A Move ‘Toward the Ocean’

With David Zaslav, the president of Discovery Communications, and his wife, Pam, present, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals continued a hearing on the couple’s application to make several changes to their property at 26 Drew Lane.

The applicants sought additions and renovations to their house, as well as the demolition of an existing swimming pool and pool house and construction of a new swimming pool and accessory building to be used as a garage, storage area, and pool house. They also seek to install a new sanitary system, drainage structures, stairways, and landscaping, and to expand a driveway. The property, formerly owned by Jerry Della Femina, the advertising executive, is entirely seaward of the coastal erosion hazard line, which triggers both Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations and greater scrutiny from the board.

Richard A. Hammer, the Zaslavs’ attorney, told the board that the couple had abandoned the plan for a new swimming pool and now propose to eliminate several paving stones. Eliminating the expanded swimming pool, he said, would reduce the fill to be removed from the site by 132 cubic yards, approximately 22 percent of the original estimate. The new garage/pool house would be constructed in a location conforming to the dune crest setback, on the landward side of the swimming pool. “We think this minimizes disturbance of the site,” Mr. Hammer said.

Additions to the residence would be modest, Mr. Hammer said, including first-floor additions he characterized as “fill-ins of unusual foundation features.” But when he added that his clients were also “trying to reconfigure” existing bay windows, Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, spoke up.

“You say in your presentation that there’s no proposed excavation of the dune crest,” he said, but “the existing bay windows are 11 feet wide, and according to your plan, you’re proposing two new bay windows on the oceanfront side, each 17 feet wide and 3 feet deep.”

“Also,” Mr. Newbold said, “there seems to be, from the second story, a splay-out of the roof,” and six columns along the ocean side that are “even more forward to the ocean than the current bay windows.” The board and its environmental consultant, Rob Herrmann of En-Consultants, would be concerned that, “Foot by foot, it seems to be getting closer to the ocean.”

The columns could be abandoned in favor of brackets that would not disturb the ground, Mr. Hammer said.

Mr. Herrmann would have an opinion about that, Mr. Newbold said, “but I wanted to be clear that it is expanding out toward the ocean. Modestly, but it is expanding out.” The hearing would remain open, he said, pending Mr. Herrmann’s further review. It will be revisited at the board’s meeting on Friday, May 8.

The board announced several determinations. The Ayer family of 81 Ocean Avenue was granted a freshwater wetlands permit and setback variances to allow the maintenance of an existing patio with a built-in barbecue, slate walkways, and an air-conditioning unit, as well as a proposed fence, all within wetlands or property-line setbacks. The permit and variances were granted on the condition that a brick wall at one end of the patio be removed and the patio reduced so that the wetlands setback is consistent with wetlands-setback relief granted in 2009.

The premises, including an adjacent parcel, are for sale. The Ayers’ attorney, William J. Fleming, had previously characterized the application as an effort to “clean up the residence” for the sale, the Ayers having been misinformed by a contractor as to the necessity of a building permit for the patio. Wary of setting precedent, the board insisted that the patio be reduced and the brick wall removed.

Howard and Sherri Lippman of 112 Georgica Close Road were granted a freshwater wetlands permit and area variance to allow the installation of a generator within property-line and wetlands setbacks on the conditions that landscaping be installed around the generator, that it include sound-attenuating features, and that it is not used except in power outages and during a weekly test of 20 minutes, to be performed midweek.

And Vivek Nasta and Roshini Rajapaksa of 3 Georgica Road were given a variance to allow the maintenance of a bluestone patio in place of a pre-existing, nonconforming wooden deck located within the side property line.