The East Hampton Town Board's plan to begin implementing recommendations from the Wainscott hamlet study, adopted and incorporated into the comprehensive plan last year, got off to a bumpy start with last Thursday's public hearing on a proposed amendment to the zoning code that would reclassify a stretch of Montauk Highway in the commercial district from central business to a single-family residence designation with limited business overlay.
The proposed change would affect six contiguous properties from 372 Montauk Highway, just west of the HomeGoods store, to 382, 384, and 386 Montauk Highway, collectively making up the Wainscott Professional Center. It drew vehement pushback from owners of those properties.
Nina Bataller owns 372 and 374 Montauk Highway, by far the smallest of the six parcels. On the former is her framing shop, a two-story building with a storage building behind it. On the latter is her house. "I strongly object to the extremely restrictive zoning classification," she said of the proposal. Her residential property is less than 100 by 100 feet, she said, and is the only one of the six parcels that is used solely as a residence. The limited business overlay designation, she said, would reduce allowable lot coverage from 80 percent to 50 percent. On her residential property, that would mean a nearly 40-percent reduction, from 7,700 square feet to 4,821 square feet. That, she said, "makes it almost impossible to do anything of any size. . . . On a really small property, that's a big deal."
Studies conducted of each of the town's hamlets outline a vision for centers in Wainscott, Springs, East Hampton (outside of the village), Amagansett, and Montauk and their potential redevelopment, which can be shaped through future policy, and legislative and preservation efforts. In Wainscott, the hamlet study sought to address a lack of pedestrian connectivity and outdoor space, and haphazard development of its commercial district having brought a strip-mall look and feel, with many curb cuts and uncoordinated parking lots.
The limited business overlay district designation was created decades ago "to prevent the highway sprawl that's so common along major roadways elsewhere," said JoAnne Pahwul, who until her retirement on Friday was the town's planning director. "The idea was to combine businesses, commercial centers, keeping more rural character between the commercial centers while still allowing for low-intensity businesses that could utilize the existing residences and be designed to maintain a residential character."
Ms. Bataller is surrounded by commercial properties on three sides, "and am facing the busiest road in the Hamptons. That's not going to change with this new proposed zoning in any way." The proposed amendment's intent — to prevent intensification of development — may be noble, she said. "However, I find it impossible to understand how any rational person could think that rezoning my 768-square-foot house on a less than 100-by-100-foot property would be more of a benefit to the town than a devastating detriment to me. . . . How can I do anything on that tiny little lot that's going to be responsible for changing the character or traffic flow in Wainscott?"
Rick Whalen, an attorney representing Ms. Bataller, also called into the virtual meeting, calling the proposed rezoning of his client's properties unfair, unreasonable, and discriminatory.
Pat Trunzo, representing the Wainscott Professional Center, also criticized the proposed amendment. The professional center's ownership was not properly noticed, he said, and the owner of one parcel was misidentified in the public notice.
These defects are fatal flaws in the mandatory due process," he said, and the board cannot act before correcting them. Further, a parcel adjacent to 372 Montauk Highway is omitted from the proposal, contrary to the hamlet study's recommendation. That omission is arbitrary and constitutes disparate treatment, he said.
While he agrees with many of the hamlet study's objectives, the rezoning proposed would be a perverse use of it, he said, repeating some of Ms. Bataller's complaints about its impact. The board, in the wake of the hamlet study's adoption, "should not feel compelled to do something just for the sake of appearances." Both he and Ms. Bataller suggested a rezoning to neighborhood business district instead.
The callers' comments will be taken into consideration, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said, and the hearing was closed.
