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Introducing the proposed revised zoning code, the Sag Harbor Village Board entertained preliminary comments on the revisions to a packed meeting room. Photos by Christine Bellini

Sag Harbor - What to do, what to do?

As Sag Harbor's planners wrap-up their year-long campaign to draw up a new zoning map for the downtown commercial district and shopkeepers and commercial property owners begin to sift through the 160-page proposed Chapter 55 zoning code, the Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees voted to extend a moratorium on all new development an additional three months. Putting the brakes on development activity once more, this time until adoption of the new code is secured, is admittedly a precautionary measure.

Taking a closer look at the zoning map proposed under the new re-write.

How to keep the nature of the downtown safe from the ravishes of corporate retail intrusion while providing for its own organic growth and generic transformation has been the challenge put before this board at this time in history. Shopkeepers and commercial property owners have demonstrated a keen interest in the outcome as attorneys and land planners methodically devise usage clauses to maintain a status quo that also rules out unwanted development. Drawing a distinction between permissible and non-permissible use in the new zoning code is a high wire act of considerable caution as the unspoken motivation behind the re-write is expressly to keep out the likes of "big box" retailers and their thinly disguised cousins - corporate showcases the likes of which have taken East Hampton's Main Street hostage.

Too, the planners and trustees are careful to not step on the toes of the village's mainstays, the grocery, home furnishing, general store, hardware and five-and-dime stores that measure outside the preferred square-footage limitations that otherwise deter clunky outside outfits from thinking Sag Harbor is ripe for the picking. And then there is the matter of not devaluing the investments of long-time business families by downscaling expansion potential and, in short, throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Asking Too Much?
As 'For Rent' signs were reposted in the windows of the Christy's Building late last month on the designated display office for Sag Development Partners, applicants in the proposed restoration of the Bulova Watchcase Factory's transformation into luxury townhouses and condominiums, indicating an about-face after an arduous and patience-testing planning and zoning board review, talk at the coffee counter winds down to the inevitable question, "Did we push too far? Did we ask too much?"

What to do, what to do?

For Rent signs in the windows of Christy Building marked an about-face by Sag Development Partners in the on-going Bulova Watchcase Factory application now languishing without final resolution.

"We implore everybody to participate," Mayor Greg Ferraris appealed at the close of the special meeting to review the proposed code changes. "It's important for all of us to work together to achieve this common goal."

Asking for public comments on the proposed code revision which reduces the current 23 acres of the Village Business District to a pared down 17 acres, with the addition of an expanded office district, Village Planner Rich Warren explained, "The idea is to try and find a way to maintain what you've got - people come here because of the village, this is not destination oriented for a specific store. We've left flexibility in the office district, as some uses we want to drive to Main Street, some less essential to the shopping experience have been put to the office district."

Seeking to further define use districts and instances for special exceptions is key to the re-write, Warren explained. "You are concerned about trying to maintain what is, which means we have to define uses and establish standards. In doing this, we are able to accommodate uses but have some control over it. Of course, the devil is in the details."

Major Shift
A major shift in the new code would be to place special exception use permits under the Planning Board review rather than the Zoning Board of Appeals, where they currently end up. The change is designed to lighten the load of the ZBA, which is charged with reviewing variance applications, while the Planning Board already considers site plan review. "My belief is it will be better for the applicant," Warren added, "in that they will not be going before two boards."

Addressing requests by various special interest business and community groups to discuss the proposed code individually with the trustees, Village Attorney Anthony Tohill ruled out any such meetings on the grounds that "influence of individuals outside the transparent public process would compromise the effort. Integrity can only be observed if the entirety of the process is public." Reiterating the Mayor's appeal, Tohill added, "Public input and recommendations are important to the process to make changes that reflect these contributions."

Speaking most pointedly to zoning restrictions proposed in the revised code, Tohill outlined a series of "What If's" to illustrate methods by which the code affords exceptions that take into account pre-existing conditions, most namely a cap on apartment sizes, square-footage limitations on stores in the Village Business District and parking requirements, "allowing for consistency available today in the community." According to Tohill, the revised code identifies special exception uses for hardware, grocery and home furnishing stores "that cannot function at 2,000 square feet," the optimal retail space proposed, to "reach 8000 square feet." The new code calls for an affordable housing proviso requiring affordable upper-story apartments for every 1,000 square feet of space greater than 3,000 square feet on commercial installments, to "encourage affordable housing in this district."

Re-writing the zoning code has been a arduous task in the village's effort to secure the village character amid pressures from outside development.

One stipulation the proposed revised Chapter 55 makes abundantly clear is the definition and prohibition of a superstore in all uses throughout the commercial district and a further prohibition allowing the ZBA to grant permission variances for superstores. The rationale is, the superstore "is not in keeping with what is here now," Tohill said. The definition of a superstore, which has yet to be defined by square footage, has been initially identified as "all or part of a single building, or multiple units of said building or multiple buildings owned or operated by a single entity."

Additional provisions allowing for Housing Trust Fund payments to be made in lieu of the Suffolk County on-site mandatory 10 percent set aside for affordable housing and the elimination of the Parking Trust Fund, as the new code requires specific parking requirements, are also included in the re-write in an attempt to bring the zoning code and its parent newly minted Comprehensive Plan in synch. "In order to understand the code, the only way to do it is to be patient and to see how it works out," Tohill cautioned.

What to do? Read and comment and attend the first in what promises to be a summer-long series of public hearings addressing the substantive changes to the re-write beginning with the first hearing set for June 5.

"This board is sincere in its commitment to hear every comment that comes up," Mayor Ferraris has assured.

For more information, click here.