Panel Asks Designer to Cut an Expansion
Mark Schryver, an interior designer whose work has been featured in The New York Times among other publications, has “a keen understanding of space planning,” according to his website, but the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals has nevertheless asked that he reduce his request to exceed the allowable floor area of his house at 35 Sherrill Road by 19 percent.
In a continuation of the hearing on Mr. Schryver’s request for variances for greater floor area than allowed by code and an expanded porch within the front-yard setback, Jon Tarbet, an attorney, told the board that his client had acted on its request to reduce the size of the proposed second story.
Most of the other houses on the village portion of Sherrill Road, which straddles the town and village, either have a front porch or fall within 14 feet of the property line, similar to Mr. Schryver’s proposed expanded porch, Mr. Tarbet said. Most also have two stories, he added, and his client’s revised plan, which eliminates a proposed closet and bathroom, would result in the second story receding an additional five feet from the street. The reduction “didn’t add up to a lot of G.F.A.,” he said, using the panel’s shorthand for gross floor area, “but now the second story will start 20 feet behind the front porch. We worked very hard on trying to find ways to diminish the second story.”
A significant constraint, Mr. Tarbet said, is an existing stairway to the basement, above which Mr. Schryver has proposed a stairway to the second story. “But because it’s a relatively small house,” he said, “the landing area for it takes up a large portion of the second floor. . . . If you want to do a second story, this is pretty much the best we can do as far as cutting it back.” The alternative, he said, would be to demolish the 1,180-square-foot house, which was constructed in 1920, and rebuild.
The house is 18 feet high, said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, while the second story would make it 26. Mr. Schryver does not need a height variance, but Mr. Newbold said the plan “impacts the mass as seen from the street.”
“I think we’re setting a real big precedent — every other house could use this,” said Larry Hillel, of the board.
“The purpose of the G.F.A. law,” Mr. Newbold told Mr. Tarbet, “was because the sense of the planners was that on small village lots, houses were getting too big. We’ve all seen it on small village streets, where you drive down and say, ‘How did that happen?’ It was to reduce mass to keep the small houses from being enlarged too much.” While he acknowledged that Mr. Schryver was designing the proposed expansion “in the most sensitive way he can,” the board thinks “it’s still a little too large for the lot,” he said. “The question is, do we ask the applicant to have one last look at the plans to see if there’s anywhere that something could be squeezed out?” A majority of his colleagues said yes.
Mr. Schryver told the board that he designed the expansion with the character of the neighborhood in mind. “We’re really restricted in what we can do, given the house is only 28 feet wide,” he said, “and when you subtract a hallway and walls, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room. . . . I don’t think there’s anything we could do that would significantly reduce the G.F.A. and still allow us to have a second floor.” He agreed to try to further reduce the floor area, but asked for the board’s understanding. “I don’t think there’s any way to reduce this by 100 feet,” he said.
The hearing was left open and will be revisited at the board’s next meeting, Aug. 28.
The board announced one determination at its meeting. Eleanor Dejoux of 36 Apaquogue Road was granted area variances to permit the installation of a generator and to allow the continued maintenance of a garbage bin and window well, all within the required front-yard setback.
A determination on the application of Michael Ostin, who seeks to relocate and alter a dilapidated cottage at 189 Cove Hollow Road, was postponed because the board had not yet received a final survey and plans.