Sag Harbor Village Set to Adopt New Zoning Laws

By Douglas Feiden

A white-hot debate has raged for the last four months over a controversial new piece of zoning legislation — the Gross Floor Area (GFA) law determining house size based on lot size — that has inflamed the passions of both homeowners and preservationists. But the public hearing on the measure held by the Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees on Tuesday night was surprisingly short on the fireworks and explosions of anger that have punctuated past discussions.

In a jam-packed meeting at the Municipal Building on January 12, tempers flared as some property owners denounced the GFA law and claimed trustees were willfully vaporizing millions of dollars in home values. And at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Brick Kiln Road on January 27, community supporters of the residential zoning code revisions turned out in force to decry overdevelopment, and a shouting match with a vociferous opponent ensued.

But the gathering in village hall for the public hearing was actually a little mellow and muted by contrast, with barely 10 speakers addressing the comprehensive revisions, most of them in orderly fashion. “Anyone else?” asked Mayor Sandra Schroder after the last resident took the microphone. When no one came forward, she appeared a tad surprised and repeated the question, “Does anyone else want to speak about the local law?”

[caption id="attachment_49996" align="alignleft" width="447"] Sag Harbor Mayor Sandra Schroeder responds to a member of the public as they make comments to the village board regarding a new proposed zoning law during the public comments section of the Sag Harbor Village Board meeting on Tuesday. Michael Heller photo[/caption]

The mayor said the board would accept public comments on the issue in writing until Tuesday, April 19. Trustees are expected to move to adopt the GFA law at their next meeting, which has been tentatively scheduled for April 21, nine days before the expiration of the current residential building moratorium on April 30.

In a nutshell, the legislation determines the size of a home based on its lot size, and the current version, unveiled on March 18 after going under the microscope since it was first proposed two days before Christmas in 2015, scales back the curbs on home size, a direct result of the review process and public input.

Specifically, the new proposed GFA law would allow homes to be about 400 square feet larger than the original legislation, which was introduced in January. And the caps would apply only to homes on lots of 6,250 square feet or larger, as opposed to the 5,000 square feet that was initially proposed.

The measure would mandate that a lot of 6,250 square feet couldn’t have a home exceeding 2,500 square feet. For lots 25,000 square feet and over, a home cannot exceed 4,000 square feet, and in between those numbers, a sliding scale would determine the square footage of a residence. A parcel with a lot area of 15,000 square feet, for example, could have a home that is 3,200 square feet.

Despite the firestorm they triggered, those guideposts are hardly revolutionary in East End communities. In fact, comparable GFA laws already on the books on both the South Fork and North Fork are considerably more burdensome to homeowners:

Take that 15,000 square-foot parcel, for instance, that could be built out to 3,200 square feet in Sag Harbor. In North Haven, East Hampton and Sagaponack, the maximum gross floor area of a home allowed for lots of that size would be only 2,500 square feet.

More broadly, gross floor area is about setting parameters on development and construction in a way that is likely to impact the future character and residential infrastructure of Sag Harbor, and, in fact, the very identity of the village itself.

At a time when bigger and bigger houses are being built here —sparking fears among preservation-minded residents and solons alike that the community’s historic character is being undermined — the law changes the way permissible house size is calculated.

It does so by limiting the size of a home to a certain percentage of its lot size, reining in some large-scale residential development, as opposed to establishing a set maximum house size based on the underlying zoning district, which is the case today. Essentially, a formula known as the floor-area ratio, or FAR, is being introduced to cap the size of new or expanded homes depending on the size of the parcel on which they sit.

The trend to acquire, redevelop, enlarge and build up existing residential properties may not come to an end if the law passes. But it could be slowed down, somewhat, and that remained an irritant to some of the speakers.

“Where do you get the moral authority to create the massive destruction of wealth and property values for every single homeowner in the village?” said Marius Fortelni, president of Forte Properties in Southampton.

Mr. Fortelni, who has alleged that he and his wife have tried for four years to obtain a village building permit for their Bluff Point Road property, added, “I’m very much opposed to the new law, which was written by a very small but very vocal group…You have all broken the law, and you have destroyed wealth for all of us.”

“Not true,” the mayor said, and her words were echoed in the second-floor meeting room as audience members repeated, “Not true, not true.”

Attorney Alex Kriegsman, another outspoken opponent of the GFA law, also suggested that the trustees’ actions had dire fiscal consequences:

“I think the public is entitled to know that there is a significant budget shortfall as a result of this illegal village moratorium, and I would be very interested in knowing what that is,” he said.

Mr. Kriegsman also questioned both the research and methodology used by the village’s planning consultant, Inter-Science Research Associates, in assembling a report on Sag Harbor’s housing stock.

In an interview on Wednesday, Inter-Science’s Michael Schiano and Village Attorney Denise Schoen refuted that, saying a complete analysis had been conducted of all 1,653 residential lots in the village up to the beginning of 2014, based on tax assessor data, that examined median GFA for all homes and median area for all lots, not just new ones.

Mr. Schiano acknowledged that no separate study had been conducted analyzing the size of additions residents put on homes since 2014.

“I had said early on that if these laws were reasonable, I would give you my support,” said architect Anthony Vermandois of Union Street. “They’re not perfect, I hope you engage the design community in reexamining some of this, but you have my support.”

Building contractor Pat Trunzo III also said that he was mostly supportive of the law, but said that as lots get bigger, the percent of buildable square footage decreases, and he argued for “more latitude” to build larger on large lots.

For instance, on two lots he owns averaging 36,000 square feet, he said he only build up to 4,700 square feet, or less than 15% of the parcel. If the percentage were increased to 15%, Mr. Trunzo said he could build up 5,007 feet.

Under the law, a special permit can be issued for lot areas of 25,000 square feet or greater, to be approved or denied by the village board. If a special permit is issued, a homeowner could have a home as large as 7,000 square feet, depending on lot size.

Another issue brought up at the meeting by the Sag Harbor Hills Improvement Association was a proposal to limit the clear-cutting of trees, which was not included in the GFA law, but had been discussed in connection with it at the time it was drafted.

“Do understand that trees are cut down to prepare small lots for oversized houses,” said Camille Clark, who read a statement from Eglon Simons, the group’s president. “This action is taken to make room for construction equipment and materials on undersized lots. Thus, limiting the practice of clear-cutting lots is essential” to reining in “McMansions,” she said.

Ms. Schroeder said the village expects to take up the issue again, possibly this summer.