Second Appeal for Drew Lane Variances

Zoning code amendments adopted by the East Hampton Village Board in June, which added graduated formulas for lot coverage and maximum floor areas of structures for parcels larger than one acre, caused a number of construction plans to become noncompliant and led to the revocation of several building permits.

One such instance brought the president of Discovery Communications and his wife back to the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday, where their attorney once again sought variances to allow renovations and additions to their oceanfront house at 26 Drew Lane.

David and Pam Zaslav, who were granted the variances just prior to the amendments’ adoption, also plan to raze an existing pool house, install stormwater drainage structures and a new sanitary system, enlarge the driveway, and construct stairways, steppingstones, and a garage with a storage area and pool house on the 1.3-acre property.

The Zaslavs require additional variances to allow the floor area of their house to be 498 square feet larger than the code now allows and lot coverage to be 786 square feet greater. In addition, they would like to extend the cellar wall beyond the residence’s first floor, which was also prohibited by the amendments.

The Zaslavs, said Richard A. Hammer, their attorney, are “handicapped by the fact that we’re using that original house” rather than demolishing and reconstructing it. Great effort was made to best utilize its existing spaces, he said, but the original layout and design “don’t lend themselves well to just chopping off 498 square feet. . . . It would entail essentially starting from scratch after so much effort was expended.” Staircases, Mr. Hammer said, account for most of the excess lot coverage. “There’s not a lot of existing coverage we can remove from this site,” he told the board. “Once it was rendered nonconforming by the new local law, it became even more difficult.”

The applicants propose moving the house three to four feet away from the existing foundation, Mr. Hammer said, and adding a cellar that would extend 236 square feet outside the house’s footprint. The addition to the foundation is on the side away from the ocean, he said, and is intended to “create a softer approach” that mirrors the house’s existing features. “I don’t think this is a substantial request,” he said, given that most of the house is over a crawl space. 

Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, asked Mr. Hammer if the Zaslavs would reconsider the cellar addition, eliminating the need for a variance.

“We had never looked that closely at this area of the project because it was in the conforming building envelope,” Mr. Hammer said. Nonetheless, “We’re happy to go back and look at it.”

Addressing the board, Mr. Zaslav spoke of “a fair amount of anxiety” over the course of their application. “Focusing on that one area is fair,” he said of the cellar, “and we’ll work on that over the next two weeks and come back to you.”

The hearing was held open, to be revisited at the board’s meeting on Oct. 23.

The board also announced three determinations. Peter Robbins of 67 Lily Pond Lane was granted retroactive variances for an addition and interior alterations to a pre-existing nonconforming house and accessory structures within the front-yard setback, as well as a 296-square-foot stone walkway, a 28-square-foot stone pad, and air-conditioning condensers within the front property setback.

Rajesh Alva of 36 Hedges Lane was granted variances to allow a 6,204-square-foot house where the maximum permitted is 5,861, and to allow construction of new accessory buildings having 1,212 square feet of floor area, where 1,123 square feet is the maximum permitted. Mr. Alva had received a building permit in June only to have it revoked days later when the village adopted the graduated formulas for lots larger than one acre, rendering his proposed structures noncompliant. 

Michael and Barbara Bebon of 93 Main Street were granted variances to allow alterations to a pre-existing nonconforming garage just inside the required front-yard setback, and to allow the floor area of the house and garage, which are 14 feet apart and are to be joined with a 548-square-foot addition, to be 7,385 square feet, where the maximum allowable for a principal residence is 5,701 square feet. Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, voted against approving the application.

At the Sept. 25 hearing, Ms. Marigold had criticized both the proposed raising of the house’s roofline above two bedrooms and Mr. Bebon’s stated need for the alterations — to accommodate family members and guests. “The idea that we’ve been barraged lately with people who want their whole family to come and stay, therefore they have to increase bedrooms, gets me scared,” she said at the hearing. “The more people here, the more clogged the streets get.”

The Bebon variances were granted on the conditions that a shower on the three-car garage’s second story, which was converted to a recreation room without a building permit, is removed, and that the applicants file a covenant with Suffolk County stating that the garage will not be converted to habitable space.