lack of understanding. A majority already comply with the law, she said, calling the amendments “common sense and reasonable.”

“The thought that streets or sidewalks would be dark is not part of this code,” said Ms. Harder. The Dark Sky criteria, she said, are such that “we know what it takes to see well and for safe passage of pedestrians, and we conform to that.”

Mayor Rickenbach, along with the board members Richard Lawler, Bruce Siska, and Elbert Edwards, said nothing had been decided. “The board supports the general intent” of the proposed legislation, he said, “but you folks here today, mostly in opposition, have raised some valid points.”

“Nobody’s trying to blindside anybody,” Mr. Lawler said. “We have to have some sort of a template. Obviously, quite a few people are unhappy with that.” He called the legislation “a work in progress.”

Mr. Rickenbach said the hearing would remain open; public comment on the proposed lighting changes will be accepted until the board’s Feb. 5 work session.

Also at the meeting, the village authorized Lombardo Associates, the consultants who prepared East Hampton Town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan, to undertake a water quality improvement project at Hook Pond. Unless authorized by a separate resolution, the cost is not to exceed $35,000.

The board also heard from Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, regarding the women’s bathroom facilities at Main Beach. Mr. Bennett summarized plans to increase the number of stalls from five to eight, at an anticipated cost of $31,000 or $32,000. The board told Mr. Bennett to “move ahead without further delay.”