With East Hampton Town’s rental registry law to go into effect before the summer season, landlords can learn about how to obtain the required registration number, and more about the law, at a pair of upcoming workshops organized by town officials.

Reservations can be made for one of three sessions to be held at Town Hall on Wednesday at 1, 3, and 5 p.m. by emailing Colleen Reynolds, Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s assistant, at [email protected], or by calling the supervisor’s office.

Applications for registry numbers are available on the town’s website, at ehamptonny.gov, and at the Building Department, where questions can be directed. The Building Department will begin processing applications on Feb. 1, and town ordinance officers will begin enforcing the law in May.

NancyLynn Schurr Thiele, who has served as a senior counsel in the office of the New York State Senate Majority, is to be appointed as an assistant town attorney by the East Hampton Town Board tomorrow night. Also on the agenda for appointment as an assistant town attorney is Hope De Lauter.

Ms. Thiele, who is married to New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., had been considered for a job as lead town attorney for Southampton by newly elected Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman.

With a board split along party lines, Mr. Schneiderman has delayed seeking approval of appointments until after a special election that will be held next week to fill a town board vacancy. Michael Sendlenski, who had been an assistant town attorney in East Hampton, was recently appointed as the town’s top attorney after the resignation of Elizabeth Vail from that post.

A proposal to build a large beachfront house on Napeague, at 22 Shore Road just west of the White Sands resort, was rejected on Tuesday by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals.

No variances were needed for the project, only a special permit to build in the dunes. More than 14,000 square feet would have had to be cleared, which one board member, David Lys, called a “massive overdevelopment of the property.”

The board held a public hearing on the proposal on Aug. 4, during which its chairman, John Whelan, read its requests into the record. The application, he said, called for a “4,320-square-foot, two-story house, 900 square feet of porches, decking, and steps, a 596-square-foot swimming pool with spa and fence, and a 676-square-foot pervious driveway.”

“This is one of the last vacant oceanfront properties,” Mr. Lys said Tuesday.

Cate Rogers reminded board members that they had to adhere to town code standards when issuing a natural resources special permit. The code, she said, would preclude the proposed project, which was the focus of heated opposition from neighbors during the August hearing.

Ms. Rogers compared the house and pool, in relation to the lot, to putting “a size-seven foot into a size-five shoe.”

Damage to the dune was another concern. “The dry wells are set on a back sloping part of the dune. How do we know that it is not going to be exposed at some point?” asked Roy Dalene. The applicants, he said, wanted to “majorly cut into the dune.”

Lee White questioned the location of the septic system, noting that a variance would be needed from the Suffolk County Health Department if the zoning board were to approve it.

Mr. Whelan seized upon Ms. Rogers’s shoe metaphor, doing it one better: “It is a size-nine foot in a size-five shoe.”

All five board members voted to deny the application.

The Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, a consortium of shorefront property owners, has launched a website, friendsofgeorgicapond.org. The not-for-profit group, with a stated mission to preserve the pond’s ecosystem through science-based, watershed-wide policy and restoration, has asked the public to visit the website to learn about the organization and the restoration efforts.

The site includes photos showing blooms of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which formed on the pond in the summers of 2014 and ’15, and enables visitors to contact the organization and join its email list.

The group, formed last year, retained Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University to perform an ongoing study of the pond’s ecological condition and propose remediation. It has also appealed to the East Hampton Town Trustees to open the pond to the Atlantic Ocean more frequently than its traditional biannual schedule, arguing that salt water would help dissolve the algal bloom.

“Georgica Pond is a unique body of water and a valuable resource to East Hampton,” Sara Davison, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “The deterioration of the water quality of the pond demanded a response in the formation of a not-for-profit organization dedicated exclusively to its restoration. The organization is working closely with all levels of government and local environmental organizations to plan and implement the most cost effective restoration and policy.

A proposed subdivision of 36-plus oceanfront acres in Wainscott which is before the East Hampton Town Planning Board, has pitted two executives of major corporations who are neighbors against each other.

Jane Lauder, a granddaughter of Estee Lauder, who founded the global cosmetics company that bears her name, owns the land. It is held by a limited liability corporation called Wainscott Holdings. Opposing Ms. Lauder’s plans is Yves-Andre Istel, a senior adviser to Rothschild Global Financial Advisory, among posts in other corporations. Others have also expressed opposition to the plans, although their letters were received after a public hearing on the proposal, on Nov. 18, had been closed.

Ms. Lauder’s property, just east of Town Line Road, has Wainscott Pond to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Zoned for five-acre minimum house lots, a yield map drawn by George Walbridge Surveyors shows that the land could be divided into six buildable lots. Under the open space provisions of the zoning code, however, the applicant is proposing three lots of about three acres each on the oceanfront and asking permission for two houses on two of the three lots. The remaining acreage would be set aside as an agricultural reserve. The land is in two overlay districts, one agricultural, the other covering coastal erosion hazards.

According to a letter from Anthony B. Tohill, a lawyer representing Ms. Lauder, she has no intention of ever selling the newly created lots. Rather, he wrote, “The Lauder family intends to preserve for their use what is there today.” The fact is that Ms. Lauder already has built a house on the site, or what may actually be two houses, according to town records. The two-story main house, containing 3,500 square feet, received a certificate of occupancy in early 2014. The second building is of one story and contains 931 square feet. The Building Department had ruled that the second structure was an extension of the house rather than a separate one because the two are connected by a 1,060-square-foot wine cellar. It never received a certificate of occupancy, however.

There also are three 600-square-foot structures on the property under subdivision consideration. They sit on a giant deck under a single roof. Called an entertainment pavilion in plans by the New York architectural firm of Shelton, Mindel and Associates, this complex faces Wainscott Pond. The 600 square feet each structure contains is the maximum allowed for accessory structures. The property also contains a fire pit, a pool, more decking, and several air-conditioning units.

The proposed subdivision has been in the works for a couple of years. While no one spoke in opposition at the Nov. 18 hearing, the board has now received nine letters in opposition. The planning board does not have to consider seven of them since they arrived too late. Those seven letters encouraged the town to purchase the land.

Two other letters, which the board can legally consider, are from Mr. Istel and the East Hampton Town Trustees. Christopher Kelley of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, representing Mr. Istel and his wife, Kathleen Begala, agreed that the land is an “excellent candidate for purchase and preservation.” Joanne Pahwul, the assistant director of the town Planning Department, has encouraged the planning board to discuss whether to recommend the purchase. Such a recommendation, though, “can have no impact on the review of the project,” she said.

If the town is not inclined to buy the property, Mr. Kelley asked instead for a scenic easement adjacent to his clients’ property, which would move the building envelope away from it.

The trustees argue that the 100-to-125-foot scenic easements proposed landward of the bluff on the three lots are “not conducive to long-term stabilization of the dunes, and . . . likely to lead to the property owner requesting a rock revetment in the future.”

Ms. Pahwul noted in a memo dated Nov. 30 that the shoreline had “exhibited rapid erosion,” with the toe of the bluff eroded 40 to 50 feet between 2010 and 2013. She said that in 2012 Ms. Lauder had received a permit to deposit 3,333 square feet of beach-compatible sand there and to “replant the dune with beach grass.”

The trustees were also concerned that if the erosion that occurred over the past few years continued, any resulting protective action “would negatively affect the public’s use and enjoyment” of the beach. The letter from the trustees was written by Diane McNally, who is no longer the trustees’ presiding officer.

Mr. Tohill, in a letter responding to both Mr. Kelley and the trustees, derided Ms. McNally’s warning that the subdivision could create a circumstance where a rock revetment would be sought, calling it 100-percent inaccurate. 

The idea that Ms. Lauder is requesting a subdivision with no intent to develop the buildable lots thereby created, was also mentioned in three other letters received after the record had been closed. The letter-writers, Susan Macy, Dennis D’Andrea, and Jose Arandia, are members of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee. They reported that William Fleming, another lawyer for Ms. Lauder, had told the committee that there were “no plans to build on the other two lots.”

A call to Mr. Tohill’s office this week asking what the point of the subdivision was if the land is never to be developed went unanswered. He had written the board saying that Ms. McNally’s warning that the subdivision would have a negative impact on the public’s access to the beach was nonsense and had criticized Mr. Kelley’s request for a scenic easement as entirely self-serving.

Ms. Pahwul weighed in on the scenic easement, noting that the new lots are on land that had historically been farmed, and therefore are not appropriate for scenic easements. Buffering between the properties could be done with plantings, she suggested. She also encouraged the board to consider the town code requirement on “the protection of natural coastal features” when designating any building envelopes.

The subdivision is likely to be on the agenda at the planning board’s next meeting, Jan. 27.

The new year has brought new faces to three of East Hampton Town’s appointed boards.   

The planning board and the zoning board of appeals will each have one new member, named by the town board to replace those whose terms have expired.

Patti Leber, a Montauk resident, real estate professional, and onetime town board candidate who has been serving on the architectural review board, will replace Bob Schaefer on the planning board. She will serve a seven-year term. 

Betsy Smith will step into Ms. Leber’s shoes on the A.R.B., serving until the end of the year.

Don Cirillo’s seat on the zoning board of appeals will be taken by Roy Dalene, who was appointed to a five-year term. 

The requirements of East Hampton Town’s recently enacted rental registry law, and what landlords must do to comply with the new regulations, will be reviewed at two information sessions later this month.

Members of the public can attend one of three sessions to be held on Jan. 27 at Town Hall, at 1, 3, and 5 p.m. Two sessions for real estate professionals will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Jan. 20, also at Town Hall.

Under the new law, all those who rent properties are required to submit information to the town and obtain a rental registration number, which must be included, under penalty, in all for-rent advertisements.

Property owners must provide information such as size, number of bedrooms, certificate of occupancy, tenancy and lease terms, and a notarized “rental property inspection checklist,” and pay a $100 fee for a two-year registration. They are required to update the information as tenants or other conditions change. 

Registry applications will be available online, through the town’s website, beginning on Friday, Jan. 15. While the forms can be downloaded, they must be filed, and fees paid, in person or by mail with the Building Department, which will oversee the registry and process the applications beginning on Feb. 1. Enforcement of the new registration requirement will begin in May, town officials have said.

In addition to attending the information sessions later this month, those with question can contact the East Hampton Town Building Department or email queries to an email address to be set up soon and publicized on the town website.

A planned expansion of decks at 39 of the 40 units at the Ocean Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Napeague would violate the East Hampton Town Code, according to a split decision signed by the zoning board of appeals on Dec. 21.

The decision, which upheld a building inspector’s determination earlier this year, referenced the pertinent section of the code: “No building or structure or part thereof which is used by a nonconforming use shall be enlarged or added to.” The Ocean Colony is allowed to operate in an area zoned for residential use only because its existence predates the code.

The property is 8.6 acres in size. Hoping to increase its decks from 78 square feet each to 112 square feet, the resort first sought the necessary site-plan approval from the town planning board, which asked the Building Department to weigh in. Its determination was received in March, setting in motion the appeal to the zoning board.

At a Sept. 22 hearing, Jonathan Tarbet, an East Hampton attorney, and Britton Bistrian of Land Use Solutions argued on behalf of Ocean Colony that the board was bound by the precedents set by previous Building Department determinations. Mr. Tarbet argued that other pre-existing restaurants in residential districts have been allowed to expand their decks, singling out Ruschmeyer’s, on Second House Road in Montauk, which received approval in 2002 from the late Don Sharkey, then the town’s chief building inspector, and East by Northeast on Edgemere Street, also in Montauk, whose okay came from Tom Preiato, the most recent former head of the department.

However, David Lys, Cate Rogers, and John Whelan, the board’s chairman, found that while the board should acknowledge prior Building Department determinations, it “is only subject to its own prior precedent.” Elizabeth L. Baldwin, the board’s attorney, wrote the decision.

During the hearing, Mr. Whelan had called the proposal “an expansion of outdoor living space,” and Ann Glennon, the current head of the Building Department, supported the March determination. She told board members that they needed to review the town code, not precedents.

Don Cirillo, whose five-year term on the board ends today, and Lee White were the dissenters in the 3-to-2 vote.

After deciding earlier this month to enact a rental registry in the Town of East Hampton, officials are developing the system through which landlords can file with the town and obtain the registration number required before a property can be rented.

Registration numbers will be issued by the town building inspector after property owners provide information including the number of rooms and square footage of bedrooms, a copy of the latest certificate of occupancy, the number of tenants and length of tenancy, if known, and a notarized rental property inspection checklist, in which the property owner or a licensed architect, engineer, or home inspector must swear to property conditions, such as whether the site meets town and state building codes.

There is a $100 fee for the registration number, which will be good for two years. Should tenants or lease periods change, updates must be filed with the town, at no additional fee.

The town will begin to process applications on Feb. 1, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said last week, and will begin to enforce the law requiring registration on May 1.

The town plans to make registration forms available online, though they will have to be delivered in person or mailed to the building inspector.

Penalties for failure to register range from a $150 to $1,500 fine or up to 15 days in jail for advertising a property without a registry number, to fines of from $3,000 to $15,000 or six months’ imprisonment for a first offense of not registering a property. Repeated violations are punishable by fines of from $8,000 to $30,000 or up to six months in jail.

Informational meetings for the general public and for real estate agents and others involved in property rentals are planned for next month, Mr. Cantwell said, and an information sheet will be developed and circulated.

Demand for electricity on the South Fork has far outpaced the rest of Long Island, with particularly high usage in the summer and on weekends and holidays — and residential air conditioning is the primary culprit. 

Demand has vastly outpaced population growth. Over the last decade, the number of residential accounts has grown by 4 percent, while peak use has risen 44 percent, according to PSEG Long Island, which manages the island’s electrical grid on behalf of the Long Island Power Authority. Commercial accounts have grown by 12.3 percent over the same period. 

“We continue to build very energy-inefficient homes — big homes — in the Town of East Hampton, and we all keep plugging more stuff in,” said Gordian Raacke, executive director of the advocacy group Renewable Energy Long Island and a member of the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee. “We didn’t used to have tablets, three computers at home, and big-screen televisions.”  

The peak load of 286 megawatts in 2015 is expected to grow to 314 megawatts in 2019 and increase, at an average rate of 2.6 percent, to 341 megawatts by 2022. In the area east of Buell Lane in East Hampton Village, the peak load is projected to be 41 megawatts in 2019 and 54 megawatts by 2030. 

Around 22,000 residential customers on the South Fork have central air conditioning, according to PSEG, and some 18,300 have swimming pool pumps. They are largely responsible for residential customers’ average annual energy use of approximately 11,500 kilowatt hours, compared to an Islandwide average of 9,700. 

“This is the summer population driving that up,” Mr. Raacke said of the steadily increasing demand. “That’s when you’re talking about mansions that run air-conditioners full time, full blast,” and property owners that “often don’t care about how much it’s going to cost in the electric bill.” 

In looking to increase the generation of electricity for the South Fork, PSEG Long Island issued a request for proposals in June seeking an additional 63 megawatts of electricity to be installed between 2017 and 2019. Without additional, locally produced power, new transmission lines would have to be installed. It is apparent from the request for proposals that PSEG wishes to avoid new lines given the uproar in East Hampton to recently installed transmission lines.

Twenty-one proposals were received from 16 companies by the due date of Dec. 2, offering a mix of conventional and renewable electricity sources. 

In addition, Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, has proposed providing the South Fork with electricity generated by 15 offshore wind turbines to be constructed 30 miles from Montauk. The company, which is building a wind farm that will provide power to Block Island, also proposes to build battery energy storage facilities in Montauk and Wainscott. If approved, the project would contribute 33 megawatts to the South Fork upon completion, which could occur by 2022. 

In each of the last 10 years, the South Fork’s annual peak demand occurred during the afternoon in either July or August, most often on a Saturday as a result of the significant summer-weekend population. The transmission and distribution system as a whole does not peak on weekends, however, because the commercial load is far greater on weekdays. On a peak summer day, up to 60 percent of the South Fork’s average residential load is directly attributable to air-conditioning, according to PSEG, which is to choose from among the proposals in May and to begin executing contracts in the fourth quarter of the year.

In its request for proposals PSEG did not stipulate specific technologies, but a summary of responses included battery storage (banks of batteries that are charged during periods of lower demand and discharged into the electrical grid during peak conditions), combustion turbines powered by biofuels, and “distributed resources,” smaller installations spread throughout an area that could incorporate both batteries and cooperative systems through which PSEG would temporarily deactivate high-consuming equipment, by agreement with the customer, to reduce load. 

The latter scheme is based on PSEG Long Island’s Utility 2.0 Long Range Plan, adopted last year, which is guided by the idea that smaller resources spread through a service area may be superior to traditional power plants and transmission lines. Other technologies proposed include conventional fossil fuel-based electricity generation and solar power. 

Jeffrey Weir, PSEG Long Island’s director of communications, would not comment on the specific proposals received but referred to the LIPA board of trustees’ 2012 authorization to diversify its resource portfolio. “PSEG is well on our way to fulfilling the trustees’ commitment of renewables to our energy portfolio,” he said on Tuesday. The company, he said, “wants the best thing for Long Island, not just in price but what’s best for public policy.” 

Mr. Raacke hoped that PSEG would meet the South Fork’s growing demand by “doing the right thing and selecting clean energy, and not more polluting, dirty, inappropriate fossil-fuel technology.” He pointed to the trend toward solar installations that gained momentum on Long Island, if not on the South Fork, this year.

“Islandwide, 2015 has seen huge growth over prior years,” he said, with an estimated 25,000 installations by year’s end. He also pointed to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s directive to the Public Service Commission, issued last month, to adopt a requirement that the state generate 50 percent of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2030. 

Deepwater Wind’s proposal, coming one year after LIPA’s board of trustees rejected a proposed offshore wind farm in favor of 11 solar installations, is particularly intriguing, Mr. Raacke said. “They have scaled it down to match the peak demand, and they’ve coupled it with storage to guarantee to meet peak demand,” he said. “The wind has very good peak matching, but there could be a hot summer afternoon when the wind is not blowing strongly enough. That’s why they have the batteries, to basically guarantee power at all times during those few peak demand events during the summer.” 

That, he said, would mark “the first time a renewable energy developer competes head to head with a conventional fossil technology. That’s changing the game, and is an interesting thing to watch. It could be very attractive to LIPA and PSEG, but we won’t know until May.”