Questions on Drew Lane Pool, Pilings

An attorney representing David and Pam Zaslav was back before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday with revised plans for a project at 26 Drew Lane, which is on the oceanfront and requires a coastal erosion permit and variances. Mr. Zaslav is the president of Discovery Communications.

The applicants want to put in a new swimming pool and make additions and renovations to an existing house. The process includes demolishing an existing swimming pool and pool house and constructing a new building as a garage, storage area, and pool house. They also plan a new sanitary system, an expanded driveway, new drainage structures, two stairways, and landscaping. 

The property, formerly owned by Jerry Della Femina, the advertising executive, is entirely seaward of the coastal erosion hazard line, which triggers Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations. Richard A. Hammer, the attorney, told the board the project would comply with them.

The project, he said, would cost less than 50 percent of what it would cost now to build the house, making the house legally pre-existing and nonconforming. As such, he said, only permits and variances are required. Were that not the case, the entire house would have to be made FEMA-compliant, which means constructed on pilings with a breakaway foundation wall, among other things.

Board members scrutinized the proposed swimming pool, which would be significantly larger than the existing one. To be FEMA-compliant, Frank Newbold, the chairman, said, “You have to have 40 pilings driven into the primary dune, and for the proposed garage/pool house, you have to have 15 pilings driven into the primary dune. This,” he said, “does not excite us.”

That is one of the more problematic aspects of the project, Mr. Hammer conceded. But Mr. Zaslav, he said, is concerned that the existing pool is shallow. “It looks inviting, but my client had a family friend who was injured in one of those dive-in pool accidents.” He said that Lee Weishar, a senior scientist and coastal engineer at the Woods Hole Group, a Massachusetts environmental firm, had concluded that the construction could be accomplished without undue impact on the environment.

Mr. Newbold was skeptical. He said the board would refer the plans to Rob Herrmann, a coastal management specialist at En-Consultants, for review. Mr. Hammer said that during construction all excavation equipment would be landward of the improvements, but he agreed to work with Mr. Herrmann to refine construction procedures if necessary.

A net of 179 cubic yards of fill would be removed from the site, Mr. Hammer said, calling it “a fairly reasonable amount.” Mr. Newbold took exception to the word “fill.” “You’re going to be taking away truckloads of the dune,” he said. Mr. Hammer countered that “a lot of this site is not natural excavation material. It was brought in when they built the original house.”

Christopher Minardi, of the Z.B.A., asked Mr. Hammer how much material would come out of the swimming pool area. “It looks like you’re doubling the size of the pool, at least,” he said, “so I’d like to know how much that’s projected to be.” The hearing will continue at the board’s Feb. 27 meeting.

The board also announced four decisions. Carla Josephson of 144 Newtown Lane was granted variances for the conversion of a legally pre-existing 383-square-foot garage into a combination pool house, storage area, and equipment room. The variances were necessary because the garage extends over the rear lot line and is only one foot east of the westerly side yard line, where the required rear and side-yard setback is 22 feet. A neighbor had expressed support at the board’s Jan. 9 meeting.

David Mack, a New York City-based real estate developer who owns three adjacent properties, was granted a variance to allow continued maintenance of a generator on an otherwise vacant lot at 231 Georgica Road. Mark Schryver of 35 Sherrill Road was granted variances for the continued maintenance of slate pavers as close as 21 feet from the front property line, where a 25-foot setback is required, and as close as 3.5 feet from the side property line, where the required side-yard setback is 15 feet. And Joel Isaacs of 19 Egypt Lane was granted variance relief to allow the construction of a roof porch on a detached garage.