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The Market Is the Motive

By
T.E. McMorrow

Two controversial applications for subdivisions moved a step closer to a vote by the East Hampton Town Planning Board on April 1 after clearing a procedural hurdle.

The board concluded, after some contentious debate, that neither proposal, at 55 Wainscott Hollow Road in Wainscott and 38 Indian Wells Highway in Amagansett, required a lengthy evaluation under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

For 55 Wainscott Hollow Road, what matters is not whether the roughly 40-acre parcel can be divided into seven buildable lots, with 28 acres set aside as an agricultural reserve — that is a given — but what the final map should look like.

One board member, Bob Schaeffer, has championed the current layout. Another, Diana Weir, has repeatedly called it “bad planning.” Both are Wainscott residents.

Jeffrey Colle, whose firm specializes in developing large estates, is the developer. Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive officer of Dell Computers, is reportedly one of the owners of the property.

The problem is the placement of five buildable lots along the northwestern border of the property, on what has historically been open farmland. According to the current map, the lots would be accessed from a long drive off Wainscott Hollow Road, although Sayre’s Path, to the east, could provide an easier way in for at least three of them. Mary Jane Asato, representing the applicants, told the board early in the process that a Wainscott Hollow address is worth more on the open market than a Sayre’s Path one.

Mr. Schaeffer, who is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for cancer, has been unable to attend board meetings for the past two months, save for those involving Mr. Colle’s application, and has had to miss even those a few times recently. When he is absent, Ms. Asato has asked that the application be tabled, and the board has agreed.

Even with Mr. Schaeffer’s vote, reaching the magic number of three more votes required for approval of the proposed layout from the other six members is far from certain, although Reed Jones, the board’s chairman, who was reached by phone this week while on vacation, said that four had previously okayed it. He himself is opposed.

The Planning Department said this week that a final vote on the map as it now stands could come as soon as the board’s next meeting, on April 22.

The proposed subdivision in Amagansett, meanwhile, is in a more precarious position. The owner, Thomas Onisko, is facing two votes over the next few weeks; first from the town’s zoning board of appeals, and then from the planning board. A no vote from either will kill the application.

The zoning board must grant Mr. Onisko a variance to allow the creation of two undersized lots before the planning board can make a final decision on his proposal. The argument for splitting the one-acre-plus property in two is that there are already two houses on the land, though the code calls for only one in that residence zone. The two structures take access from opposite sides, one from Indian Wells and the other from Further Court. They are separated by a hedgerow.

As with the Wainscott Hollow proposal, financial gain is a motivation for the proposal. Britton Bistrian, representing Mr. Onisko, told the zoning board recently that the lot would realize more money as two parcels than as one, and that a prospective buyer would likely back out if the subdivision application were not approved.

After Mr. Onisko’s proposal cleared the SEQRA procedure on April 1, by a 4-2 vote, planning board members agreed to send their comments on it to the Z.B.A. But with members commenting that “this smacks of downzoning” (Mr. Jones) and “I haven’t liked it from the beginning” (Job Potter), its chances of success appear dubious.

 

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