An application before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals that would see the installation of a detached arbor and sign featuring a clock resembling a Rolex watch face at the Odd Fellows Hall building at 28 Newtown Lane, which houses the Rolex boutique, was again received skeptically when the board met on Friday.
An L.L.C. called 26 Newtown Lane seeks area variances from the zoning code to erect a detached ground sign in the core commercial district, where they are prohibited, and where signs are required to be mounted to a building. The applicant would require a variance of 2 feet, 11 inches to permit a freestanding sign to have a height of 10 feet, 11 inches where the maximum permitted height of a freestanding sign is eight feet.
The hearing was kept open at the board’s July 10 meeting pending input from the historic preservation committee. John McGuirk, the board’s chairman, said on Friday that the committee “hit the nail on the head” with its remarks regarding the application.
Vintage photos and postcards show that Odd Fellows Hall “was purposefully set back from the street with open lawn in front, and as such it is one of the very few remaining open spaces in the village core,” reads the committee’s reply.
The most recent village comprehensive plan, the reply continues, “specifies ‘identifying important open spaces including . . . open spaces in the commercial district that maintain air and light and enhance the character of the village.’ ”
The committee, wrote Frank Newbold, its co-chairman, “believes granting the variance application for the detached arbor/sign almost 11 foot high featuring a double-sided clock with bright metal detailing will negatively impact the open space front yard as well as obscure the facade of the building, thus altering the historic character of the structure and the view from the public sidewalk.” The committee is unanimously opposed to the application, he wrote.
“I don’t think anything that large and with signage on it should be placed in front, blocking the view of that from Newtown Lane,” Mr. McGuirk said on Friday. Board members voiced their agreement.
Constructed in 1897 as a summer cottage by the architect Joseph Greenleaf Thorp, who also designed the Grey Gardens estate and numerous other summer cottages, Odd Fellows Hall is a historic landmark. Installation of the arbor/sign would require approval of the design review board. A trellis arch that had been installed in front of the building last year without approval was removed earlier this year, following a review by the D.R.B.
Jameson McWilliams is the attorney representing the Udell family, owners of Odd Fellows Hall and the London Jewelers stores at 2 Main Street in the village, in Southampton Village, and elsewhere. Some of the design requests originated from Rolex, she told the board, and the Udells “would like to be able to bring back to Rolex the request for an alternative design, something that would hopefully address some of the concerns of the committee and the board.”
Ms. McWilliams read into the record a letter from Mark Udell. “We have been very supportive of maintaining the feel of the village and worked very hard to see to it that any improvements are fully compliant and within guidelines,” she read. “We are seeking a way to work with Rolex and their operating guidelines with the goals of historic preservation.” The Udells “are prepared to go back to the drawing board with Rolex and try to identify another approach that could be accepted and appreciated as a civic amenity” — a public clock in the retail business district — “even if it bears the Rolex name as the clock manufacturer.”
This new approach, she suggested, could be a clock on a single post rather than an archway, perhaps situated at the side of the lawn rather than in the center. The board agreed to keep the hearing open.
“I think it’s going to be a quick yes or no from Rolex if they’ll even help us consider that,” Ms. McWilliams said. “If they’re not, we will withdraw the entire thing.”
Also at the meeting, the board announced the appointment of Philip O’Connell as an alternate member of the zoning board, following the July announcement that two alternates, Shahab Karmely and Joseph D’Arco, had been dismissed.
Mr. O’Connell was chairman of the village’s planning board when he was appointed to the village board in November 2016 following the death of Elbert Edwards, a longtime member. He ran unsuccessfully for the village board the following year, and later served as an alternate on the zoning board. He is the Hamptons executive managing director for the Brown Harris Stevens real estate firm and has served with the East Hampton Fire Department for more than 20 years.
