Z.B.A.: No to Big House in the Dunes

A proposal to build a large beachfront house on Napeague, at 22 Shore Road just west of the White Sands resort, was rejected on Tuesday by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals.

No variances were needed for the project, only a special permit to build in the dunes. More than 14,000 square feet would have had to be cleared, which one board member, David Lys, called a “massive overdevelopment of the property.”

The board held a public hearing on the proposal on Aug. 4, during which its chairman, John Whelan, read its requests into the record. The application, he said, called for a “4,320-square-foot, two-story house, 900 square feet of porches, decking, and steps, a 596-square-foot swimming pool with spa and fence, and a 676-square-foot pervious driveway.”

“This is one of the last vacant oceanfront properties,” Mr. Lys said Tuesday.

Cate Rogers reminded board members that they had to adhere to town code standards when issuing a natural resources special permit. The code, she said, would preclude the proposed project, which was the focus of heated opposition from neighbors during the August hearing.

Ms. Rogers compared the house and pool, in relation to the lot, to putting “a size-seven foot into a size-five shoe.”

Damage to the dune was another concern. “The dry wells are set on a back sloping part of the dune. How do we know that it is not going to be exposed at some point?” asked Roy Dalene. The applicants, he said, wanted to “majorly cut into the dune.”

Lee White questioned the location of the septic system, noting that a variance would be needed from the Suffolk County Health Department if the zoning board were to approve it.

Mr. Whelan seized upon Ms. Rogers’s shoe metaphor, doing it one better: “It is a size-nine foot in a size-five shoe.”

All five board members voted to deny the application.