The East Hampton Village Board received an update on Friday on an Osborne Lane parking lot leased by Tesla and talked about plans for screening, lighting, and parking enforcement there.
Kelly Kalbacher of the Raynor Group, a civil engineering firm in Water Mill, said that in addition to screening, a curb cut will be removed on Osborne Lane, an island will be removed from the lot, a drive lane will connect the Building Department lot and the Tesla lot, and two new parking spaces will be created. Since one curb cut will be closed, the curb cut closer to Newtown Lane will get a little wider, since it will have more use.
Osmanthus, a nonnative shrub, will be planted to screen the lot.
“Are we going to be getting a vegetation plan for this, beyond those four bushes that Tesla planted?” asked Arthur (Tiger) Graham, a village trustee. He also asked if the planting plan would go through the village’s Design Review Board.
“I do not believe so,” said Mr. Kalbacher.
“Are they going to get it?” asked Mr. Graham.
“We can provide that, yes,” said Mr. Kalbacher.
Mr. Graham also asked if parking would be enforced by the village, or Tesla.
Mayor Jerry Larsen said the village would be enforcing the parking. “You can park in a Tesla spot, even if you’re not charging.”
“It might be a good idea to have signs that indicate that,” said Rose Brown, another trustee. Now, she said, it looks as if only electric vehicles can park in those spots. “I’m fine with this site plan, but I agree with Tiger that it should go to the D.R.B. as that’s within their purview as far as screening and lighting . . . any site plan review actually,” she said.
“A municipal project is subject only to state code requirements, not local zoning,” said Vincent Messina, the village attorney. It’s an option for the board to send it to the D.R.B., but is not required.
“I understand that,” Ms. Brown said, adding that she didn’t think it was a good idea to usurp a regulatory board that was developed for just this purpose. “If this had gone to the D.R.B. a couple of months prior,” she said, “maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation of trying to mitigate some of the issue that we have with those charging stations and the lighting and the lack of screening,” she said. Their input was worthwhile, she said.
Asked by Mr. Graham if the chargers would be illuminated, the mayor said, “We’ll talk to Tesla about that.” Tesla provided a plan, he said, but he didn’t think it was enough after seeing the charging stations. “There’s always been a plan to do something, we’ve just now memorialized it into an actual plan.”
Mr. Larsen complained about the $1.1 million the village had spent on the lot, and said it was very underutilized. He said the neighbors were upset about the additional curb cut and that the site plan addresses that situation. The previous village board did nothing to address residents’ concerns, he said, incorrectly asserting that Ms. Brown had been on the board when the lot had been purchased. She was not.
“Gas vehicles are going away,” Mayor Larsen said. While he agreed that the Tesla pumps are not attractive, he said the location of the lot goes along with his agenda of promoting businesses in the downtown.
“I’m happy to see there will be screening,” Ms. Brown said, because the charging stations, if illuminated, will give off a lot of light, which could be a problem for the neighbors.
“Who is paying for this? Are we getting money from Tesla?” asked Mr. Graham.
“I think we’re working on that,” said Mr. Larsen.
Tesla has a 15-year lease to the property, with an option to renew for five more years.
Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, explained that originally Tesla said it would be done with the lot this spring, but was finished early last fall, and that’s why it sat there, “until we were able to put plantings in.”
Ms. Brown also mentioned that Tesla was supposed to provide a fence between the middle school and the lot, but that wasn’t yet done. “There’s the transformer right there on the line.”
“We should be clear that, even if a child was to get into the parking lot, they can’t get access to the transformer,” Mr. Larsen said. “We just don’t want to frighten people.”
At the close of the discussion it was not clear whether the design review board would get a look at the plans for the lot.
