Small Plan, Large Protest

Neighbors raised strong objections last week to Clare Tolchin's proposal to build a 640-square-foot, one-and-a-half-story house on an undersized (4,772 square feet) lot on Morrell Boulevard in East Hampton.

However, said Ms. Tolchin's attorney, Jeffrey Bragman of East Hampton, with the lot on the market for the past 10 years the neighbors should not be surprised at hearing plans were afoot to build there.

The irregularly shaped lot, in an area now zoned for one-acre (roughly 40,000 square feet) parcels, is additionally constrained because it has three front yards and because of the location of an easement, Mr. Bragman said at an East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals hearing Aug. 26.

Only The Basics

Ms. Tolchin's request for numerous variances - three front-yard setback variances of 8 feet, 25 feet, and another 25 feet; a 5.9-foot variance from the pyramid law, which regulates the height of buildings relative to their distance from property lines; a 1.2-foot rear-yard setback variance, a 2-percent variance from lot coverage restrictions, and a 4.3-foot scenic easement setback variance - are dictated by the property, not the proposed house, Mr. Bragman said.

"It is clearly impossible to build" without variances, the attorney told the board.

Besides the small house, he noted, Ms. Tolchin is asking only for the basics - a well, a sanitary system, and two parking spaces.

Neighbors Worried

But neighbors said any development on the small lot would ruin the wooded character of the area and devalue their properties.

An adjacent neighbor, Lynda Welch of New York City, said she built her East Hampton house with the intention of renting it in the summer to offset its cost. A house on Ms. Tolchin's lot, Ms. Welch said, would discourage prospective tenants and affect the resale of her house should she then be forced to put it on the market.

Ms. Welch told the board she had looked into buying the small lot when she bought her own property, but the owners at the time were not interested in selling. The price Ms. Tolchin paid for it in December 1993, $15,000, was not acceptable to her, Ms. Welch added.

Ms. Tolchin, Ms. Welch said, bought the property "with full knowledge" of its size and the town's restrictions. She called Ms. Tolchin's request "unreasonable."

"Woefully Inadequate"

Daniel O'Connor, speaking for himself and the owners of nine other nearby properties, raised similar concerns. "This lot is woefully inadequate for building purposes," he said. A house there would be an "eyesore," he added.

The board's vice chairman, Philip Gamble, suggested it might not be too costly for the neighbors as a group to buy the lot.

Both neighbors who spoke cited a recent New York State Court of Appeals decision that said an owner of a property restricted by wetlands could not claim an illegal taking of his property if he was denied a wetlands permit to build.

Mr. Bragman argued in return that a case involving wetlands dealt with a much more direct threat to the health and safety of the public and its natural resources, which he said was considerably different from the sort of variances Ms. Tolchin is seeking.

"Home Hamptons"

Cindy Fowx told the Zoning Board that the Town Planning Department had no objections to Ms. Tolchin's request because her lot is so highly constrained. She too said the case cited by the neighbors concerned natural resources, a different matter from the one in front of the board.

The town has known that this property existed and that, eventually, an application like Ms. Tolchin's would come up, Mr. Bragman argued last week. An application like this, to grant relief for lots that pre-exist current zoning, "is precisely why" the Zoning Board exists, he said.

This was a request to build a house for a young working family, Mr. Bragman told the board. "This is not an application about the chic Hamptons, glitzy Hamptons, Hollywood Hamptons, but about home Hamptons."

Ms. Tolchin's husband, John Jilnicki, is a deputy town attorney.