While everyone seemed committed to reaching a workable solution, plans for a new outdoor pavilion behind the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, at the Woods Lane gateway to East Hampton Village, brought more than the usual amount of opposition at a public hearing on Friday before the village zoning board of appeals.
An 11-foot-wide, approximately 50-foot-long covered walkway would connect the Norman Jaffe-designed sanctuary to the proposed pavilion, which at its widest would be 65 feet, over pavement and surrounded by trees. Security planters along Woods Lane were also part of the application, but drew no real attention, as they would be invisible.
The proposed pavilion is large enough that it will require an area variance of 869 square feet, because the paving involved pushes it over the coverage amount allowed for the 3.3-acre lot. To lower the size of the variance, some existing patio areas are to be removed.
Neighbors were concerned mostly about sound and light emanating from the new structure, and also about increased attendance at the center, which they said could exacerbate parking and safety issues along Woods Lane during events and services.
The zoning board also received a number of letters in support of the pavilion, written by congregants of the synagogue.
The pavilion, said Alex Balsam, a lawyer speaking for the Jewish Center, was “a product of the pandemic”: The congregation needed an outdoor space to worship. He acknowledged the concern from neighbors, specifically those living on Borden Lane, directly north of the center. He said, however, that “this project is beautiful, and in a tranquil setting — the obvious concern here would be a loud wedding, a boozy celebration with a D.J. — that is not the goal here.”
“Outdoor worship is integral to reach our congregants,” Rabbi Josh Franklin told the board, noting that the Shabbat at the Beach Friday-night event is hugely popular. The pavilion, he said, could be used for a Passover Seder or an occasional Shabbat dinner, or summer lunch. He pushed back on the idea that it would provide space for noisy events.
“We’re a small seasonal community,” he said. “We’re not a wedding factory or a bar mitzvah factory.” He typically officiates at two weddings per year, he said, and a handful of bar mitzvahs. “We hope to have outdoor services during the season, in place of our sanctuary. It will radically enhance the spirituality of our community.”
During the High Holy Days, he said, up to 1,000 people used to attend services, but that number has been reduced 20 to 30 percent, “given the accessibility of streaming.” In the off-season, he said only 20 to 50 attend Friday-evening services.
“I was a colleague of Norman Jaffe,” said Richard Dattner, whose firm Dattner Architects, designed the proposed pavilion. The Jaffe-designed sanctuary, he said, “is one of the most beautiful places to worship, modern places of worship, not only a synagogue but of any denomination. The synagogue is named Gates of the Grove because part of Norman’s vision was to create, behind the synagogue, a grove of beautiful trees. I feel we’re continuing this beautiful tradition. My task was to create an outdoor pavilion to echo the beauty of the sanctuary.”
The pavilion would be built entirely from wood, he said, with construction taking place off-site. Answering the neighbors’ concerns about lighting, he said that as a dark-sky advocate, “We’re not looking for a brilliant over-lit space,” just for enough light so people can read their prayer books. “I don’t think anybody will see any light from this structure,” Mr. Dattner told the board. In fact, he promised that the center would amend its application to remove any noncompliant uplighting from the property and replace it all with dark-sky-compliant lights.
Mike Brody, president of Crescendo Designs, an installer of “high-end home technology,” addressed neighbors’ concerns about the 17 speakers proposed for the pavilion. “The main objective was to not disturb neighbors — to provide uniform sound coverage — and to make things look nice,” he said. The reason for having “so many speakers,” he said, was that more points of sound allow for lower volume from each speaker.
He went through a detailed explanation to describe how distance affects sound. When the distance from the speaker is doubled, he said, there’s a drop of six decibels. Roughly every foot from the speaker corresponds to a one-decibel drop in sound. So, for example, if one were 120 feet from an 80-decibel sound, “You just wouldn’t hear it.”
Neighbors were skeptical, however. Deborah Buell spoke at the meeting, submitted a letter, and attached a report from SoundSense, an acoustic consulting firm. SoundSense hedged, saying that an impact from the pavilion was possible, but that depending on technology and mitigation efforts, it “may not have a negative noise impact.”
Ms. Buell seemed cautiously optimistic after hearing Mr. Brody’s presentation. She seemed miffed, though, that it had taken so long for the Jewish Center to provide more information about the speakers, given the concerns of neighbors, but acknowledged “great progress” had been made and that she wanted “to be friendly with my neighbors” and get “to a good place.”
Robert Petrozzo, who, with his wife, MaryAnne, has lived for 20 years adjacent to the land owned by the center, said they can already hear its events, and that Mr. Brody’s presentation aside, “Common sense says it’s going to be louder than it was with no speakers.” He was more concerned, however, about safety issues and overflow parking along Woods Lane, which, he said, had blocked his driveway in the past. He said the rabbi had never addressed his concerns.
James McMullan, vice chairman of the Z.B.A., speaking in the absence of its chairman, John McGuirk, said the hearing would be held open until the board meets again in July, so neighbors and board members could absorb all the new information the center has provided.
