The Lot Is Little

A proposal to build a small house on a lot that is not much more than one-tenth the size zoning calls for was approved by a majority of the Town Zoning Board of Appeals last week.

Four members of the board granted several variances for Clare Tolchin, enabling her to build a one-and-a-half-story house with a first-floor footprint of 640 square feet on her 4,772-square-foot property on Morrell Boulevard, East Hampton. The board's chairman, Jay Schneiderman, abstained.

The neighborhood is zoned for one-acre lots, roughly 40,000 square feet. Though board members said they understood the concerns of neighbors who opposed development of the small parcel, they said they saw no reason Ms. Tolchin should not be allowed the use of her property.

"This is one of those cases that brings up the issues of what zoning's all about," said one board member, Peter Van Scoyoc, during the board's Sept. 30 work session.

Three Front Yards

The lot is "way undersized," Mr. Van Scoyoc acknowledged, adding that the neighbors "understand what the zoning requirements are and they use that as security."

"On the other hand, you have someone who owns this piece of property and wants to utilize it."

The board's vice chairman, Philip Gamble, noted that the property is on the town's tax rolls as an individual lot and thus should be considered developable.

He said the variances requested - three from front-yard setbacks, one from a rear-yard setback, one from a scenic easement setback, and one from the pyramid law - and the house proposed were "not out of line" with the size of the property.

The number of variances sought was affected by the fact that, according to zoning, the odd-shaped lot has three front yards, said Mr. Gamble.

"Very Modest"

Mr. Gamble added that the neighbors could have gotten together to buy the property but did not, and said they could not expect the town to buy it just for their benefit.

Mr. Schneiderman abstained from the vote because he thought the town might indeed be interested in acquiring the lot. He suggested writing to the Town Board to bring the property to its attention, but the other four board members disagreed.

"The house is very modest," was Heather Anderson's conclusion. She said she understood neighbors' concerns about their property values, but observed that "there are not a lot of building lots for people of modest means."

Ms. Anderson added that employees of East Hampton Town (Ms. Tolchin is the wife of John Jilnicki, a deputy town attorney) "are not going to be rich." To deny the request "would be a real hardship," she said.