Montauk on Their Minds

Montauk was the focus at the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Tuesday when members voted to hold a second public hearing on an application for construction on the oceanfront at Ditch Plain and approved an application from National Grid for work at its substation on Industrial Road.

The Ditch Plain application is from the owner of Unit 22 at the Montauk Shores Condominium, Mike Lukacs. The first hearing, on June 16, was on his request to build a one-story structure near the dune and for variances for setbacks from the bluff crest. The application was similar to others from oceanfront owners in the trailer park, seeking larger, modern structures on small pieces of land. Mr. Lukacs had already received approval from the condominium’s board.

At the time, the condominium board failed to note, and the Planning Department failed to elaborate upon, the fact that the property is in a designated Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone. It was only after the June 16 hearing that the Z.B.A. began asking about the FEMA requirements. The answer, it turned out, was that living spaces in that flood zone had to be elevated 22 feet.

Britton Bistrian of Land Use Solutions, Mr. Lukacs’s representative, subsequently presented the board with a revised proposal. The new residence  was placed on pilings, to be enclosed with a wall. The result, in appearance, would be a two-story building, one that would tower over the other residences by the ocean. That was too great a change for Z.B.A. members. “Imagine how the neighbors will feel,” Don Cirillo asked.

A second potential problem with the revised plan was pointed out by John Whelan, the Z.B.A. chairman. Under FEMA rules, Mr. Whelan said, walls around pilings must be “breakaway” walls, to allow water to flow through.

Beth Baldwin, the board’s lawyer, pointed out an irony now facing the board, the applicant, and the trailer park: “They are complying with the law,” she said about the applicant’s revised plan. “By not complying with the law they would be in conformance with the rest of the structures.” The board voted 5-to-0 to essentially start over with the hearing process.

While a few residents in the park had expressed opposition to the original proposal, the Surfrider Foundation and the Ditch Plains Association may be heard from in opposition at the new, not-yet-scheduled hearing since these organizations were strongly opposed to a since-abandoned plan to build a two-story building on the old East Deck site, just west of the park.

In the other Montauk matter, the Z.B.A. approved National Grid’s application to remove obsolete underground fuel storage tanks as well as other outdated equipment from the electrical substation, which is on Fort Pond.

The board had asked Laurie Wiltshire of Land Planning Services to provide data via core samples taken at the site, to ensure that nothing toxic was in the ground there. The data she provided indicated it was safe to proceed. However, the board stipulated in approving the project that a series of safety measures was to be taken in case any toxins were found during excavation.