SAGAPONACK
Restraining Order for Homeless House
By Jennifer Landes
(02/25/2010) An effort to move a 1930s house at 243 Hedges Lane down the street to another lot just to the west has been slowly gathering resistance from neighbors as well as from other residents of the Village of Sagaponack.
This week Lilith Jacobs, an immediate neighbor to the
 Durell Godfrey |
now-vacant receiving lot, at the corner of Hedges and Fairfield Pond Lanes, was granted a restraining order. It prohibits the house from being moved to within 300 feet of the intersection of Hedges and Fairfield Pond Lanes.
The order is in place pending a legal action by Ms. Jacobs against Sagaponack Village, the owner of the property where the house now stands, and the Peconic Land Trust and the South Fork Land Foundation, which jointly control the use of the land on which the house would go. Many neighbors assumed that the vacant farm field would not be developed because it was being managed by the land trust and the land foundation.
On Monday, State Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines ordered the defendants in the action to appear next Thursday to address why moving the house was, as Ms. Jacobs alleges, “always and remains illegal and violative of the Code of the Village of Sagaponack.”
On Tuesday, Brian Doyle, an attorney with Farrell Fritz who is representing Ms. Jacobs, said that the restraining order was granted because he was able to show Justice Pines that if the house move were to go ahead Ms. Jacobs would suffer immediate and irreparable harm.
John v.H. Halsey, the president of the land trust, said in an e-mail yesterday that he was not surprised by the restraining order but that it would not affect “the application process nor our ability to move the house elsewhere for the time being.”
“Certainly,” he said, “we will reach out to the complainant and make every effort to address issues of concern.” He reiterated his preference for that lot because, he said, “it is not easily farmed and does not interfere with agricultural production on the balance of the property.”
“Also,” he said, “the Percy Hedges house has been on Hedges Lane for 80 years, so it’s best to keep it relatively close to its original site.”
Mr. Halsey added that “selling it to a private owner subject to a facade easement and other restrictions will assure that it continues to be a fixture of the community by someone who appreciates it for what it is, a farm house representative of the community’s agricultural heritage.”
The trust has an agreement with Alan Schnurman, who owned the lot at 243 Hedges Lane and surrounding property as Daniel Hedges, L.L.C. Under the agreement, he gave the trust the house, along with $85,000 to cover moving costs, which in turn allowed him to sell the lot to Michael Davis, who will build a new house there. Mr. Davis has already agreed to preserve another house dating from the early 19th century that is also on his property.
The proposed site for the 1930s “foursquare” house was donated to the South Fork Land Foundation by Leonard and Ronald Lauder in 1977 without restriction. Since then, the foundation has not acted to restrict development on the land or to preserve it for farming.
The foundation was formed before the Peconic Land Trust, but now derives its charitable status as a supporting organization of the trust. It owns several other properties in Sagaponack and Bridgehampton that it received as gifts, primarily in the 1970s.
In an affidavit, Mr. Doyle stated that his client had never been notified that the house would be moved to the property and stored there “indefinitely” while various village boards determine whether it should be allowed.
He suggested that squatters could find their way into the building and that inadequate safety features and the house’s asbestos shingles and insulation could pose a hazard to the community.
Mr. Doyle said the village is violating its own code because it requires a building permit for the removal of any building or structure. He was not aware of any permit issued to authorize the removal of the house from its current location, he said. The attorney also cited laws that restrict the movement of water and electrical hookups without a permit.
Several other buildings on the property did have demolition permits and were recently taken down. A demolition permit for the foursquare house had been applied for, but the application was withdrawn pending its possible sale or other efforts to save it from destruction.
No permits have been applied for since then, according to Rhodi Winchell, the village clerk. The house has been placed on a truck and is now sitting on a nearby lot also owned by Mr. Schnurman. The trust has until late March to move the house to the new site.
Village officials have said that site plan review will be required before the house can be permanently situated. Mr. Doyle argued that site plan review should have been conducted before the house was moved, even temporarily.
Mr. Doyle also said that any actions on the part of village officials to make the move possible “were tainted by the appearance of impropriety and conflict of interest based on the close familial, personal, and organizational ties between the village defendants, Peconic Land Trust, and South Fork Land Foundation.”
Lee Foster serves on the village board and is a board member of the South Fork Land Foundation; her husband is president of the foundation’s board. “Never underestimate the resistance to change,” she responded to Mr. Doyle’s lawsuit in an e-mail yesterday.
Mayor Donald Louchheim, whose wife, Pingree Louchheim, once served on the land trust’s board, said in a statement on the village Web site in January, “There is no conspiracy to do something out of public view.”
The mayor denied that there were conflicts of interest for any village officials, “as there is no potential personal gain for any of us in this.”
As part of his court filing, Mr. Doyle submitted a copy of a letter that he said could demonstrate direct village involvement in the negotiations to move the house. It was written by Anthony Tohill, the Sagaponack village attorney, who mentions a sum of money to serve as the donation to the land trust to cover the moving expenses.
The letter was sent to the attorneys representing Mr. Schnurman and Mr. Davis. At the time of the letter, Nov. 12 of last year, the amount was $50,000. It was subsequently raised to $85,000 in December, according to a source close to the deal.
Mr. Tohill was writing on his own stationery and did not identify himself as the village attorney in the letter. He did not immediately return calls to discuss the case.