The owner of an 11.8-acre parcel at 8 Five Rod Highway in Wainscott received final approval to build two houses on it from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals at June 3 meeting at Town Hall. Two houses on a single lot are prohibited under the zoning code, but an exception was made in this case because the lot was itself created in the subdivision of a 19-acre parcel approved by the town planning board in 1983.

The 11.8-acre lot is in an area with five-acre residential zoning, but dividing it in half was precluded, according to Denise Schoen, the attorney for the owner, Jeff T. Blau, by the earlier subdivision. The board agreed.

Mr. Blau owns the adjacent property at 9 Five Rod Highway, and has approval to put a house on it. He now will be able to have a compound of three houses in close proximity near Wainscott Pond.

Sagaponack Village is considering revising its code as it relates to construction after some residents asked village leaders to put a stop to work on weekends and holidays.

An informational meeting will be held to hear residents’ opinions on the subject on Saturday at Sagaponack Village Hall at 9 a.m.

The code currently prohibits construction activity on Sundays year round and after 3 p.m. on Saturdays between May 15 and Sept. 15. Construction includes all “improvement of land,” including new landscaping using construction machinery and vehicles. Homeowners can do home repairs and yard work during those times, as long as the noise does not exceed 85 decibels from a distance of 50 feet.

Those unable to attend Saturday’s meeting may email comments to [email protected].

Air traffic at East Hampton Airport during the Thursday-through-Monday period surrounding the Memorial Day holiday increased by 20 percent over the same period last year and generated numerous complaints.

Jim Brundige, the airport manager, told the East Hampton Town Board Tuesday that there were 872 takeoffs and landings over the long weekend and 475 complaints about noise and disturbance. During last year’s holiday period there were 248 complaints.

Helicopters, which accounted for 40 percent of the traffic, prompted 302 calls. They came from a total of 83 households, just over half of them in the vicinity of the takeoff and approach route from the north, over parts of Sag Harbor and Jessup’s Neck.

Mr. Brundige noted that 85 percent of the departing helicopters, and half of those heading to the airport, had flown over a southern route, along the Atlantic shore and over Georgica Pond.

After the experience of the busy weekend, he said, airport control tower operators, as well as representatives of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, an industry association, told him the southern route should be adjusted to avoid overlapping helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft traffic and potential safety issues.

On Friday, Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez attended a meeting at the airport at which new guidelines for the southern route were mapped out, which will take helicopters farther east before they descend toward the airport.

While the air traffic controllers have jurisdiction over traffic only within a 4.8-mile radius of the airport, the airport issues information to pilots regarding arrival and departure routes they are asked to follow in order to mitigate noise over residential areas. Compliance is monitored, and weekly reports are issued to the helicopter council.

Although the southern route saw the majority of the helicopter traffic over the Memorial Day period, residents there made the fewest complaints, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc noted.

The adjustment to the southern route will take copters over more residences than the original route. “The downside of this is, truthfully, more complaints,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell observed Tuesday.

“That was considered,” Mr. Brundige replied. However, he said, safety concerns prompted the adjustment.

A Federal Aviation Administration-mandated helicopter route requiring copters traversing the length of Long Island to fly over water a mile off its north shore is due to expire in August, and Long Island’s representatives in Washington are calling for its renewal.

Senator Charles E. Schumer and Congressman Tim Bishop have also called for a modification to the mandate, requiring helicopters to go around Orient Point and Shelter Island when landing at South Fork airports.

That would “bring all of that northern traffic in over East Hampton land and waters,” Kathy Cunningham, the director of East Hampton’s Quiet Skies Coalition, told the town board Tuesday.

Ms. Cunningham said helicopters would come in over Montauk and Gardiner’s Bay under that scenario, which, she said, had been suggested during discussions under the Wilkinson administration to address airport noise complaints from North Fork communities and Southampton Town.

Also on Tuesday, Mr. Brundige reviewed two proposals that the board is expected to vote on tonight. A proposed 10-percent increase in landing fees would raise an additional $100,000 this year, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. Last year, landing fees totaled about $1.3 million.

Also proposed is a 100-percent increase in the fuel “flowage fee,” a service charge on each gallon of aviation fuel sold at the airport fuel farm. If approved, the fee would go from 15 to 30 cents per gallon.

Both changes have been recommended by the town’s budget and finance advisory committee.

Speaking to the board on Tuesday, Cindy Herbst of Sound Aircraft Services, which, she said, runs the fuel farm cooperatively with the town, said the increase was unwarranted. At other airports with comparable fees, she said, other services are provided. “I just don’t think a 100-percent increase in justifiable,” Ms. Herbst said.

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez later told the board that the 15-cent fee had not been changed in 20 years, and that the current proposal might be a precursor to a change that would tie the fee to a percentage of the per-gallon cost of fuel.

The owner of three properties at Ditch Plain in Montauk has been before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board on consecutive weeks, seeking variances for construction at two of the sites.

Sean MacPherson, a New York boutique-hotel developer, bought the house on Miller Avenue where he still lives in 2007, according to Tyler Borsack of the Town Planning Department. It is a small house, at 864 square feet, on a 37,081-square-foot parcel.

Much has changed in Mr. MacPherson’s life since he bought it, he told the board Tuesday night. He now owns the Crow’s Nest Inn and Restaurant, as well as a nearby set of cottages now named the David Pharaoh Cottages. But, he said, what has changed the most is his personal life. “When I bought this home I was single. I’m now married and have two children,” he said.

While the Miller Avenue property is relatively large — a little under an acre — it is constrained in terms of development because of wetlands throughout, and on adjacent land, Mr. Borsack wrote in a memo to the board.

According to Mr. MacPherson, his basement is prone to flooding. The garage is in the basement, on a downward-sloping drive. “The rainwater currently is directed into the basement,” he said, adding that it was not unusual after heavy rains to find several feet of water there.

The homeowner came before the board last year seeking wetlands-related variances for a 432-square-foot second-story addition, 812 square feet of additional decking, and a 600-square-foot garage. If the board okayed the garage, Mr. MacPherson planned to fill in the old downward entrance into the basement.

During last year’s hearing, Brian Frank, the Planning Department’s chief environmental analyst, argued against granting the variances needed for the garage, telling the board that 600 square feet was far too much coverage in such an environmentally sensitive area. The board agreed. It granted variances for the decking and the second floor, but not for the garage.

Mr. MacPherson reapplied this year, this time proposing a garage of just 360 square feet. The Planning Department again opposed it.

Britton Bistrian, Mr. MacPherson’s representative, offered a compromise: a 180-square-foot garage. The department was still opposed. “If an increase in coverage is going to be considered, it should consist of a much smaller structure, approximately 120 square feet or less,” Mr. Borsack wrote.

On Tuesday, Ms. Bistrian argued that 120 square feet was too small for a garage. The town’s own code, she said, requires 180 square feet for a single parking space.

Last year, a neighbor spoke against the 600-square-foot garage. This year, Ms. Bistrian noted, the same neighbor, in a letter to the board, was supporting the smaller structure.

“We just want a space to put the car, the strollers, etc., and independent of this whole process, we need to seal off our basement,” Mr. MacPherson told the board.

Members voted to keep the hearing open for one week to allow Ms. Bistrian to submit an updated survey of the property showing what has already been approved but is not yet built.

The Crow’s Nest was before the board the week before, on May 27, with an application to reconstruct the roof of the restaurant and another one elsewhere on the 1.6-acre property, which stands at the intersection of Old West Lake Drive and Route 27 by Lake Montauk. Mr. MacPherson would also like to add a pizza oven and a permanent Dumpster to the restaurant. The Crow’s Nest, like his house, contains and is bordered by wetlands.

Before that hearing took place, Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector, determined that the pizza oven (though not the Dumpster) would be an expansion of use of the property. The restaurant is in a residential zone but is allowed to operate as a business because its creation predates the zoning code.

When Ms. Bistrian informed Mr. MacPherson of Mr. Preiato’s decision, he withdrew the request for the pizza oven. There was no public or departmental opposition to the remaining variances requested.

The board may decide both applications when it meets next week.

The third parcel in Mr. MacPherson’s Ditch holdings, a 66,333-square-foot property on South Lake Drive less than 500 feet as the crow flies from the Crow’s Nest, is currently before the Planning Board, where it is undergoing site plan review.

East Hampton Town

Survey for Senior Citizens

A committee appointed by the East Hampton Town Board to evaluate the needs of senior citizens in the community, and resources available to them, is polling older residents through a survey, which can be completed online at easthamptonsurvey.com. Survey forms can also be found at various public buildings throughout the town, including Town Hall. Responses must be submitted by June 19.

Suffolk County

Nitrogen Reduction Efforts

Additional funding for Suffolk County’s nitrogen fertilizer reduction initiative was announced last week. The initiative is part of the county’s Reclaim Our Waters program, which aims to reduce nitrogen pollution in its many forms — from septic tanks, cesspools, and fertilizers. The money will go toward educational programs directed at landscapers and the public, according to a release from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.

            All Suffolk County licensed landscapers will be required to take a course taught by the Cornell Cooperative Extension on the harmful environmental effects of nitrogen fertilizers and their misapplication. Landscapers will also learn about native plants and how to use them as alternatives to turf grass. In addition, the county will provide and will require all fertilizer retail locations to incorporate educational materials for homeowners into their fertilizer displays.

Ride to Montauk, a planned Manhattan-to-Montauk bicycle trip on Saturday encountered a pothole this week when both East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village denied permits for the event.

Concerned that it would nevertheless occur, the East Hampton Town Board sent Michael Sendlenski, an assistant town attorney, to State Supreme Court in Riverhead on Thursday to seek a temporary restraining order. The judge is expected to annouce a decision on Friday.

The ride is organized by Glen Goldstein of Bicycle Shows U.S. According to its permit application, 5,000 riders were originally estimated but the number was revised by the organizers, who estimated 3,400 would come through East Hampton Town.

A permit to gather at a staging area near the Long Island Rail Road station in East Hampton Village was denied Thursday morning by Becky Molinaro, the village administrator.

In turning down permits, town and village officials expressed concern about the numbers of riders, road safety and congestion, and a lack of adequate notice.

The application for a permit was initially submitted by Mr. Goldstein on May 12, despite a town requirement that mass-gathering permits be obtained at least 30 days in advance. A town permit review committee, which includes police and the town board, had “multiple issues with the permit,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Thursday.

Southampton Town had also found the  ride organizers’ plans troubling at first, turning down a request for a permit to allow 2,500 riders to pass through that town. However, after an appeal was filed with the town’s Public Safety Commission but before a hearing could be held, an offer was made to reduce the number of riders to 1,500, according to Tiffany Scarlato, the Southampton town attorney. A permit was issued.

Depending on the route cyclists take, they pay between $100 and $300 for the ride, which was founded in 1997. Options are for 150, 108, 73, 70, and 30-mile rides, starting in New York City, Babylon, Mastic-Shirley, or East Hampton.

All rides are to end at Camp Hero State Park in Montauk, where an all-you-can-eat meal, free massages, hot showers, beer, and transportation back to the starting points are offered. Refreshments are normally provided at rest stops along the way, including in Water Mill and Amagansett.

The route through East Hampton was to wind through most of the town, from Sag Harbor and Northwest to Three Mile Harbor, Springs, and Amagansett, said Carole Brennan, the town clerk.

On May 15, three days after submitting an application to the town, Mr. Goldstein was informed that as a for-profit entity, Bicycle Shows U.S. had to apply for a commercial mass gathering permit. That application was submitted last Thursday, Ms. Brennan said.

The “multiple miles of road they were going to make use of . . . created all kinds of strategic and safety issues, and police issues as well,” Mr. Cantwell said.

The town sought the restraining order because officials feared a “chaotic situation” if the ride went forward as planned.

While registration for such an event is normally begun well in advance, he added, “We’re getting all of this information very late in the process.” The 30-day lead time for permits, he said, is designed to allow adequate review  time, if needed, to “work out the details in advance, as opposed to coming in with a fait accompli.”

Had the bike ride been for fewer people, or routed only along main roads, a permit might have been approved, Mr. Cantwell said.    

Garages that contain apartments have drawn the attention of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals in recent years and continued to do so on Friday when a hearing on one was postponed and another was granted approval.

The hearing on an application from the chief executive officer of Starbucks to legalize an accessory structure containing a garage and an apartment, which has nearly doubled from its original size, will resume at the board’s next meeting, on June 13. But its adjournment did not stop attorneys from lobbying the board to look favorably on the application and a neighbor from asking that it be denied.

Elizabeth and Julien Eisenstein of 10 Georgica Road, however, received approval to replace part of the foundation of a 1,018-square-foot, two-story garage that contains an apartment. It is sinking on one side and will be lifted onto a new foundation. Although the structure is a second residence on a single lot, it is legal because it predates the recent village code prohibition on such structures. The applicant had submitted an affidavit from a lifelong East Hampton resident, Frank Tillinghast, stating that he had visited the apartment more than 65 years ago.

Howard Schultz, of Starbucks, and his wife, Sheri Kersch-Schultz, own four-plus acres at 14 Gracie Lane. A prior owner had received zoning board approval to construct a 650-square-foot garage and caretaker’s apartment there in 1986. When the Schultzes bought the property in 1995, they obtained a certificate of occupancy that described the accessory structure the same way as in 1986. The building now measures 1,022 square feet and includes four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a half-bath.

In March, Leonard Ackerman, the Schultzes’ attorney, told the board the earlier certificate of occupancy had been ratified by the building inspector in 1995, which, he said, demonstrated an understanding that there were no code violations involved. He reiterated that opinion on Friday. He also argued that the previous owner’s 1986 request for a variance had been unnecessary because the property was larger than four acres, allowing a secondary dwelling under the village code at the time. (The village rescinded that provision last year.)

In 2012, when the Schultzes sought to add two bedrooms and two bathrooms to their main house, the building inspector noted that the accessory structure did not match the last C. of O. The zoning board granted the request on the condition that the accessory structure be reduced to its original 650 square feet, a condition to which the applicant agreed. Mr. Schultz now promises to reduce the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to two each if the Z.B.A. allows them to keep the excess square footage.

Mr. Ackerman told board members that if the application were denied, “we, of course, have the right to go to another appellate entity . . . the Supreme Court in Riverhead, and ask them for the relief.”

Brian Matthews, representing Donald Kostin, a neighbor who owns 73 Lily Pond Lane, said the application contained nothing that would allow the board to even entertain the request, much less grant it, calling it “rife with faulty factual premises and irrelevant legal discussions.”

“They continually overlook the fact that in 1986 specific square footages were given,” Mr. Matthews said, referring to numerous attorneys who have argued on the Schultzes’ behalf. Mr. Matthews noted that the village had rescinded the provision allowing secondary structures on certain properties before the Schultzes filed their present application. Mr. Ackerman’s memorandum, he said, “contains absolutely no discussion of that controlling fact at all. I think that’s pretty telling.” The application to legalize the structure, he said, isn’t permitted under the village code, “and it’s not permitted to be modified by any vehicles that they put in front of you.”

In other action, the board granted an adjournment, until June 27, of a hearing on an application from Loida Lewis, concerning her property at 165 Lily Pond Lane. She seeks permits and variances to allow the reconstruction and expansion of a pre-existing one-story cottage as an addition to the main house there. She also seeks the continued existence of a 650-square-foot game room with half-bath that was converted from a garage and 400 square feet of decking and stairs.

Cyril’s Fish House, the popular roadside restaurant on the Napeague stretch, received the okay to open for the season last Thursday, when acting Su­preme Court Justice Joseph Farneti lifted a temporary restraining order that would have required the restaurant to operate in conformance to its layout in the mid-1980s, when the establishment was much smaller.

According to Justice Farneti, speaking in New York State Supreme Court in Riverhead, the owners of the restaurant had remedied conditions that had posed “imminent danger” to the public and that first caused him to issue the restraining order on April 12. However, he also fast-tracked East Hampton Town’s lawsuit against the restaurant for operating an illegally expanded business, setting a June 9 date for a hearing.

On May 20, Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector, lifted a stop work order that applied to work being done on a front brick patio and a dry bar. In January, the patio had been pulled up and the bar moved to allow for the removal of two 2,000-gallon underground gasoline storage tanks dating back many years to when the spot was a gas station. Mr. Preiato said at the time that the owners had not obtained permits for any of the work and halted it.

On May 21, Mr. Preiato said he had lifted the order with the understanding that the bricks would be replaced by clean local gravel. He also said that the owners had obtained the needed permits for the removal of the tanks.

The bricks have been moved from the front area, and there is now a level surface of gravel where the front patio had been.

Cyril’s was open last weekend and as crowded as ever, many of its patrons no doubt unaware of the legal issues that could have kept the hotspot shuttered.

East Hampton Town

Push for Airport Noise Complaints

With the summer season under way at East Hampton Airport, the Quiet Skies Coalition issued a press release this week urging “aircraft-noise-affected residents” to log complaints by calling the aircraft noise complaint line at 800-476-4817, or posting complaints online at plane­noise.com/khto.

After reviewing a report recently issued to the East Hampton Town Board by a business and finance advisory committee subgroup that analyzed the airport finances, Quiet Skies applauded the work of the group, which determined that the airport could be maintained and operated without Federal Aviation Administration money.

The determination, Kathleen Cunningham, the Quiet Skies Coalition director, said in the release, will “pave the way for the town board to act on its intention to reduce the impacts of aircraft on the community by limiting access to East Hampton Airport,” once a set of obligations to the F.A.A., which come with accepting federal money, expires at the end of the year. The Quiet Skies Coalition, she said, “has long supported the safe operation of [East Hampton Airport], but not at the expense of the noise-affected.”

Suffolk County

Water Pollution Video Contest

Suffolk County is sponsoring a contest to select a TV spot and a short video that would educate the public about nitrogen pollution and the ways that individuals can help improve water quality.

In announcing a Reclaim Our Water initiative and SepticSmart program, County Executive Steve Bellone called an increase of nitrogen pollution in ground and surface waters from septic systems and cesspool pollution “alarming,” and said it is “leading toward an ecological collapse.” He said “immediate and decisive action” is needed.

Videos should be one to three minutes long, and TV spots, 30 or 60 seconds. Suggested topics include ways to reduce polluted runoff into ground and surface waters, new septic waste processing technologies, the importance of wetlands, and marine debris prevention. Six winning videos and three “honorable mention” entries will be chosen to be featured on the county website and screened at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington in September during a SepticSmart week. The creators will receive prizes.

Entries must be submitted by Aug. 1. Complete information is available on the county website, on a “CrapSHOOT video contest” page.    

New York State

C.P.F. Revenues Spike

Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund revenues for the first quarter of the year are up almost 13 percent over last year.

The 2-percent tax on most real estate transfers, approved in 1999 by the voters in five East End towns to establish a pool of money for open space, farmland, and historic preservation, generated more than $29 million in the first four months of 2014, on 2,446 transactions, and $7.8 million in April alone, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. reported in a press release. Last year, there were 2,767 real estate transactions subject to the tax in the first quarter of the year.

In East Hampton, first-quarter 2014 revenues were $7.9 million, compared to $7.3 million during the same period last year. Since its inception, the transfer tax has generated more than $914 million for preservation in the region. Mr. Thiele noted in his release that last year was the second-largest year for C.P.F. revenues, exceeded only by 2007.

Federal

Seek Copter Route Re-Up

A requirement that helicopters flying between New York City and the East End follow an over-water route off Long Island’s north shore is due to expire in August, but state elected officials are lobbying for the rule, put into place by the Federal Aviation Administration two years ago, to be made permanent.

The mandatory route was established for a trial period to address increasing complaints by Long Island residents about helicopter noise.

On Tuesday, Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representative Tim Bishop urged Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and F.A.A. Administrator Michael Huerta to not only establish the mandatory route permanently, but also to expand it to require helicopters to follow a total over-water route, and to go around Orient Point and Shelter Island when landing at South Fork airports. They also suggested modifications designed to have helicopters avoid a few problem areas on Nassau County’s north shore.    

    A consultant’s assertion that East Hampton Town has nothing to gain by fixing and reopening its scavenger waste treatment plant, which has been offline since 2012 and used solely as a transfer station, went unchallenged at a hearing held by the town board last week.

    Few members of the public spoke at the hearing, where Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates reviewed the report he had already delivered to the board. His extensive examination of the facility included a look at operating procedures, permit and regulatory issues, the septage waste that is delivered and waste treatment alternatives, and a financial analysis.

    The town could realize $40,000 to $50,000 a month in “easy savings,” by closing the plant, he said last week. There is “little to no value” in keeping it open, he said.

    Most East Hampton septic waste carters are already depositing their loads at other facilities upIsland, he said. Dumping fees do not cover the town’s costs, and keeping the facility open would require the town to subsidize the transfer station to the tune of “at least a half million dollars a year,” Mr. Lombardo said.

    The consultant, and speakers from the audience, suggested that money could be put to better use on water-quality protection initiatives such as, perhaps, providing financial incentives for individual property owners to upgrade below-par septic systems.

    It makes “economic sense” to close the plant and to direct the savings toward other aspects of a comprehensive septic waste management plan, said Dominick Stanzione, a former town councilman, who advocated hiring Mr. Lombardo and the development of such a plan.

    Speaking for Concerned Citizens of Montauk, Jeremy Samuelson, its executive director, also advocated directing funds toward water quality projects.

    About two-thirds of the septic waste being dealt with at the plant, Mr. Lombardo said, is pumped out of failing septic systems. By maintaining the status quo, he said, “the town is, really, encouraging failing septic systems not to be repaired.”

    A look at some examples of restaurants, for instance, that have to have their septic systems routinely pumped, showed that the establishments would make out better, financially, if they took the money spent on pump-outs and used it to upgrade their septics instead.

    “In many areas,” he said, “excessive pumping is considered a health hazard and is illegal.”

    Arthur Malman, the head of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee, agreed with Mr. Lombardo’s analysis. The committee, he said, had told previous town officials in 2008, 2009, and 2010 that the waste plant was in disrepair and not operating properly but the reports, he said, “were just ignored.”

    “To us it makes no sense to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide a place where one truck can move waste to another truck,” Mr. Malman said.

    Margaret Turner, the executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance, urged the board to address the issue of septic waste “comprehensively” and to look into “sewage treatment systems that are appropriate for East Hampton Town.”

    “The need to update failing systems and save our water should trump everything,” she said.

    Mr. Lombardo’s analysis of the plant is just the first part of a more comprehensive study that will include recommendations regarding septic system upgrades and other overall water quality projects, said Supervisor Larry Cantwell.

    Mr. Cantwell said that he would support shutting down the transfer station, though perhaps not until after the summer. If a private company expressed interest in continuing to run the transfer station at no cost to the town, he would consider that option, he said.