Government

The owners of a 2,529-square-foot vacation house on Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, which is on a lot identified by the East Hampton Town Planning Department as “pristine dune land,” sought a permit Tuesday before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals to add another 1,464 square feet plus decking.

In an unusually lively first meeting of the year, the East Hampton Town Trustees heard an appeal from Sara Davison, executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, for permission to conduct a survey of the pond’s marine life.

East Hampton Town

Building Code Revisions

After holding hearings on changes to the town building code, the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday approved several revisions, including one that would reduce the size of houses that can be built throughout the town.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee and an owner of the Hampton Country Day Camp in East Hampton, who had challenged the East Hampton Town Code’s limits on the number of people sharing a house as unconstitutional, lost his motion to dismiss a town case against the camp in State Supreme Court, Riverhead, last month.

The filming permits issued by East Hampton Town to producers, filmmakers, and still photographers seeking to use local sites for TV shows, movies, and ads are expected to take center stage before the town board in the coming days of this new year.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee will celebrate the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump and Mike Pence as president and vice president of the United States with a party at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

Guests can “feel free to dress in formal attire,” according to an invitation. Tickets to the celebration, which will take place from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. the day of the inauguration, cost $50 in advance and $60 at the door.

A request from the owners of one of the last undeveloped beachfront parcels on Marine Boulevard in Amagansett to add a second story to an already approved one-story residence was denied on Dec. 13, at the year’s final meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals.

With the new year approaching, East Hampton Town officials have looked ahead to the $4.6 million they estimate the town will receive annually from the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund for water quality improvement, or $152 million over the life of the program.

A rally hosted by environmental groups, elected officials, labor unions, and civic organizations drew more than 100 people to the Long Island Power Authority’s headquarters in Uniondale on Tuesday.

A 25-acre tract of land in the Buckskill area of East Hampton will be purchased and preserved by East Hampton Town, and could become a recreation destination, according to a vote of the town board last Thursday.

East Hampton Town

Organizational Meeting

The East Hampton Town Board will hold its 2017 organizational meeting at Town Hall at 10 a.m. on Jan. 3, just before a work session.

Seeking a Perennial Garden

A small step toward curtailing the use of methoprene, a mosquito larvicide, in the Town of East Hampton was taken this month when the Suffolk County Department of Public Works agreed to work with the town trustees and other town officials to that end.

The East Hampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force, concerned about what its members say appears to be an increase in young adult and high school suicides that may have been related to gender identity and to bullying, is seeking support for increased mental health services here.

In a presentation last week at an East Hampton Village Board meeting, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who is the town board’s liaison to the committee, summarized the task force’s recent activities and said its members believe the town faces “a bias issue.”

The creation of year-round housing in outbuildings on lots of an acre or more, to be rented to permanent residents at prices within affordable housing guidelines, got the go-ahead with a vote of the East Hampton Town Board on Dec. 1.

After a hearing on revisions to the town housing code that evening, the town board voted to allow, for the first time, the creation of accessory dwellings in detached structures, but only on acre-sized properties. 

The East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on Dec. 7, which included public hearings and site plan reviews, was unusually contentious.

The removal of more than 55,000 pounds of macroalgae from Georgica Pond last summer is likely responsible for a substantial reduction this year in levels of toxic blue-green algae, and should be repeated next year, the East Hampton Town Trustees were told on Monday.

The $8.6 million purchase of more than 25 acres of woodland in East Hampton’s Buckskill area will be the subject of a hearing at the Town Board’s next formal meeting tonight at 6:30.

East Hampton Town is to become the first “small community” on Long Island to be certified as a clean-energy community by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, an agency that provides financial incentives for smart-energy usage to municipalities, homes, businesses, and other entities.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted Tuesday to deny an application from a couple who bought a house on Marine Boulevard in Amagansett in February and were hoping to replace it with a larger one.

Merit pay for heads of departments and apartments in outbuildings.

Three public hearings are scheduled to be held in front of the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Wednesday, starting at 7 p.m.

Marc Rowan, an investment billionaire whose plans for the several commercial properties he has bought in Montauk have had the attention of East Hampton Town planners for quite some time, may have been expecting formal planning board approval of a site plan for his Arbor restaurant on Nov. 16, but it was not to be.

The East Hampton Town budget was adopted and the moratorium on development along Montauk Highway in Wainscott was approved.

East Hampton Town

Landlord and Tenant Rights

Despite the nationwide rallies and candlelight vigils protesting the election of Donald Trump last week, those who voted for him on Nov. 8 remain steadfast. The president-elect won Suffolk County, though not the South Fork, yet his support here was still strong

At their meeting on Monday, the East Hampton Town Trustees basked in the Nov. 4 State Supreme Court decision dismissing private property owners’ claims to sections of the beach at Napeague, but they quickly turned their attention to the use of a mosquito larvicide called methoprene on the lands and waterways under their jurisdiction.

The team representing Marc Rowan — who wants to knock down four small cottages on Firestone Road in Montauk and replace them with three larger ones, each with its own small pool — failed to convince a majority of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals to override a building inspector’s ruling that is holding up his plans.

Changes in the East Hampton Town zoning code that would set limits on the size of houses in keeping with the properties they are on, and other construction details, will be the subject of a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board at Town Hall next Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

The Suffolk Department of Health Services apparently is the only local agency that can enforce an 11-year-old Environmental Protection Agency requirement that large-capacity cesspools are illegal and should be removed. 

The issue drew the attention of the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Nov. 2 as members reviewed a site plan for the Arbor restaurant property in Montauk. The restaurant is near three bodies of water: Fort Pond, Fort Pond Bay, and Tuthill Pond.

The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter will join hundreds of Y.M.C.A. facilities across the nation in providing free child care on Tuesday for people heading to the polls. The service will be available between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.