Despite division, the East Hampton Town Board was to vote Thursday night to reduce the gross-floor-area formula, a part of the town’s zoning code that ties the maximum square footage of a house to the size of its lot.
Councilmen Ian Calder-Piedmonte and Tom Flight had misgivings, but Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez broke the tie between board members, enabling the Thursday night vote. Councilwoman Cate Rogers and Councilman David Lys had already indicated their support to lower the maximum house size to 7 percent of the lot plus 1,500 square feet, down from the current levels of 10 percent and 1,600 square feet.
Public comments, 157 of them, came in from every hamlet of the town and skewed heavily toward change. “We had a very robust response to a public hearing,” said the town supervisor, with 70 percent, or 110 people, supporting the original proposal put forth by the zoning code amendment working group: 7 percent plus 1,300 square feet. Another 6 percent supported 7 percent and 1,500 square feet, compromise numbers brought to the public hearing. “So, we’re looking at 76 percent of the respondents. That’s a mandate to me. It looks like I’m the deciding vote.”
While the town supervisor spoke, Jaine Mehring, a member of the town’s zoning code amendment working group, could not hold back tears from the front row of the Town Hall meeting room as it became clear the legislation would succeed.
“This was the culmination for me of a three-year process. A very hard, very disciplined, very painstaking process that I was very committed to,” she said after the meeting. “So, I felt a certain amount of emotion and relief that we had gotten to a step that many other municipalities have not been able to get to. It was joy, but also a certain sense of accomplishment.”
Mr. Calder-Piedmonte offered a last-minute proposal, ultimately rejected, to give homeowners on lots under 20,000 square feet the flexibility to convert garage space to living space.
“I think the houses we point to and say, ‘Wow that’s too much!’ usually aren’t residents who are just trying to expand and make room for their family,” he said. “I want to recognize that we have two different categories of people, and we have one code to treat them all.”
“Mass, in my proposal, wouldn’t change at all. I’m not advocating for larger houses. At the end of the day, when somebody comes to me and says, ‘Why could I build a 600-square-foot garage [but not] a 300-square-foot addition for an extra bedroom?’ I don’t know how I could look at them and say that makes sense to me.”
(Under code revisions made in December, the first 600 square feet of an attached garage don’t count toward
a house’s gross floor area, or G.F.A.)
“There is an ability, if you needed to convert an attached garage, to do that through the Z.B.A.,” said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, dismissing his idea.
“I want to vote for a reduction in G.F.A.,” said Mr. Calder-Piedmonte. “I don’t know that I’m going to be able to do that if we allow for a garage for free and there’s no allowance to have some living space there.”
However, only Mr. Flight supported his proposal.
For Mr. Lys, the changes were aligned with the town’s 2005 comprehensive plan.
“We landed on a compromise and it’s reasonable and fair,” he said. “Reductions to 7 percent and 1,500 square feet, I believe are appropriate, and I will vote for that if it came in front of me to approve.”
Ms. Rogers spent some time with statistics: 22 months of work, 14 work sessions, 45 hours of public comment, three public hearings. She asked for forgiveness from the other board members as she explained her personal journey to support the code changes.
When the zoning amendment working group began meeting nearly two years ago, she said, “I was not in favor of much of a change or any change. . . . But then we collected data on the trends of house size. I saw the relationship between commercialization of our neighborhoods for financial gain, which includes maximizing the economic potential of short-term rentals in relation to house size. National property management companies are coming in to manage hundreds of short-term rental properties and investment companies are coming in to advise people on how they can maximize their investments. I see our natural resources are degrading faster than we can mitigate.”
“When one of the speakers who works at the housing authority told us that 20 percent of our community are on waiting lists for housing to be able to stay here, to be able to live here, and to be able to work in our town, and that’s a number, like 6,000 people on waiting lists, and so when the reality of what was happening to our community was proven with data and research and simply from so many community members who live here, who said ‘Please, I cannot recognize my neighborhood anymore. We are losing the soul of East Hampton. My kids can’t live here anymore.’ I knew that my perception of no change, or a very small change of what we needed, was shattered and changed by the reality that was before me.”
“I have always said that the responsibility for development in this town does not lie at anyone’s feet but at the five people sitting here. If you’re allowed to build something you’re not a villain for building it, you’re a member of our community.”
If the vote succeeds tonight — and if Tuesday’s discussion was any indication, it should pass with at least three votes — the new legislation will go into effect on July 1.
