“The Town of East Hampton v. Clan-Fitz, et al.,” East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky said Monday morning, calling the attorneys for both the town and Cyril’s Fish House to the floor in court once again. The legal battle has been raging between the two for years, in both local and state court. But, in keeping with the holiday sentiment, there was an air of peace between the two on Monday.

Dianne K. LeVerrier, an attorney for Michael Dioguardi, the head of the ownership team, faced off yet again with Joseph Prokop, an attorney for the town. Besides the current lawsuit at the town level, citing numerous zoning infractions, the two are locked in a legal battle before State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti, over many of the same issues: which part of the Cyril’s improvements pre-exist the town zoning code and which do not.

The key date is 1984. In an October decision on the town’s motion for an injunction against the business, Justice Farneti found that the bar on the roadside “is an impermissible expansion of a pre-existing, non-conforming use.”

While he denied the town’s motion, he also criticized the owners for not seeking the permits and variances needed for the business to stay in operation.

All that is past, Ms. LeVerrier indicated to the court Monday. The owners have presented the town with a site plan, which was discussed by the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Dec. 17. The board, in turn, sent a memo to Ms. LeVerrier last Thursday, stating that it “needs a determination from the Building Department before proceeding with the application.” Such a determination would tell all sides what on the site exactly needed variances from the town’s zoning board of appeals.

Ms. LeVerrier told Justice Tekulsky that the owners were adhering to Justice Farneti’s ruling, saying, for example, that the front bar was going to be removed.

“I am not placing blame,” Justice Tekulsky said, asking Mr. Prokop how he wanted to proceed. “As long as there is a diligent process in place,” he said, the town would hold off on the prosecution of the case.

The two sides will be back in court on Jan. 12, to see how much progress has been made.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board will hold four public hearings Wednesday night, including one for a proposed subdivision in Wainscott that has generated controversy and three others that have not been questioned.

The Wainscott proposal is for 40 acres of former farmland. The land, owned by Michael S. Dell and being developed by Jeffrey Colle, has been before the board since 2013, and members of the board have themselves been divided on the proposals. The principal disputes about the subdivision, which is called 55 Wainscott Hollow Road, have been about diminished farmland vistas and access from Sayre’s Path, which has now been eliminated.

The other hearings include an application for site plan approval from the owner of four old Schellinger farm buildings on the northwestern side of Amagansett Main Street. The owner, a limited liability corporation called Amagansett Industries, wants to change the use of a part of the first floor of one of the buildings, the one-time residence at 145 Main Street, from an office to an ice cream shop. Site plan approval is necessary because the change would increase sanitary flow.

The owner received permits from the board in 2002, allowing six uses in the four buildings, with two of those uses at 145 Main Street. Billy Hajek of Land Marks has told the board that the owner now uses the second floor of the house to store dry goods, such as T-shirts, but wants to make sure the option of using the second floor for a second business is retained. No table seating is proposed for the ice cream shop, according to the most recent memo prepared for the board by JoAnne Pahwul of the Planning Department, which does not oppose the plan.

Another applicant for site plan approval  that night is the Town of East Hampton. It intends to put up three buildings on an almost three-acre lot on Accabonac Highway, which now has tennis courts on it. Each building would have four apartments to be leased as affordable housing for town residents by the town’s office of Housing and Community Development. Windmill Village, an existing affordable complex, lies to the north.

The final hearing is for a site in Montauk that the planning board asked the town board to consider purchasing with the community preservation fund in July. The over seven-and-a-half acre parcel is north of Montauk Highway near Upland Road to the east of Hither Hills.

Joseph Frisone, its owner, has applied to split the property into two buildable lots and a reserve area. If purchased by the town, the property would expand the some 3,000 acres preserved in the area, including Hither Hills State Park, Hither Woods Preserve, and the Lee Koppelman Nature Preserve.

The Montauk Movie, where rainy days could be spent catching the latest flick, will be reincarnated in the coming months as SoulCycle, where folks will be able to spin their days away instead, if a site plan now before the East Hampton Town Planning Board is approved. Although no structural changes to the building are planned, the change of use triggers the review.

SoulCycle, a coast-to-coast chain, has rented the theater, at 15 South Edgemere Street in downtown Montauk, from John Rutkowski, who owns the building. It had closed as a movie house last year. The building will be filled with stationary bikes rather than theater seats, and, according to Drew Bennett, an engineer representing the applicant, any sweat worked up inside will have to be washed off elsewhere.

“Ride from the soul and find the happiest, fittest, most confident you in every aspect of your life! Find your edge and find yourself,” promises one of SoulCycle’s New York instructors on the company’s website. “I aspire to inspire every soul riding in my class. We ride, we struggle, we change, we grow, we conquer and we celebrate,” promises another instructor.

Mr. Bennett told the board on Jan. 7 that the flow into the building’s septic system would be reduced under SoulCycle’s use. This is significant, he said, because the flow  would exceed the current level if showering took place. That, in turn, would require review by the Suffolk County Health Department.

Job Potter, a board member, suggested that a covenant be added to the expected site plan approval expressly prohibiting showers. Mr. Bennett, however, expressed concern that such a covenant would delay the preparation of the space for the summer season because the applicant is a renter not the owner of the building.

SoulCycle has also proposed eight parking spaces on the property, although there are none now. Eric Schantz, a senior planner with  the town’s Planning Department, pointed out the movie house had obtained a variance to allow operation without on-site parking because of ample parking nearby. It appeared unlikely that parking would become a condition of approval.

Nancy Keeshan, a member of the board whose office in downtown Montauk is nearby, asked the applicant to submit plans for landscaping. And Mr. Bennett asked the board to expedite the process to allow the business to open for the season. The board seemed amenable, with a decision likely to be announced at an upcoming meeting.

Just as long-awaited plans for a public restroom in Amagansett’s business district parking lot near completion, with bids for construction to be opened today, opponents of its location reopened the debate at Monday’s meeting of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee.

As she has previously, Tina Piette, an attorney whose office is adjacent to the parking lot, registered objections. Cynthia Young, director of the Amagansett Library, where the group’s monthly meetings are held, agreed that the building should be moved to the northerly end of the lot, noting that the location was directly behind the library. 

A public restroom has been on the committee’s agenda for several years. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the town board’s liaison to the committee for the last year, has kept the members informed of plans, displaying blueprints at its November meeting and saying construction was “ready to go.” Ms. Piette and another Amagansett resident, Rachel Gruzen, spoke in opposition to its location at that time.

 In 2009, when the site plan was reviewed by the planning board, it was in a different spot in the lot, Ms. Piette said. She also questioned the cost of the project. “I’m saying, let’s hold off here, take a deep breath, and not put something that people are going to regret 5 years, 10 years from now. It’s not proper for the community.”

Ms. Young, who is not a member of the committee, said the members of the library’s board are acutely aware of the need for a public restroom, but, she said, they are concerned about safety. “I don’t want a public restroom where moms, strollers, babies, kids are going to be,” she said. “More than anyone here in this room, I understand we need a bathroom. I’m just asking. . . .” Ms. Piette finished the sentence: “To consider the back.”

Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, told Ms. Piette that the matter had been “discussed and discussed and discussed, voted on, and decided. Your points are very valid, but I think the ball is out of this court. We’ve passed it off to the town.”

Although the committee has intermittently discussed the need for a hamlet study, “The bathroom was separated from that because it was such an urgent need,” Mr. Brew said. A subcommittee voted on the location months ago, he said, adding that Ms. Piette “could have gone to those meetings. That’s where these decisions were held. . . . Our part of the process is finished.”

Michael Cinque, who owns Amagansett Wines and Spirits on Main Street, spoke in favor of the location, and said the Main Street merchants he had spoken with “love the idea. . .so some people can use it. Why are we going to hide it?”

New site plan approval is not necessary, Mr. Cantwell said, noting that after bids are opened “we’ll have a much better idea” of the cost.

On Tuesday, Mr. Cantwell said, “You always run the risk of someone that’s not happy with any particular aspect of what you are doing,” but “I have the sense that this has the C.A.C. and the community’s support. We’re going to continue to move ahead, step by step.”

Town Hall Campus Remake

East Hampton Town will accept proposals from architectural firms with ideas for remaking the Town Hall campus, where the original Town Hall building has sat empty for several years after the completion of a new main building from donated historic structures.

The plan is to eliminate off-campus town offices, such as those at the Pantigo Place office condominiums, which would be sold, and to consolidate all of the town offices on the main campus.

Specifications can be obtained from the town purchasing agent; proposals must be received by 3 p.m. on Feb. 19. A pre-proposal meeting and site visit will be held at 11 a.m. on Feb. 4. Attendance has been “strongly suggested” but is not mandatory.

New York State

Speed Reduction Authorization

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. plans to introduce legislation that would give three local municipalities the authority to reduce speed limits in instances where other traffic-calming measures are not feasible. The legislation would allow East Hampton Town to lower speed limits townwide to 25 miles per hour, and to 15 miles per hour in school zones. It would also allow East Hampton and Sag Harbor Villages to reduce speed limits to 20 miles an hour.

A review of the East Hampton Town Building Department prompted by the discoveries of an undeposited 2010 check for a building permit, $290 in undeposited cash along with a receipt lacking a year, and a cash receipt book with pages missing has led to the development of stricter controls over the issuance of building permits and the collection of fee payments.

After finding the receipt book and undeposited money, the former chief building inspector, Thomas Preiato, and David Betts, the town’s public safety director, who oversees the department, requested an internal audit by the town’s finance staff in order to pinpoint potential problems and tighten procedures, said Charlene Kagel.

Ms. Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, presented the Finance Department’s findings to the town board on Tuesday.

The check had been found in the drawer of a building inspector who was out on administrative leave, she said. The cash was in a locked filing cabinet where cash and checks are normally stored. In addition, a mid-September Building Department deposit processed by the town’s bookkeepers contained a $150 cash payment for a building permit that had been issued in May, prompting scrutiny of revenue collection procedures.

The Building Department collected $1.4 million in revenue in 2013, Ms. Kagel said Tuesday, and issues about 1,300 to 1,400 new building permits annually. Last year’s revenues are expected to be close to the same.

Until recently, building permit applicants have been asked to submit a signed, blank check that would be filled out by department employees once an application was processed and permit fees calculated. That procedure has been discontinued, Ms. Kagel said, and payment is now solicited from applicants once fees are calculated.

Building inspectors, who previously accepted payments — a no-no “from the standpoint of perception,” Ms. Kagel said Tuesday — no longer handle cash or checks; only clerical staff members do.

Prior to last August, no written policy was in place for the collection of Building Department revenue, Ms. Kagel said in her report on the audit.

After new procedures were developed and instituted, Ms. Kagel and the audit staff visited the Building Department unannounced in early October to determine if the new protocols were being followed and found no problems.

Cash receipts, which had been sent to the Finance Department monthly, are now submitted for deposit on a weekly basis, Ms. Kagel told the town board, and changes are being made to the software program used to issue and track building permits and payments, so that records are maintained on permits that are voided.

As part of the audit procedure, the auditors checked a sampling of building permits issued in June in order to ensure that proper fees were collected. Of 103 examined, Ms. Kagel said, one was found to have been issued without payment. The auditors are discussing changes to computerized record keeping that would prevent such issues, which could grow out of a recording error, she said.

Mr. Preiato, the former chief building inspector, resigned as of Oct. 30 and took a post as chief building inspector for the Village of Sag Harbor.

Before his resignation, he leveled disciplinary charges against Robert Fisher, a building inspector with the town for 10 years, who was suspended without pay for 30 days on Sept. 16. Mr. Fisher subsequently resigned as of Nov. 30, and retired as of early December.

At present, the Building Department has two full-time building inspectors. John Lascari was appointed by the town board as a senior building inspector in September. Daniel Case is the other inspector.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday that two vacant building inspector positions, including that of the chief building inspector, will be filled as soon as a Civil Service review process is completed. In the meantime, Mr. Cant?well said, “The staff that is there has done a terrific job of keeping up with the workload and processing permits in a timely way.” Department employees include Ann Glennon, an administrative assistant, Evelyn Calderon, a clerk typist, and Allison Duchemin, an ordinance inspector.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee will screen potential candidates for Suffolk County legislator on Wednesday at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk, first elected on the Republican ticket and now a member of the Independence Party, is serving his sixth and final two-year term in the Legislature, which has term limits. In 2013, Chris Nuzzi, then an outgoing Southampton Town councilman, ran against Mr. Schneiderman on the Republican and Conservative lines.

The Second Legislative District includes all of East Hampton and Southampton Towns, Shelter Island, and a small part of Brookhaven Town. Screenings will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Those interested in setting up an appointment have been asked to call the party’s chairman, Tom Knobel, at 875-8652.

A Montauk resident’s civil rights lawsuit against former East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson has been dismissed.

In a Jan. 28 decision, federal Judge Joseph F. Bianco of the U.S. District Court in Central Islip concluded that Harry J. Ellis of East Lake Drive “has failed to state a plausible claim.” Mr. Ellis had charged that Mr. Wilkinson used his office to punish him for being a “whistleblower,” denying his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech, after he alerted state officials to environmental violations committed by Keith Grimes, a contractor and longtime Wilkinson political supporter and friend.

In June 2010, Mr. Ellis contended, on the day after the state Department of Conservation issued “at least 20 violations to Grimes and his wife,” Mr. Wilkinson fast-tracked the construction of a 6,000-square-foot stormwater drainage pond, parking lot, and public footpath on wetlands adjacent to the Ellis residence. Since 1974, the Ellis family had been using a part of it for their driveway.

In a separate action, filed in October 2011, Mr. Ellis sued the town, contesting its claim to ownership of the wetlands in State Supreme Court in Riverside to stop the drainage project, charging that the town was trying to use land to which he has an easement and making a title claim to the strip. The town afterward agreed to discontinue the drainage pond project until that motion is resolved.

Judge Bianco ruled that the federal civil rights claim had not been filed in a timely matter. The suit, he wrote, should have been brought within three years of the alleged incident; it was not filed until June 2014. In addition, Judge Bianco found that the damages which Mr. Ellis claimed to be a victim of had not yet occurred, writing in his 10-page decision that they “were neither imminent, nor concrete.”

The federal court did allow Mr. Ellis a 30-day window in which he could amend his complaint to include an alleged incident not described in the original filing. During oral arguments last fall over Mr. Wilkinson’s motion to have the suit dismissed, Mr. Ellis’s attorneys had claimed that in October 2011, “town officials entered plaintiff’s property and took down political signs on his lawn.” But, Judge Bianco warned in his ruling, even that incident may fall beyond the three-year time limit.

Victor John Yannacone Jr. of the Patchogue law firm Yannacone and Yannacone, an attorney for Mr. Ellis, said his client intended to continue his legal battle and would file an amended suit within the next two weeks. Mr. Ellis is fighting for the right to “speak truth to power,” the lawyer said

“This case was frivolous from the outset,” Steven C. Stern of Sokoloff Stern said Tuesday. His firm represents Mr. Wilkinson in the federal suit. “Anybody with $450 can file and claim what they want to claim,” said Mr. Stern. “It’s unfortunate that that is what gets the headlines.”

Arguments on a motion by Mr. Ellis for summary judgment in State Supreme Court, which is before Justice Gerard Asher, were heard in October. Justice Asher’s ruling is expected in the coming weeks, according to Mr. Yannacone.

East Hampton Town

Montauk Beach: Easements Are In

East Hampton Town has obtained all of the needed agreements from the owners of Montauk properties along the downtown shore where the Army Corps of Engineers plans to build a reinforced sand dune.

While the project is being designed and funded by the Army Corps, it was the town’s responsibility to obtain the property easements. Last week, with a deadline looming, there was one property owner who had still failed to sign. Supervisor Larry Cantwell announced on Tuesday that, thanks to continued efforts by and a personal visit from his executive assistant, Alex Walter, all the easements are now in place and the project will proceed.

Town Acquires Lot Off Old Stone

The town will purchase a property along Accabonac Harbor in Springs using the community preservation fund, and will remove a house there and return the land to its natural state. Following a hearing last week, the town board approved the $650,000 purchase of approximately one acre at 243 Old Stone Highway, owned by the Emily Cobb Trust. The property has often been a stop on spring garden tours. Its owners, the late Ann Stanwell and Ms. Cobb, planted many hundreds of tulips, daffodils, and other bulbs, and tended other gardens as well.

For Farmers and Food Producers

A town agricultural advisory committee is likely to become a permanent fixture with an addition to the town code. The committee is charged with advising the town board on matters important to the continued existence of agricultural activities here. Members of the committee appeared before the town board on Tuesday to stress the importance of an ongoing advisory group. Local farming and food production, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the liaison to the group, will continue to be “part of a sustainable community” and should always be considered in setting town laws and policy.

Three-Year Plan to Reduce Town Debt

A three-year capital spending plan presented Tuesday by Len Bernard, East Hampton Town’s budget officer, includes annual expenses for items such as police car replacement and road and sidewalk maintenance and repair. It calls for $4.9 million in bonds for this year’s work.

The town’s goal, said Mr. Bernard, has been to retire more debt each year than is added through new bonding, “while being free to borrow to do the things that need to be done.” With $3 million in projects slated for next year, and $2.5 million worth of capital improvements included in the plan for 2017, the town’s overall indebtedness, at $109 million at the start of this year, would be reduced to $75 million by the end of 2017, the budget officer said.

Susan Knobel, who for more than a year has sought permission from the East Hampton Town Trustees to move her house from a severely eroded shoreline at Lazy Point in Amagansett, had reason to celebrate on Tuesday night. The trustees, who have debated the request while often asking for additional information, voted to authorize Ms. Knobel to apply for the variance relief that she will need from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals to relocate her house to nearby lots that are at a higher elevation.

The lots in question are seaward of the coastal erosion hazard line, necessitating the Z.B.A.’s approval. Ms. Knobel will also need permission from the Suffolk County Department of Health for a septic system to be installed on the new lots. Should she receive the approvals, the trustees, who own and manage the land on behalf of the public, indicated that they would transfer her lease to the new lots.

The nine-member body has been divided over Ms. Knobel’s request, with Bill Taylor and Brian Byrnes, its newest members, most forcefully in support of the move. Others have expressed worry about the environmental impact of the move as well as the potential precedent set by their approval.

With six trustees present, the vote was unanimous, though Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, said that she was voting yes with great hesitation. “I honestly don’t know if you’re going to get a permit to put a septic system on that lot,” she told Ms. Knobel. “Part of me wants to ask you to move forward without us saying yes or no. . . . I’m getting the impression it’s not going to be feasible, from looking at the placement of the house and the septic on the lot.”

Brian Frank, the Planning Department’s chief environmental analyst, had given qualified support for the move last month. On Tuesday, Ms. Knobel reiterated Mr. Frank’s assertion that moving the house, removing its existing cesspool, and allowing its parcel to revert to a natural state would be a net benefit.

An engineer with the county’s Health Department, she said, told her that the proposed new septic system is far more environmentally friendly than the current cesspool, and its installation would require only small equipment, or could even be done by hand if necessary.

“I just want a chance to save my house,” Ms. Knobel told the trustees.