Coffee To Go, Or Else

Faced with a steady stream of residents who opposed it, the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday voted to table a proposed ban on retail food stores' selling food and drinks to be consumed on site. Board members agreed to put the vote off until the Chamber of Commerce could suggest alternatives.

Had the proposed change gone through, stores such as Java Nation, which sells coffee and pastries along with roasted coffee beans and appliances, would have been forced to stop serving. Espresso, an Italian market, would have been forced to remove its tables and chairs. Sylvester and Co., a household goods and food store, voluntarily removed its tables and chairs recently.

"It's a quality-of-life and sense-of-place issue," said Michael King, a candidate for Village Board. Pedestrians use the opportunity for a "sit and sip" or a "chat and snack," he said.

Leveling The Field

"What is served and how it is served - that's what we're wrestling with," responded Mayor Pierce Hance. "Where would you draw the line?"

Mr. King said the question was a "difficult issue that has to be solved cooperatively" by soliciting the views of the public and the business community.

Vincent (Jim) Ramunno, a board member, said the proposed law was an effort to level a playing field where restaurants are required to provide one parking space for every three tables or pay a $3,000 fee, while food stores are not."We're not trying to put them out of business," he said. "We're trying to make them conform."

But others said they doubted the coffee and pastry sales were having much of an impact on restaurants or the village's tight parking.

Drawing The Line

"I would like to sit and have a cup of coffee," said Lois Carrion, who added she wanted to speak on behalf of the disabled. "I'm going to come to town anyway and I'm going to park my car."

"You should draw a line when people start to object to it," said Christine Hagen. Her husband, Anthony Hagen, said "casualness is what makes it nice to go down to Main Street" and added that he doubted the coffee business would have much impact on restaurants.

Coffee sales are a small part of Java Nation's business, said an owner, Andres Bedini. "Once in a while you find someone reading the paper and having a cup of coffee. I don't think it has much impact on parking." He suggested the village differentiate between stores like his, which is governed by the State Agriculture and Markets law, and Espresso, which must meet Suffolk County Health Department standards for on-site food preparation.

Coffee Bar License?

His wife, Cheryl Bedini, said the store does not encourage people to stay, but provides the tables as a convenience for customers. The village should draw the line at stores that are "enticing people to sit down" for a meal, she said.

Steve Hadley urged the village to create a coffee-bar license to permit continued use, and Katherine Holabird suggested that the difference between establishments would be easy to see. "A restaurant has a chef and a kitchen. A coffee bar does not," she said.

The board agreed that it would try to reach a compromise that "would please 99 percent of the people," as Lillian Vishno, a board member, put it. Nada Barry, a representative of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, agreed to bring the matter before the group for discussion.

Steinbeck Bulkhead

In other matters, the board over the objections of Mr. Hance approved the construction of a 130-foot timber bulkhead at the Bluff Point Lane residence of Elaine Steinbeck. The board stipulated that the structure must be made from untreated wood or other approved materials.

"I think this was a quick rush to judgment," Mr. Hance told Diane Laverriere of En Consultants, who represented Mrs. Steinbeck. "I don't think enough time and effort has been given to alternative methods."

Mr. Hance said the property lies in a conservation area, created by the village's waterfront revitalization plan, where bulkheads are not recommended unless a house is in imminent danger of collapse.

Havens Beach Carnival

But Ms. Laverriere said the plan had been approved by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Southampton Town Trustees, and the village's own Planning Board. The D.E.C. had ruled against a rock pile and also said the slope of the bank was too steep for natural plantings, she said.

The Village Board also approved the request of the Sag Harbor Fire Department to use Havens Beach for a fund-raising carnival from Aug. 13 to Aug. 17 from 6 to 11 p.m.. Earlier, the department was given permission to use the former Cilli Farm on Long Island Avenue, but that plan was jeopardized when the carnival owner inspected the low-lying site earlier this spring and determined it would be too wet in the event of rain.