Neighbors' Appeal Of 230 Elm Street Building Permit Met With Skepticism By Southampton Village ZBA

Neighbors of 230 Elm Street, who are asking the Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals to throw out the venue’s building permit for interior changes, may not get the result they are looking for.

At the board’s June 23 meeting, ZBA members were cool to the idea of overturning the building inspector’s issuance of a permit and were at times critical of the notion that the permit would actually advance a disallowed use of the property.

The neighbors — led by Jay Fitzpatrick, who lives across the street from 230 Elm Street, and is represented by attorney Anton Borovina — want to stop Elegant Affairs from opening and operating a catering facility there. They insist that though the building has a certificate of occupancy that identifies it as a catering hall, catering was historically only an incidental use of the property.

They argue that the 2000 certificate of occupancy was either issued illegally or it only acknowledged catering as an occasional use in a building that was primarily used as a social hall.

Seeking to overturn the building permit and perhaps even the certificate of occupancy is just one of the avenues the neighbors have taken to stop Elegant Affairs from opening at the location, which is owned by the Polish-American Political Club of Southampton.

For their part, the members of the Polish-American Political Club of Southampton’s board and the attorney representing the club, Richard Hamburger, say that the building was always used as a catering hall for weddings and other events, as Elegant Affairs plans to use the building now. They provided testimony and a number of affidavits that Hamburger said demonstrated “regular and extensive commercial catering use.”

After the club’s incorporation in 1928, the building was known as Pulaski Hall and Southampton Polish Hall, though the club later leased it out. In the early 2000s, it was known as Hampton Hall and hosted events such as movie premieres, benefits and concerts, according to headlines from that era.

The most recent tenant of 230 Elm Street was Tim Burke, who operated a catering business known simply as 230 Elm and a bar on the lower level known as 230 Down for nearly a decade, starting in 2010. Some events that took place there during Burke’s tenure, including when the venue was used as a nightclub, led to complaints of noise, traffic, garbage and illegal parking in the neighborhood.

ZBA Chairman Mark Greenwald said during the June 23 meeting on Zoom that the building permit appears to be for “relatively minor construction.”

Borovina countered that building permits must conform with the intended use of a property and that a catering hall as a primary function is not an allowed use there.

“It’s undisputed that the application for the building permit would promote and facilitate the use of 230 Elm Street as a primary use consisting of a catering facility,” he said. That would make the permit unlawful, according to Borovina.

“Assuming for a second that the board accepts your line of reasoning and your line of argument, how is this building permit application in any way changing the use from ancillary to primary?” Greenwald questioned.

ZBA member Luke Ferran added: “These changes, that are permitted at this point, whether they happen or not, don’t really affect what’s going to happen in this building in the coming months and years.”

Hamburger provided evidence that catering was always more than an incidental use. He found records of 390 weddings over a 30-year period. He said that would be an average of 13 per year, not the three per year that Borovina previously suggested was the case.

Neighbors spoke of the burden a full-time catering hall would have on their neighborhood.

“To say that we’re now allowing this facility to operate commercially, in this area, I think goes against what the original intention was — that it was a social hall,” said Pulaski Street resident Geoffrey Hall. “And the fact of the matter is if they go down this road, we’re going to be burdened as a taxpaying resident of the village. You know, parking all over the place, Ubers in front of my house at all hours of the night and evening.”

Hall said that were the venue to operate 52 weekends per year plus the occasional mid-week event, it would become a burden to the taxpaying residents of the neighborhood.

“I don’t want you to think for a second that the board isn’t sympathetic or considerate of the concerns that you and your neighbors are raising,” Greenwald said. “What we have before us is a request to overturn a building permit — the issuance of a building permit. So we looked, of course, at why the building permit was issued and whether the building inspector might have been essentially wrong to issue that permit. To our minds, whether he issues the permit or not, is not necessarily going to affect or minimize the concerns that you’re raising.”

He went on to say, “Our purview right now is really focused upon the building permit and whether or not we have the grounds for overturning a building permit — and we’re not seeing that we do.”

Jay Ireland of Elm Street, who said he’s lived in the village full time for the past four years and part time for the previous 10, called it “unfortunate” that a technicality “would allow a huge commercial establishment into a very residential neighborhood in the village, and close to the historic area of the village.”

He also noted proximity to Southampton Social Club and T-Bar, also on Elm Street, and their impact on the neighbors and said affidavits from employees and Polish Club members 30 years ago “aren’t really appropriate and applicable to today’s environment.”

Ferran pushed back on the idea that the character of the neighborhood would be changed.

“It’s kind of important to note, obviously the Polish Hall has been there for a hundred years. Southampton Social Club was the Hansom House before then for many, many years. T-Bar was Savanna’s, it was B.K.’s. There’s a train station there. This isn’t a new thing, and it’s not this quiet little residential neighborhood. This is the north end of Elm Street. It’s a quasi-commercial zone, and we need to keep that in mind.”

He added that he understands “things have definitely gotten worse for people who live up there in terms of traffic and noise and just respect for neighbors, but this isn’t a change in character that we’re talking about really.”

Greenwald added, “There are quality of life regulations that could be put in place and enforced.”

John Rosko, the president of the Polish-American Political Club, told the board that the club is a for-profit corporation established in 1928 for the purpose of operating and maintaining the premises.

“The Polish-American Political Club is a business,” he said. “Our obligation to our stockholders is to take care of their investment and to actually provide a profit if possible. So labeling us as a nonprofit social club is erroneous.”

He said they would like it to continue to be a commercial catering hall.

“We think the new tenant would be a definite upgrade from the operation that 230 Elm LLC had,” Rosko said. “We don’t anticipate parties going on through all hours of the night. The board was interested in having a quality tenant that would have a good reputation, which Elegant Affairs does. I haven’t seen any information at all about complaints pertaining to events that Elegant Affairs has had anywhere.”

He asked the neighbors to consider this might be a step up for a commercial building in a historic district.

Also representing the club was Mark Antilety. He said that the building permit was mostly for the purpose of meeting accessibility requirements to answer an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit that the club had settled.

“When you are the steward of a building that is that old, that is that big, that is in need of that sort of capital investment, you need someone who has that ability to make that investment,” he said of Elegant Affairs. “And when they’ve made that investment, to be quite honest, they deserve get a return on that investment. That’s how it works. That’s how most of the people who probably live on Elm Street got to live on Elm Street — because they did well in their businesses.”

Antilety said the club will not need a code officer to come by. “Our goal is to be a good neighbor,” he said. “Our goal is to run a successful operation that makes that building something everyone can be proud of, both in its appearance and also in what it gives back to the community.”

The ZBA voted, 4-0, to close the hearing, but did not vote on the underlying issue. The nonvoting member was Joyce Giuffra, who was absent. The board meets next on July 12.