It took more than two minutes on Dec. 17 for Roy Dalene, the recently reappointed chairman of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, to read out the number of variances that the 108-year-old Devon Yacht Club requires for its proposed redevelopment. It was Devon’s second time before the zoning board, after the planning board, in an unusual request, asked the Z.B.A. for its preliminary comments.
Because Devon’s plan needs so many variances, the planning board, aiming to save time and possibly a lot of money, hopes the zoning board might offer an informal opinion that could guide them through the application, so that the club would not go through a yearslong process only to have the necessary variances refused.
However, at least one more Z.B.A. meeting will be necessary. Staff members of the town’s Planning Department did not have enough time to prepare a response to Devon’s presentation, and so the board heard only from the yacht club. In fact, the Z.B.A. was hearing an incomplete application, which has yet to undergo analysis by state environmentalists under SEQRA, the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
After Devon’s first go-round before the Z.B.A., in late November, questions remained. The land planner Richard Warren of InterScience, who is in charge of the project, was back last month to address those concerns, and likened the project to a “choreographed dance.” (Anthony Pasca, an attorney speaking for Devon, compared it to a jigsaw puzzle, complete with borders and a picture.) Either way, the application is one of the largest and most complicated ever proposed in East Hampton.
Mr. Warren put before the Z.B.A. an updated regrading plan requiring 674 fewer cubic yards of fill than originally requested (achieved, in part, by lowering eight tennis courts by six inches each) and moving the proposed sanitary system a tiny bit farther from wetlands. The main clubhouse would be built on pilings and years from now could be lifted if necessary. An independent analysis has concluded the design would be sufficient for 46 years, Mr. Warren said.
Mr. Pasca grouped the many variances requested into three categories of setbacks: From dune crests, from wetlands, and from Abram’s Landing Road. The dune crest setbacks are to the north. To maximize them, he said, buildings need to be pushed south, colliding with freshwater-wetland setbacks. To Abram’s Landing Road on the west, setbacks need to be pushed east. However, on the east side of the property is a boat basin, “a physical barrier that no one is talking about moving. A very complex puzzle has to fit within those framed parameters.”
“It would be an impossible task,” said Mr. Pasca, “to fit all the elements of the current club into the setbacks without relief.”
The boat basin, the tennis courts, the clubhouse, and staff housing are the main pieces of the puzzle. Apart from current town zoning requirements, changes in federal law made over the past century mean that the club can no longer locate its septic systems in the wetlands, or let stormwater drain directly into the bay. Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements, for example, now dictate the minimum elevation of the new clubhouse and surrounding dune.
Devon intends to improve upon the current setbacks, Mr. Pasca said. “While it may seem like a lot, the key is, everything is getting better across the board.”
Over and above the variances, the club will need a natural resources special permit in order to build within 150 feet of wetlands and tidal zones. An acre and a quarter of additional vegetation will be installed at the site, Mr. Pasca noted, and, most important, the freshwater wetland will not only be restored but improved, by moving staff housing, removing a land bridge that prevents the natural flow of water, and relocating an aging septic system that is now within the wetlands. “It’s hard not to see that as a tremendous benefit that is being generated by this project,” the attorney concluded.
While the application asks for a 60-percent increase in gross floor area because of the move landward (from 9,399 square feet to 15,051 square feet), Mr. Pasca emphasized that it includes no new amenities, that the club membership is capped at 400, and that the ground coverage on the site will not increase. (Lisa Liquori, a consultant to the Planning Department, had worried that the added gross floor area would be in the sensitive dune crest setback, and questioned whether the club was offering enough environmental improvements to make that palatable.)
Mr. Dalene agreed to Ms. Liquori’s request for more time to process Devon’s presentation. The Planning Department has until Wednesday to respond; Devon has until the end of the month to comment on its response.
The Z.B.A. will discuss both responses, likely sometime in February, before forwarding its comments to the planning board.
