Unapproved Regrading Of Sag Harbor Property Raises Architectural Review Board Chair's Ire

The chairman of the Sag Harbor Village Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board had some harsh words for the drafter and the landscape designer of a project at 4 Wildwood Drive, where the property was regraded without permission and a number of oak trees were removed.

Chairman Dean Gomolka made it clear, multiple times, during the board’s April 8 virtual meeting that he was ready to refer the matter to code enforcement, but he offered the homeowner’s representatives the opportunity to come back with a plan to rectify the issues first.

Mr. Gomolka said that last month the board approved a pool, screening around the pool, and a fence at the property, but then, without approval, 4 feet of soil was added to even out the front yard and bunch of trees were cut down.

“Everything that is adjusted on a property needs to get a C of A, a certificate of appropriateness,” he told the project’s drafter and expediter, Jakes van der Watt, and landscape designer, John Cowen.

Without such a certificate, the grade was raised, leaving a 45-degree slope facing the street with a wall of evergreens on top.

“It looks like an encampment, a barracks if you will,” Mr. Gomolka said. “It’s not working with anything.”

He added that he is at a loss and he finds this to be a worst-case scenario. He said he thinks it is a code enforcement issue but he is willing to discuss a new plan that’s in harmony with the streetscape. What’s there now, he said, could be located anywhere in “zone 7.” That’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone that Long Island belongs to. “This could be Ohio,” he said.

Mr. van der Watt explained that after the pool was dug the excavated soil was placed in the front yard to level the property, which had a steep slope toward the road, and the trees were planted to screen the house from the street and headlights.

“I still think this is a code enforcement issue,” Mr. Gomolka said. “We spent a lot of time on the pool and getting that pool approved. There were trees there that were supposed to be saved — oak trees to be saved. Neighbors have been calling about trees getting cut down left and right, and now we’re left with this situation, which is some sort of landing pad. It has no sensitivity to the streetscape. And you were called out on it and asked to come in when it was at the grading stage.”

He said that despite being called out at the grading stage, they proceeded to just plant it and see how it goes, adding, “For me, this is not going well.”

Mr. van der Watt said that the only trees that were taken down were in the area of the pool and a kids’ play area, both of which were approved.

“What we’re looking at right now is not approved at all,” Mr. Gomolka replied.

Mr. Cowen said that the planting is a work in progress. “What is really hitting your eye is that brown mulch, that bank of mulch,” he said, indicating the wood chip mulch laid under the evergreens and down the slope facing the street. “If that is planted with some sensitivity — groupings of evergreens and groupings of grasses — it will soften it. And if the grass is redone along the edge of the road, I think it will look a whole lot better.”

“This is no sensitivity here taken at all,” Mr. Gomolka said. “You’ve cut down indigenous oak trees. You’re planning to put, like, another row of plants and then grasses in front of it. This has zero relevance to the indigenous character of this neighborhood.”

He told them to take it back to the drawing board and figure out how to fix the grade, put back some oak trees and make it look more like the neighborhood.

The board exists to preserve the streetscapes of the village, he emphasized.

“This was put in without an approval, and if you’re willing to take another shot at some sensitive design to this site, we can move forward that way,” he told Mr. van der Watt and Mr. Cowen. “Other than that, I’ll call the building department tomorrow and you guys work it out with him.”

They agreed to return with a grading and planting plan.