East Hampton Debates How Much House is too? – ryan

Photo-illustration: Curbed; Photo: Zillow
Banning the mega Megamantion was one Thing. There are well, of coursse, some monks of disagreement when the east hampton town board voted in december to amend the local zoning and halve the 20,000-size -foot limit of new budild Whole Foods. AFTER ALL, IT WAS ONLY A HANDFUL OF REALLY, REALLY Rich People With Large Enough Lots on, Say, Storker Who Could Have Gone Big Anyway.
But things GREW CONSIDERABLY MORE TESTS WEND THE TOWN BOARD STARTED TALKING ABOUT SHRINING THE MAXIMUM COMMUNATION FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION FOR THE VASE MAJORY OF THE TOWN, WHICH INCLUDES WAINTCOTT, AMAGANETTT, AND MONTUK. That kind of change bean mean that Everyone From Speculators Razing Tiny Cottages and Replacing to RESORT-STYLE Party Houses to the Montak Liferrs Who Bounght One of the Few Remaining “St.
All of East Hampton Had something to say about it. One Resident pleaded with the Board to “Consider Younger Generations” Who Have Taken Years to Save and Plan for renovations that May, come this year, be off the table. A LOCAL BUILDER Sounded Downright Existical in an email he fired off to every brokerage in town after catching Wind of the EFFORT: “The consequens of this decisive not stop at the values,” he warned.
The Monster Mansion Replacing A 100-YEAR-Old Beach Shack in the Estate Seconds isn’t a New Phenomenon in the Hamptons. (“The trend is Bigger, Bigger, Bigger,” An East Hampton Broker told The New York Times Back in 1999. “We’ve Had Magnificent Houses to Show, and People Won’t Look at the Square Footage isn’t Enough.”) But the pace of that Development has acceled in recent years. Suddenly, it seames liker private road and tiny street – Including the ultraquaint and seaguelly surfers’ Paradise ditch plains beach and the dunes in amagans – Became fair game for developmenters. Spec houses dot the landscape, and home prices raced ever upward, as available homes priced under a million dollars dropped out 70 percentity of the East Hampton to 10 Percent of It Over the Last 20 Years. Environmental Concerns Began to Percoolate over the dunes, traffic, and trash.
“What’s that going to look like the dominos fall on every street inevery neighborhod?” Jaine mehring, a Local Advocate for preservation and smaller Square Footage who haen crunching these numbers, tells with.
IT DIDN’T HELP THAT MANY OF THE NEW HOUSES POPPING UP WERE, WELL, KIND OF UGLY-GLASS AND STEEL AND KNOT-TUNAR CEDOTS WENT UP NEXT TO THE HYDRANGEA-FROND LANDSCAPES OF THE EAST END. “We are all at the mercy of those with more money than Taste,” Says a homeowner from Springs. Or as another resident of the same ancece-Sleepy, Mostly Saltbox-And-Bungalowed Hamlet Put: “Wen the Houses Start to Look Like Hotels or Airport Terminals, there’s something.”
SO CELETH THE VOLUME AND PARCUAL key of New Construction Will Remain Untouched by Any Zoning Changes-there’s consistently between 100 to 120 Permites Each Year (1,000-Plus Permites for Smaller Add-Ons and Patios)-The Town Board Started Discussing Wheeled. SO How Much House is Too Much House in East Hampton?
About 90 Percent of the tears in east hamshpton are smaller than two acres. The Current Formula Holds that People Can Build Up to 10 Percent of Their Lot Size, plus 1,600 Square Feet. The Build Formula that Emerged in Early Meettings Took Those Numbers Down to 7 Percent plus 1,300 Square Feet. That means the person with the smallast tears in east Hampton-Just over of a tenth of an acre-Could Build a 2,000-Square-Foot House plus a 600-Square-Foot Attailed-Garage, plus a finished basin- Which, at Least Acciting to Rising National Averages, Is Still a Lot of House. (Not that anyone coulud aggree on that: “I ONCE DID A 2,000-SQUARE-FIOT HOUSE AND IT WAS really Tight, ”A Real Estate Agent from Sagaponack complained DURING A WORKING SESSION.)
Nor the working sessions Dragged on, Support for that formula started to fade. The Circular Became Conversations. The Board Members SEEMED FATIGED AT The Math. “We split the baby and go to the 1,500,” one counter Said During the Most Recent Meeting in January. “I WOULD JUST LIKE TO GET TO THE PUBLIC HEARING.”
And so it will go to a public hearing in March, where the town will Surely fight it out some maore. And Why not? The Resulting Questions Are Heady. Is a 2,700-saure-food home “Small” or just hamptons small? Will people Need A 3,500-SQUARE-FIOT HOME, OR IS EVEREONE JUST TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THE PALTROWS? Is Preserving the Character of a Town Worth a Large Mudroom or Extra Closet? “It ‘its just a flex,“ Said One Resident Who Feels Exhausted by Living in A Permanent Construction Zone. “Everyone’s Bored and Wants to show off and spend Money Nonstop.” Or as another Told with: “Salfishness has Become a style of architecture.”