After learning that he would not be reappointed chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, Samuel Kramer announced at the board’s Dec. 18 meeting that he has decided to leave the board altogether, a year before his seven-year term was set to expire.
“Let the words be yours, I am done with mine,” he said, at the end of his last meeting, quoting the Grateful Dead song “Cassidy.”
Further, he shared his opinion with the board that he had “misgivings” about the town board’s application of the Monroe balancing test, which it used to exempt the town’s new senior citizens center from planning and zoning regulations.
The majority of the town board had voted on Dec. 10 to exempt the project from review, affirming that it had weighed the potential environmental impacts against the project’s overall benefit to the public good and found that the benefits were pressing enough to push forward with the plan. Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, Councilman David Lys, and Councilwoman Cate Rogers voted in favor of the exemption. Ian Calder-Piedmonte abstained and Tom Flight opposed the resolution.
After consulting with Rob Connelly, the town attorney, Mr. Kramer said he was told that the planning board had four months to challenge the resolution with an Article 78 lawsuit.
“There is no immediate ‘do it today’ urgency, the issue can wait until next year,” he told the board. “In a few weeks, this board will have a new chairman and under that new chairman, you can have that discussion. If on the basis of counsel’s advice, the board decides it wants to bring an Article 78 proceeding, the planning board will have enough time.”
He said his feelings about the resolution had nothing to do with the proposed senior center, over which his board had sought lead agency status last spring to conduct an environmental review under the New York State Environmental Review Act laws. Ultimately, on May 3, a commissioner for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation awarded lead agency status to the town board.
As lead agency, on Nov. 19, the town board determined that the project would not have significant environmental impacts. That, despite concerns about how the large-scale clearing, necessary to fit the 22,000-square-foot senior center on seven acres of town property in Amagansett, might affect the federally-endangered northern long-eared bat. At the Dec. 10 meeting, Jeffrey Bragman, an attorney and former town board member who has been consistently critical of the project, said it would lead to 300 percent more clearing than allowed under town law. In order for the town to not have to apply to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for an “incidental take” permit, it needs to complete clearing by Feb. 28.
An attempt to pass a resolution to spend $215,000 on “pre-clearing” trees at the senior center site at that meeting led to calls for board discussion from Mr. Calder-Piedmonte and Mr. Flight.
Mr. Calder-Piedmonte abstained from that vote. He indicated to the board that the design of the senior center had been “fleshed out” before he joined the board, last January. “I just wasn’t involved in those decisions. So, I don’t want to vote against, because I don’t want to be obstructionist.” In a phone call this week he clarified his position on the Monroe test and said he “Didn’t think the resolution was improper.”
Mr. Flight took it one step further, voting against both. “The precedent this sets, to take decisions like this outside the typical process, is not one I can support,” he said.
The resolution states that the town board will request written comments from the planning board and the architectural review board regarding the proposed site plan. However, the boards will only have 30 days to respond, after which “the town board may take further action on the project as it deems appropriate.”
The planning board typically meets twice a month.
“In other words, the resolution gives this board one shot, and 30 days to prepare that shot,” Mr. Kramer told the planning board at its Dec. 18 meeting, hinting strongly that he felt one chance for comment, after which the town board could move forward regardless, wasn’t enough input. “Now, I think it’s incumbent on the planning board to, at the very least, speak to an independent attorney to see if the Monroe resolution is good enough, and whether or not this board should bring an Article 78 proceeding.”
It’s not clear what a “win” would look like should the planning board go through with a lawsuit. Could a judge agree that the Monroe analysis was inadequate, and force the town board to follow the usual procedure for a construction project? Or could a judge simply recommend more input from the town’s advisory boards? Either way, the town can begin clearing trees for the new senior center at 403 Abraham’s Path.
Ms. Burke-Gonzalez did not respond to a request for comment on either Mr. Kramer’s departure from the board or a potential lawsuit. At today’s organizational meeting, the town board will appoint a new chair to replace Mr. Kramer, and may also appoint a new member to the planning board. An agenda for today’s meeting had not been posted as of Monday afternoon.
