Sometimes it’s the small things that matter.
A “dot” on a town map of a Springs-Fireplace Road property was a hot topic at last Thursday’s town board meeting as the board discussed a controversial car-wash plan proposed there.
The wooded lot, located between Maryland and Ohio Avenues — one-way streets that lead in and out of the town recycling center — has been in the development crosshairs for nearly 20 years, ever since a local businessman, Greg Darvin, identified it as a prime location for a car wash. The proposal is working its way through the Planning Department, where, says Eric Schantz, assistant planning director, it’s “very nearly complete.”
It is now up to the town board, he said, to decide whether to amend the underlying Urban Renewal map that “currently requires that access for the lot be taken directly from Springs-Fireplace Road.”
Enter the dot, which has “caused consternation for a few years,” according to Mr. Darvin’s attorney, Anthony Pasca. The problem, he says, is that according to a 1999 town memo he cited during last week’s board session, the dot does not appear to be “the right spot” to access the lot.
Is the dot meant to be an exclusive point of access, or just one point of access?, Mr. Pasca wanted to know.
That is not a Zen riddle, but an important point. The Planning Department will hold a hearing once the application is complete, said Mr. Schantz, but not until the town board decides whether to amend the Urban Renewal map to address the dot.
The applicants, he said, “have proposed relocating the access point to the entrance lane, otherwise known as Maryland Avenue, for the East Hampton Transfer Station.” Both the town’s consulting engineer and the Planning Department, said Mr. Schantz, “find that this is a superior access point, although that does not mean that there are no other concerns related to on and off-site [traffic] circulation.”
Mr. Pasca told the town board, however, that Mr. Darvin’s own engineers agreed that it was “better to allow access from the side streets.”
“If you are putting new dots on Maryland and Ohio,” Mr. Pasca said to the board, “let them do their job to determine where the exact dot would go. The precise point of entry should be left to the Planning Board’s discretion.”
If the town board ultimately votes not to amend the Urban Renewal map, thereby moving the entrance and exit points to the side streets, said Mr. Schantz, the applicants would need to reconfigure the site layout to provide those accesses on Springs-Fireplace Road.
That would mean new curb cuts on the well-traveled thoroughfare and a disruption or bisecting of a contiguous and proposed 50-foot-wide scenic easement along the property line at Springs-Fireplace Road.
Mr. Darvin’s long-in-the-works proposal would cover nearly 5,500 square feet, with parking and accessory structures, on the acre or so of land bounded by Maryland and Ohio Avenues.
As The Star has reported, documents submitted with the application say the car wash could service up to 80 cars an hour. Mr. Darvin, who is also the founder and owner of Pristine Pools, first filed his application in 2015. He has been represented at past board meetings by Britton Bistrian, a land use consultant.
Ms. Bistrian was on vacation this week and unavailable for comment. In previous testimony before the town board, she has said that a car wash is the most environmentally friendly way to clean a vehicle, especially in relation to at-home washings, where up to 150 gallons of water may be used. The proposed facility would use biodegradable and enzyme-based cleaners, she told the board in 2019, and all but 11 gallons of water from each wash would be recycled.
The Planning Department had previously asked for and received parking studies related to the proposal, which had been met with opposition from neighbors on the grounds of increased traffic.
