A ban on daytime drinking on weekends and holidays at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett was approved unanimously last Thursday by the East Hampton Town Board.

Enforcement will begin as soon as the law is filed with New York State, which will take a number of business days.

The law will be in effect through September. After that, the town board has said its efficacy at tamping down unruly parties on the beach, which prompted numerous residents to complain, will be assessed.

The no-drinking ban covers an area extending 1,000 feet in either direction from the road ending at the beach. It will only affect hours when lifeguards are on duty.

The town board vote last week followed a hearing on the proposal earlier that night. An earlier proposal, on which a separate hearing was held, would have imposed daily limits in a wider area of beach, and would have applied to Amagansett’s Atlantic Avenue beach as well as Indian Wells. The East Hampton Town Trustees, who have jurisdiction over most town beaches, opposed that law, and the legislation was revised.       

The house and studios of the late James Brooks and his wife, Charlotte Park, both artists associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement, were designated as historic landmarks by the East Hampton Town Board last week.

The town purchased the artists’ 11-acre property on Neck Path in Springs last March for $1.1 million, intending to take the buildings down and preserve the parcel as open space, but the efforts of a grassroots group that was formed after neighborhood residents happened upon the site resulted in reconsideration of that plan.

Members of the Brooks Park Heritage Project, organized specifically to preserve the legacy of the two artists and raise money for and oversee future public use of the site, advocated for the landmark designation. It will allow the town to use money from the community preservation fund, which paid for the land purchase, to restore the studios and house.

Helen Harrison, an art historian and director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center on Accabonac Harbor not far away from the Brooks-Park property, presented a brief history at a town board hearing last Thursday.

Both Mr. Brooks and Ms. Park were “major members of the Abstract Expressionist group,” she said. They had a house and cottage on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk. After the house was washed away by Hurricane Carol in 1954, the couple had the late Jeffrey Potter move the studio to Springs by barge, then trucked it to the Neck Path site.

The old Wainscott post office building was later moved there for Ms. Park’s studio, and Mr. Brooks had a custom-designed studio built.

Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition, said at last week’s hearing that the town code’s criteria for landmark designation are that buildings or a property possess “special character or historic or aesthetic interest or value as part of the cultural, political, economic, or social history of the town.” They are “identified with historic personages,” embody the “distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style, building type, period or method of construction,” are “the work of an architect, designer or builder of local or regional importance,” or “because of a unique location or singular physical characteristic, represent an established and familiar visual feature” of its neighborhood.

“It has become clear this property and its story” meet all the benchmarks, Mr. Wilson said.

Besides being notable members of a major American art movement, the two “were artists of the Springs,” said Zachary Cohen, a member of the Brooks Park Heritage group.

The site portrays “how they lived and worked, especially their dedication to the environment, and how simply they lived their lives,” he said.

He read from a nature journal kept by Ms. Park where she recorded bird sightings, her observations on visits to various nearby beaches, and other notes. The book was donated after her death to the South Fork Natural History Society.

Jane Martin, a co-chairwoman of the East Hampton Arts Council, voiced the group’s “passionate support” for preserving the house and studios.

“It behooves our community to recognize these historic structures and make them available for the future of our town,” said Ira Barocas, a member of the committee overseeing the use of Duck Creek Farm, another town-owned historic site.

“A significant component of the community preservation fund legislation is that it is also for historic preservation,” said Robert Strada, the executive director of Peconic Historic Preservation, a nonprofit that is taking donations for the Brooks Park Heritage Project.

“There is nothing, really, probably more important in culture that happened in East Hampton than the Abstract Expressionists,” said Job Potter, whose father had moved the cottage for Brooks and Park. And, he said, referring to the group that formed the Brooks Park Heritage Project, now “there is a very strong group of people who are involved in this that I think will succeed in making money.” Though the property was purchased with the preservation fund, and the buildings can be restored using that money, ongoing maintenance or operating costs will have to be covered separately.

In addition to archives or exhibits documenting the lives of the two artists, art exhibits, events, and other public use is anticipated for the site.

Only one speaker at the hearing questioned the landmark designation. Martin Drew, who has often appeared before the board to press for land dedicated to all-terrain vehicle and BMX bike riding, said town officials “seem to be leaning towards exclusive uses and one user group.”

The Surf Lodge, a popular nightlife destination in Montauk, is about to undergo an inventory check, of sorts, from Tom Preiato, East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector, who will be looking for structures there that have never received site plan approval.

He is acting at the behest of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, which received a site plan application on June 25 for a new 500-gallon propane tank, replacing an older model, but in a different location on the property. “It is in place, but not being used,” Richard A. Hammer, Surf Lodge’s attorney, told the board.

The problem, said Eric Schantz of the East Hampton Planning Department, is that several structures on the property — “sheds, platforms, wood benches, an outdoor shower, a Dumpster, etc.” — seem never to have received site plan approval.

Reed Jones, chairman of the planning board, asked Mr. Preiato on July 10 to survey the property. “It appears that additional structures or additions which would require site plan approval and/or a natural resources special permit and/or variances may be present,” he wrote.

Mr. Preiato will now make that determination.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall to consider the town’s purchase of the 3.7-acre Gardiner home lot on James Lane, in conjunction with East Hampton Village.

Olney Mairs Gardiner, who is known as Bill, put the property up for sale last fall and has accepted the town’s offer of $9.625 million for the historic property, which the town would buy using money from the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund. The respective open space plans for both the town and village recommend the property for acquisition.

Claimed by Lion Gardiner in 1648, the Gardiner home lot is adjacent to the South End Cemetery, where many Gardiners are buried, and Town Pond. The parcel contains the historic Gardiner, or Pantigo, Windmill, dating to 1804, and an 18th-century timber-frame mill cottage. Also on the lot are a 2,700-square-foot house built in 1750 and a newer, 3,500-square-foot house.

Earlier this month, the East Hampton Village Board unanimously passed a resolution to request that the town make the purchase. That resolution called the Gardiner home lot one of the most significant historic properties in the village. The windmill was deeded to the village in 1996 and restored. Should the town acquire the property, the mill cottage will be restored and the remainder of the property maintained as an open and agricultural setting.

East Hampton Town

151 Signs

Signs illegally placed on the public rights-of-way have been removed by East Hampton ordinance enforcement officers and other personnel, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell reported last week. Mr. Cantwell said that to date, 151 signs have been removed.

Leber on A.R.B.

Patti Leber was appointed to the town’s architectural review board by a unanimous vote of the town board on July 17. Ms. Leber, a Montauk resident and one-time candidate for town board, will fill the term vacated by Ruth Vered, who resigned. It extends through 2016.

Plastic Bags Survey

The East Hampton Town Litter Committee is asking residents and business owners to complete a survey regarding the use of disposable plastic bags. Bans on the thin bags, designed for a single use, have been proposed or enacted in other communities, including East Hampton Village.

The survey, which can be completed online at surveymonkey.com/s/CHMQVY7, inquires about one’s use of plastic bags, and seeks opinions regarding a plastic bag ban, a fee on single-use bags of plastic and paper, and a possible credit for bringing one’s own reusable bag to a store.

Plastics do not biodegrade and never completely disappear from the environment, the survey says. The number of plastic bags used annually by Americans has been estimated at 100 billion.

The results of the survey will be discussed by the committee on Aug. 14. The group is hoping that more business owners will provide input between now and then.

Airport Matters

The East Hampton Town Board met on Tuesday in executive session with the town’s outside counsel on airport and aviation matters, Peter Kirsch, to discuss a legal matter, according to Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell.

The board’s steps toward enacting airport use restrictions to reduce aircraft noise — particularly that of helicopters — after agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration expire in January have recently prompted a campaign by the aviation industry, including the Eastern Region Helicopter Council and its executive director, Jeff Smith, to raise concerns about the airport’s future. In interviews in several publications, he has questioned the town’s strategy, implying that the ultimate goal is to close the airport, and asserting that it will have a devastating economic impact.

Town officials have said that the goal is not closing the facility, but rather the autonomy to make decisions about operating the airport, in order to assist residents beleaguered by noise.

At a hearing next Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board will take comments on a change to the town code that would clarify restrictions on the expansion of commercial buildings in limited-business zones.

The zoning district is designed to allow low-intensity uses in places where business areas give way to residential zones. Restrictions on the types of businesses and their size are designed to protect the residential character of the designated areas.

However, when the legislation was updated in 2006 to limit new construction for a limited-business use to a maximum of 2,000 square feet, it did not clearly state that the 2,000-square-foot maximum was to also apply to existing buildings in the limited-business zone, the town board said in a hearing notice. That would have precluded their expansion if they were already at the limit. “This oversight permitted structures in the [limited-business overlay] district to expand with no limitation of size,” the hearing notice says.

The issue came to light during a recent planning board review of an application regarding an East Hampton building.

In addition to clarifying the size restriction, the town board has proposed revising the law to allow for affordable apartments in the zone.

Under the proposed law, a combined maximum of 2,000 square feet of total gross floor area, for all existing structures on a parcel of land in a limited-business zone, could be devoted to a commercial use. Additional space could be used for storage or for an affordable apartment. New construction could not be more than 2,000 square feet.

Also next Thursday, the board will hold a second hearing on the acquisition of the Brooks-Park property in Springs, a site formerly owned by James Brooks and Charlotte Park, who were Abstract Expressionist artists. The property was acquired last spring and recently given town historic landmark status. However, because the original hearing on the land buy described the purchase as being made to preserve open space, a new hearing is being held to revise the objective to include historic preservation. 

Hearings will also be held at next week’s meeting on a number of land buys, all using the community preservation fund. They include the acquisition of a lot just shy of one acre at 54 Fenmarsh Road in Springs owned by Stanley Dalene, for $775,000; 6.3 acres at 577 Lazy Point Road in Amagansett from Dominick D’Alleva, for $805,000; several lots totaling 1.2 acres on South Fairview Avenue in Montauk from Thomas Milne and 70th Street Trading Corporation, for $670,000; a .41-acre lot at 26 South Fairview Avenue, for $145,000, from Maurice Martell and Debra Martell Murray; a .17-acre lot at 23 Flagg Avenue in Montauk from the Eileen Jeanne Karl Revocable Trust, for $270,000; a .92-acre lot at 26 Seaside Avenue, also in Montauk, owned by Thomas Jefferson University, for $350,000; a half-acre at 6 Bowling Green Place in Springs, for $181,500 from Patrick Fallon, Cecelia Pinto, Monica Kortmann, and Lorelle Fallon, and the purchase, for open space, agricultural land preservation, and historic preservation, of 3.7 acres on James Lane in East Hampton Village, which is a portion of the 1648 Lion Gardiner home lot adjacent to the village green, from Olney Mairs Gardiner for $9.6 million.

The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Residents who wish to make a complaint to the town ordinance enforcement department may now do so online, and the complaint will be immediately received electronically by officials and officers on the job, who will call officers on the job via cellphone.

Betsy Bambrick, the head of the department, described the procedure at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

A complainant must provide a valid email address and other information, or the system will not accept the complaint. Once an investigation begins, case files are kept confidential, she said.

Allowing officers to investigate a situation immediately, in “real time,” Ms. Bambrick said, is enormously effective in gathering the evidence needed to take code-breakers to court. In addition to regular hours, officers are on duty during night hours on weekends.

Noise complaints are directed to the Police Department, she said, although a code enforcement officer will respond as well if a complaint involves an overcrowded house or one being illegally rented for short-term stays.

Most of the summonses issued so far this summer, Ms. Bambrick said, have been for “excessive turnover” — renting, for under two weeks, more than three times in a year – rather than for share houses, rentals being shared by more people than allowed.

The online complaint form can be accessed by going to the town website and clicking on the ordinance enforcement department page, or it may be accessed directly by clicking here.

East Hampton Town

Seeking a Truck Law Compromise

A committee comprising homeowners and local contractors who could be affected by proposed limits on the parking of commercial vehicles at one’s house will meet to seek a compromise after both sides spoke passionately at a July 17 hearing on a possible new law.

Homeowners have been complaining to the town board about the proliferation of businesses operating in residential zones, which is largely prohibited, while contractors told the board that the ability to keep at least some of their work equipment or trucks at their residences is key to their economic survival.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Councilman Fred Overton will meet with the new group and attempt to broker a consensus.

New York State

State Money Sought for Montauk Beaches

Additional state funding for the Montauk downtown beach rebuilding project, for which the Army Corps of Engineers has proposed spending $6.3 million on dune reconstruction and beach fill, is key for “a project that would substantially increase the level of flood and erosion protection” for the area, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. wrote in a July 23 letter to the governor.

He requested $3.1 million in state money so that the Army Corps could “create a larger project with a longer life expectancy that would significantly increase the protection of the vulnerable downtown Montauk area.”

State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle also wrote to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to ask for supplemental money. “I have great concerns that without an additional contribution from the State of New York, the success of this project will be limited,” Mr. LaValle wrote. The Army Corps’s proposed solution “is going to have limited results,” he said.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will likely extend the closure of Georgica Pond in East Hampton to the harvesting of crabs and fish, as microcystin toxin, a product of the blue-green algal bloom known as cyanobacteria that can cause liver damage in humans and animals, has now been measured in the water body. Georgica is closed to the taking of shellfish other than crabs year round.

At the same time, algal blooms known as cochlodinium, or rust tide, have been detected in isolated sections of Three Mile Harbor, Accabonac Harbor, and waterways around Sag Harbor, a trustee said.

Microcystin, produced during algal blooms such as the cyanobacteria detected in Georgica Pond two weeks ago, is present at low levels, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences wrote in an email. Dr. Gobler has been monitoring water quality, in conjunction with the trustees, in waterways the trustees oversee on behalf of the public, since last year. The measurement of heightened levels of cyanobacteria prompted the trustees to hold a special meeting on July 24 at which they passed a resolution prohibiting the taking of crabs and other shellfish and marine life from Georgica Pond.

Cyanobacterial blooms can deplete oxygen in waterways, threatening marine life and drinking and irrigation water supplies. Such blooms can form in waterways during warm weather, particularly when elevated levels of nitrogen or phosphorus are present.

“The levels of blue-green algae in the pond have remained at a moderate level during the past 10 days,” Dr. Gobler wrote. At .5 micrograms per liter, the level of microcystin measured is low, representing one-half the drinking-water standard set by the World Health Organization.

The same algal bloom growing in Lake Erie and detected at a water treatment plant serving Toledo, Ohio, is behind the recent loss of drinking water for half a million people. Georgica Pond is not used for drinking water, Dr. Gobler wrote, “and thus these levels are not a serious threat, even for recreational use.”

However, “winds can create surface scums of algae, concentrating them and potentially creating a ‘high probability threat.’ ” According to the World Health Organization, scums can represent thousandfold concentrations of microcystin. People and pets, Dr. Gobler wrote, “should always avoid dense aggregations of thick, green material on the shoreline.”

“Our board will likely have to extend the resolution to keep Georgica Pond closed to crabbing until these levels of toxins subside,” Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk, wrote in an email, “since the chance for these toxins to reside in marine life is possible, but we do not know for certain.” The trustees will discuss the matter when they meet on Tuesday, Dr. Forsberg wrote.

Dr. Forsberg said that rust tide is not toxic to humans but in high densities can be toxic to fish and shellfish. “The good thing about rust tide is that it tends to be patchy and could leave as quickly as it appeared, so we are hoping for the best case scenario and for that to occur,” she wrote of the blooms in Accabonac and Three Mile Harbors, “but unfortunately only time will tell.”

East Hampton Town

Helicopter Traffic Soars

Traffic at the East Hampton Airport has increased this year, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez reported recently. In particular, the number of helicopters landing and taking off from the airport went up sharply, according to end-of-July figures — a 40-percent increase over year-to-date figures last year. The airport had logged 12,677 “operations” overall — takeoffs or landings — in 2014 as of two weeks ago, the councilwoman reported, versus a total of 10,577 during the same period last year. Both the town and airport noise abatement groups have been urging residents affected by aircraft noise to make reports to an airport noise hotline, particularly important this summer as consultants are compiling noise data the town could use to seek airport use restrictions. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said an online noise complaint form can now be found on the home page of the town’s website, town.east-hampton.ny.us. Noise complaints this year totaled 10,158 at the end of July, compared to 2,798 last year. They came from 373 diffent households, while last year 174 households called in complaints.

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Long-Range PSEG Plan to Be Aired Here

An information session and hearing on PSEG Long Island’s long-range plan to meet energy needs, called Utility 2.0, will be held at East Hampton Village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street on Aug. 26. It will begin with a presentation at 5 p.m., followed by an opportunity for the public to comment beginning at 6. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach had asked the utility, which held its required public session on the future plan in Stony Brook, to schedule a local session. A negative public response to PSEG’s installation of high-voltage lines along a six-mile route from the village to a substation in Amagansett has led to concern over what other projects the company may have planned. Mr. Cantwell, along with New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., has criticized the Utility 2.0 plan for a lack of specifics.

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Affordable Apartments Rule Expanded

In response to comments at a public hearing last week, the town board agreed Tuesday that the town code should allow two affordable apartments in buildings located in the town’s limited business districts rather than one, provided other criteria are met. A proposed change to the existing law, providing the ability to create an apartment in that zoning district, had limited it to one.

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Taxi Drivers Cited for Violations

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell announced this week that enforcement of East Hampton’s taxi regulations, which require all drivers to be fingerprinted and undergo a background check, has resulted so far in the issuance of 115 summonses. Fifty-five of those were for violations of the town code, and 60 were for Vehicle and Traffic Law violations.