Village Board Okays Code Changes
The East Hampton Village Board closed out the fiscal year last Thursday, adopting six code amendments, accepting several bids, and approving employment agreements. Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, presided in the absence of Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.
No one commented on the proposed amendments, which were quickly adopted. In what Ms. Borsack called “a buttressing of existing provisions,” the board amended the zoning code to clarify that only one single-family residence is permitted on a lot. A number of village residents have sought to legalize accessory buildings that do not conform to the code; a provision allowing secondary dwellings on some large parcels was rescinded last year.
Another amendment to the village code prohibits feeding ducks, geese, swans, and other wildfowl within 200 feet of the shorelines of Georgica and Hook Ponds. Violators will be subject to fines of up to $250 or imprisonment of up to 15 days, or both. Bread and other foods given to wildfowl is blamed for excess nitrogen, which is detrimental to the health of the waterways. Uneaten bread also leads to algae growth that threatens fish and wildlife, and it attracts rats, mice, and insects.
Four of the amendments were related to stormwater management and erosion and sediment control. Stormwater, which almost invariably contains pollutants, flows into waterways, wetlands, and groundwater. One of the four amendments institutes a $500 application fee plus a review fee of 10 cents per square foot of site disturbance for any project regulated by that chapter of the code. The others will require applicants for freshwater wetlands or coastal erosion management permits to include a storm-water pollution prevention plan.
The employment agreements approved were with Ken Collum and Dan Reichl, who are code enforcement officers, Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, Robert Hefner, the director of historic services, Chief Gerard Larsen and Capt. Michael Tracey of the Police Department, and Rebecca Molinaro, the village administrator.
The board also announced public hearings on code amendments scheduled for its Friday, Aug. 15, meeting. One would prohibit parking on the north side of Newtown Lane from the intersection of Conklin Terrace westerly for a distance of 20 feet. Another would limit parking between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. to two hours on the north side of Newtown Lane between Sherrill Road and Conklin Terrace, and from the point 20 feet west of Conklin Terrace westerly for a distance of 300 feet.
A third proposed amendment applies to a section of the code devoted to the preservation of dunes. It would exempt property owners who add beach-compatible sand, beach grass, or elevated walkways for pedestrian use to the dunes from the existing provisions, which now prohibit digging, dredging, excavation, or depositing material in the area within 150 feet of the southerly edge of the beach grass on the ocean beach, clearing or damaging vegetation, or replacing it with lawn, sod, or turf, as well as building or placing any structure within dune setbacks.