Call It a ‘Material Breach’

The owner of a nine-acre agricultural reserve at 625 Butter Lane in Bridgehampton, who is seeking permission from the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals to construct housing for agricultural laborers on the property, recently received notice from an attorney for the town that such development would constitute a “material breach” of an easement.

Adam Shapiro, the manager of the limited liability company that owns the parcel and a co-founder of the investment firm East Rock Capital, has been seeking setback variances from the Z.B.A. to construct two buildings totaling more than 2,000 square feet to house workers who would operate a tree farm. A site plan for the property also includes a greenhouse, a storage structure, a parking area, an outdoor kitchen, and a free-standing bathroom.

The agricultural reserve was created in 1996 when the land, which had been owned by the Hampton Day School, was subdivided.

Earlier this month, James Burke, a town attorney, wrote a letter to John Bennett, a lawyer who has been representing Mr. Shapiro before the Z.B.A., and included a copy of the easement the Hampton Day School had granted the town at the time of the subdivision.

The easement “expressly prohibits any ‘temporary or permanent residential or residential accessory structures,’ ” Mr. Burke wrote in the April 12 letter. “And it is the fiduciary duty of the town . . . to properly enforce the terms contained within each easement.”

Mr. Bennett on Tuesday called Mr. Burke’s letter “an irrelevancy.” The zoning board, he said, “has no authority to enforce or interpret a covenant.”  Patrick Fife, a lawyer for two neighbors who have opposed the application, disagreed with that assessment. Since the town attorney has interpreted the language of the easement, he said yesterday, the Z.B.A. would be bound to apply that interpretation. 

The Z.B.A. hearing on the application ended on March 21, but Mr. Bennett has until Friday, May 3, to file written submissions to the board. He said he plans to provide the Z.B.A. with examples of judicial decisions that allowed agriculture housing to be built on properties similar to Mr. Shapiro’s.

A decision on the application is expected to be announced at the Z.B.A. meeting on June 6.