Pump Plan Suit Looms

Neighbors of the Maidstone Club, which received permits and variances from the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals in July to expand and upgrade its golf course’s irrigation system, have a lawsuit pending in State Supreme Court seeking to have the board require the club to take additional steps to mitigate noise from a pump house that is part of the project.

Theodore Sklar, an attorney representing Mort and Carole Olshan, whose property on Further Lane abuts the east edge of the course, appealed to the board on Friday to take action to avoid the suit. The Olshans, he said, would like the pump house buried underground.

Public hearings on the project began in 2012, and the board had accepted a final environmental impact statement that includes revised plans for the pump house, such as lowering its elevation from what was first proposed, partially burying or bunkering it on three sides, limiting access to one door, and installing a system that would disable the pumps if a door were left open.

This was inadequate, Mr. Sklar said. Failure to submit an alternative plan showing a pump house below grade and data indicating how much that would eliminate or attenuate noise, he said, “is a fatal flaw in the application.” At a minimum, Mr. Sklar said, “we ask that this be delayed until the court rules.”

 David Eagan, an attorney representing the Maidstone Club who also was at the meeting, called the legal proceeding “a desperate attempt to delay things when the process is about to be concluded.” The matter, he said, “will play out in the proper forum,” referring to State Supreme Court in Riverhead.

The club, said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, had agreed to virtually every request from the board. Further, he said, a certificate of occupancy would not be issued until it was demonstrated that no noise will affect the 207-acre club’s neighbors. “The sense of the board is that we’re satisfied with the proposed pump house plans,” he said.

Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, said the pending lawsuit was “like being in the hot seat. I want to please the neighbors, but I think we looked at everything very thoroughly.”

Linda Riley, the village attorney, said she would prepare a resolution stating that all the board’s conditions had beenmet that could be approved at the board’s next meeting, on Oct. 24. But Mr. Eagan objected. “We submitted a set of plans that reflected the design parameters that were reflected in your approval,” he said. “All we need is a recognition that that occurred. I don’t think it’s reasonable to wait two weeks for that.”

Nevertheless, the club will have to wait. “We’ve never done a resolution on the spot,” Mr. Newbold said. “We have spent two-and-a-half years to get to this point and want to be very meticulous and precise.”

Restaurant Conversion

In another matter discussed by the board on Friday, it appeared that Michael Derrig’s Sag Harbor landscaping company, Landscape Details, is likely to be the next occupant of 103 Montauk Highway. That was the conclusion after the board closed a hearing on an application from Demar Holdings, the property’s owners, seeking permission to convert a pre-existing restaurant to commercial use. “It’s a quality business, and I’m all for it,” said Larry Hillel, a board member, whose statement was echoed by some of his colleagues.

Eight neighbors of the property, which had sparked numerous noise complaints when restaurants operated there, had objected to the conversion. They argued that the restaurant had been abandoned for more than a year and said the site should revert to residential use. However, attorneys for Demar Holdings and Mr. Derrig countered that even though the restaurant had ceased to operate, the business itself continued to exist and therefore the use was not abandoned.

The board agreed with the applicant, saying no official determination of abandonment had been made and that there had been “circumstances beyond the control of the owner,” including litigation with the building’s last tenant. With the board satisfied that the property did not have to revert to residential use, it considered such matters as parking, two cottages on the property, and the potential closing of a driveway to Cove Hollow Road.

Jon Tarbet, an attorney representing Mr. Derrig, submitted a covenant for the board’s consideration under which the business could plan for some of the parking spaces required by the village code, with the obligation to create them on instruction by the building inspector.

Neighbors had urged that the Cove Hollow Road exit be closed, said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman. “I think their concern is, they want to maintain the residential feeling of the neighborhood,” he said, asking if there were a “compelling argument” to keep that driveway open.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to close it off and have it landscaped?” Lys Marigold, the vice chairwoman, asked.

Although, according to Mr. Tarbet, the driveway’s use would be far less intensive under the parcel’s use as an office and showroom for Landscape Details, Ken Collum, a building inspector and code enforcement officer, told the board that it would be advantageous that the Cove Hollow driveway as well as the two entrances on Montauk Highway remain open for emergency access.

The village’s design review board has also reviewed the application at a preliminary meeting. That board’s deliberations are now on hold pending the expected approval by the zoning board. The D.R.B. would then conduct final site plan review and make recommendations with regard to parking, lighting, and landscaping, among other factors.

As for the cottages on the property, Mr. Newbold asked Mr. Tarbet if they were to be staff quarters or rented to third parties. The former would be ideal, Mr. Tarbet said, but a determination has not yet been made.