Z.B.A. Chairman Moving On

    At the conclusion of an otherwise uneventful meeting on Friday, Andrew Goldstein, chairman of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals, announced that the meeting would be his last.

    Reading from a prepared statement, Mr. Goldstein said, “It’s been my privilege to serve the people of East Hampton. Working on the zoning board, I’ve met and interacted with scores of people and each, to a person, makes East Hampton more exceptional.” He then thanked his colleagues on the board, Lysbeth Marigold, Larry Hillel, Craig Humphrey, John McGuirk, Chris Minardi, and Frank Newbold.

    Mr. Goldstein became an alternate member of the board in 1998 and chairman after 2000. He did not explain the reason for his departure at the meeting but told The Star on Monday that he had not been reappointed. “It wasn’t expected,” he said. 

    The East Hampton Village Board appoints the members of the zoning board, usually to five-year terms. It also chooses the chairman from among the members. At a particularly contentious zoning board hearing in September, Mr. Goldstein and David Eagan, an attorney for the Maidstone Club, had a heated argument with regard to the Z.B.A.’s asking the club to prepare a detailed environmental impact statement on the irrigation system overhaul it was proposing.

    As Mr. Eagan argued against the need for an environmental impact statement, Mr. Goldstein ordered him to sit down and said he would summon a security officer if Mr. Eagan did not. According to a report in The Star’s Sept. 20, 2012, edition, Mr. Goldstein had apologized to Mr. Eagan. However, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. subsequently said the village board was “sensitive to the events that occurred” and would “review and discuss all available options.”

    On Tuesday, the mayor said the statement Mr. Goldstein read at Friday’s meeting summarized “a mutual feeling.” He added, “We did have a conversation with Andy at the time among all the board members. At that time, the record was set straight. Andy is finishing his term, he’s opting to move on, and we support that.” The mayor said a new chairman was likely to be chosen early next month.

    “As my direction changes,” Mr. Goldstein concluded on Friday, “I’ll be leaving this board, but it is still in the capable hands of my gifted colleagues sitting here today, who will continue to lead in the service to East Hampton.”