Not a single person criticized Hero Beach’s plan to convert a basement room to a kitchen at a July 13 East Hampton Planning Board public hearing. Instead, many spoke in favor of the Montauk resort’s application.
“We really just want the ability to say to our guests, they don’t have to leave the property to eat,” said Leland Hensch, a principal of the hotel.
Hero Beach, which sports the iconic winking smiley face on its facade, is the first commercial property drivers see as they’re headed into Montauk. Since 2017 it has been attempting to provide on-premises food service. On May 18, the planning board finally deemed the application ready for a public hearing.
In addition to the basement kitchen, Hero Beach will build a low-nitrogen wastewater system on the site, along with a new second-story deck and an enlarged deck on the first story.
Susan Ryan of East Hampton said it was hard for her to travel during the summer because of her job, and Hero Beach was a great place to take her family. She was married there “on a short timeline,” she said, management always being accommodating. Having a food option at the hotel would make it even better, she said, since leaving the grounds with a small child can be a challenge.
Danielle Beckmann, a Montauk resident since 1981, said she has watched the property change over the years. “When I look at the plans and see all that’s going to be fixed, to me that’s a win-win situation,” she said. The owners “spend an awful lot of money improving the visuals — in the spring there are daffodils everywhere, and it’s just stunning, and it makes everyone smile, just like the smiley face on the motel.”
A hostess at the resort, Sejal Kukadia, said guests ask every day if there’s food offered.
“I’m not usually on the pro-development side of the table,” said Thomas Muse, but for him, the low-nitrogen sanitary system makes the project worthwhile. East Hampton Town has a “nitrogen bomb” underground that’s “waiting to blow up,” he said. Now the town has “an opportunity to give a bit to Hero, and we get a big win for groundwater protection.”
If there was any shadow on the smiley face sun, it came in a letter from Tiffany Scarlato, a land-use lawyer representing the hotel. Ms. Scarlato wrote that “As a result of the startlingly extensive review time, targeted code changes, and expense involved in this proposal, the application has been significantly scaled back to involve only the construction of a kitchen to service hotel guests. . . . With respect to the appeal to the Applicant that they restrict food service further to ‘overnight guests,’ that request is not acceptable.” (As of now, a restricted covenant on the application says simply that food will be served to “guests of the hotel.”)
The public-comment period ended yesterday. The planning board is expected to wrap up the matter with another discussion at its meeting on Wednesday, and will most likely take a vote during its Aug. 10 meeting.
