Revise The Process

In the next few days, the attorney for the East Hampton Town Planning Board will write an official resolution denying Deena Zenger permission to put up a building for her Country School on Route 114, a project that has had her before the Planning Board for a year and a half and cost her $40,000 so far.

The Planning Board reached a 4-to-3 consensus at its meeting on March 25 that the school did not meet the standards by which a "semi-public facility" can be given a special permit in a residential neighborhood.

It had to be a disturbing decision for Ms. Zenger, who believed she had found an ideal site for her preschool - five acres on a state highway in the vicinity of another school, two industrial parks, a church, and other mixed uses. It now is operated in a church recreational hall.

Since the application first was submitted, Ms. Zenger has appeared with her consultants at well over a dozen Planning Board meetings. Each time, the group left with a list from the planners of modifications to make the project more environmentally sound and more acceptable to neighbors.

Like many of the applicants who come through the Planning Board turnstile, Ms. Zenger undoubtedly went back to the drawing board (and to her checkbook) each time under the impression that she was working toward a plan that eventually would be approved. In the end, the Country School came up with a draft that seemed to reflect all the board's concerns. Then, it was denied.

Before arriving at their ultimate consensus, board members reached an agreement that an environmental impact statement wasn't needed since all potential impacts could be softened by restrictions. The question, then, came down to the one neighbors raised more than a year ago: "Does a school/camp/day care center belong in this residential neighborhood? A majority of the board now has said "no."

Even the former Planning Board chairwoman, Pat Mansir, who let her opposition to the project be known after leaving the board, agreed that a special permit applicant should be entitled to the board's opinion on the long-term prospects of an application before having to embark on designing a perfect site plan. If a school is not going to be deemed appropriate in a residential area by board members, why go further?

The board should have given Ms. Zenger an indication of its thinking much earlier in the process. And the board should rethink its special-permit review process before it leads another applicant down a costly dead end.