Piggybacking on a law passed in the spring, the East Hampton Village Board passed another on Friday prohibiting nightclubs, “or similar entertainment establishments,” in the historic preservation district. In so doing, the board updated the village’s zoning code to place nightclubs alongside “garbage disposal plants and junkyards” as the only specific business enterprises outlawed anywhere in the village.
The meeting was short despite five public hearings, two on the nightclub legislation (both closed), two on ending a pickleball-court moratorium (kept open), and another on new legislation that will change the village’s noise code (also kept open).
The only one that received any comment was the noise legislation, about which just a single resident spoke out. Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, in an email, cited a statistic that 92 percent of homes in the village are not primary residences, which could, at least in part, explain the lack of participation.
The nightclub legislation received unanimous support from the board. In the spring, members passed an ordinance limiting operating hours in the historic district, preventing drinking and dining past 11 p.m. That legislation was widely viewed as targeting Zero Bond, a private-membership eating club known for keeping late hours, which was seeking to open at the Hedges Inn.
However, while that law included the word “nightclub,” it didn’t adequately define Zero Bond. The legislation passed last week tightens the code by including a new definition for a “late-night restaurant club.” It is now defined as “a membership or subscription-based social, dining, and beverage venue, establishment, or association whose membership pays for said membership by dues, subscription, donation or a membership fee.”
While Zero Bond never opened at the Hedges Inn this summer, its owner, Scott Sartiano, did open an outpost of his Italian restaurant Sartiano’s there. Later, in a New York Post article, he accused village police of circling the establishment, essentially fishing for violations — highlighting his uneasy relationship with village officials. Police denied the accusation, but at summer’s end the media-shy owner of the Hedges, John Cumming, chose not to extend Mr. Sartiano’s lease.
No matter how tight the local legislation, it may be pre-empted by the New York State Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, which is administered by the State Liquor Authority. The state, in theory, could tell the village it has no power to tell any establishment that sells alcohol when it must close. That possibility was the main driver behind a letter the village sent to the East Hampton Town Board last month, asking to use its portion of the town’s community preservation fund, at present $22.4 million, to purchase its historic inns outright, as they become available.
Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez did not immediately embrace the idea, asking for more information.
Less controversial was the law lifting the village’s moratorium on pickleball court construction and tennis court conversion, described by Mr. Baladron as a “nothingburger,” due mainly to lack of demand. (Building Inspector Tom Preiato had found only a dozen or so pickleball courts on residential lots.)
The village instituted the moratorium about a year ago and extended it for six months in June. In the meantime, it has made it harder to convert old tennis courts to pickleball courts. The chief barrier is lot size, which must be at least 60,000 square feet (just under 1.5 acres). Additionally, pickleball courts must be submerged four feet below the “lowest adjacent natural grade” and surrounded on three sides by a six-foot, solid, sound-attenuation wall.
Sound is at the heart of proposed changes to the “prohibited noises” section of the code. Previously, prohibited noises were disallowed from May 15 to Sept. 15. The proposed new legislation extends the time throughout the year, from Jan. 1 through May 14, and again from Sept. 16 to Dec. 31.
Year round, no construction or landscaping can begin in the village before 8 a.m. or extend past 6 p.m. No work at all is allowed at any time on Sundays or federal holidays; during the summer, the no-work rule applies to Saturdays as well. Also during the summer, gas-powered leaf blowers are banned entirely.
In the off-season, both construction and landscaping are allowed on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
“Noise is in the ear of the beholder,” said David Ganz, a village resident, who questioned the need to update the noise laws. “I’m a Jew. I cut my grass on Sunday. This would not allow me to cut my grass on Sunday.” Mr. Ganz said he was visited by the police on Sunday Nov. 10, as he was installing a gate on a fence, and told he was violating the no-work-on Sundays law. When he pointed out to the officer that the code only applies until Sept. 15, he was simply told to keep the noise down, he reported.
“But I wasn’t making any noise,” he said. The officers wouldn’t tell him who had complained, he added, and the police report listed the caller as “anonymous.”
Mr. Ganz is locked right now in litigation with the village over the loss of his coveted Main Beach Lot 1 pass, which was rescinded after he was accused of driving erratically and damaging village property in June. He has vehemently denied the charges.
