It was the first application to build a house larger than allowed without a special permit in Sag Harbor, and the Village Board wanted to do it right.
At a public hearing on Tuesday, July 12, Village Trustee James LaRocca motioned to allow the owner of 10 Cove Road to get preliminary advice from the Architectural Review Board and other review boards while the Village Board is still considering the application for a special permit. The village limited house size to no more than 4,000 square feet earlier this year, but owners of especially large properties can apply to the Village Board for a special permit to build a house of as much as 7,000 square feet, depending on the lot size.
That is the size proposed by Christy Ferer, the property owner, on a parcel of about 1.8 acres that she is looking to sell.
“We’re offering you the opportunity, by sending you forward without prejudice, to let you do that while we do this,” Mr. LaRocca told her. “And this is not a legal consideration, but it’s an important one, this is the first one and we have to determine to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ because we have invested so much time into the code.”
But Ms. Ferer told the board she cannot afford to move forward and spend money designing a house the board is not guaranteed to approve while she is already paying $15,000 each month for the property.
She said she is unable to come up with any plans unless she knows how large a residence she will be allowed to build. “I understand that you’re trying to be nice by saying just go ahead with the other processes, but until I know the square footage, this makes it really difficult to do any kind of design because the footprint is so squeezed,” Ms. Ferer said.
The Village Board in May had denied a request for the special exemption to the law, which was passed in April. That original request was denied as the Village Board was still working to determine a process for granting such a permit and had not appointed a new village attorney at the time.
“I understand you want to get it right and I’m sorry I’m the guinea pig,” Ms. Ferer said. “I tried not to be when I asked for an exemption that I was denied.”
Brian Desesa, Ms. Ferer’s attorney, submitted an application for the special permit last month.
“The process is somewhat complicated,” Mr. LaRocca said Tuesday. “It is reduced in most people’s thinking to a simple calculation of the math. It is more than that.”
on Jul 18, 2016