Village Eyes Angles To Address Looming Houses

To head off the prospect of large, looming houses, especially where lots are small, Southampton Village may require that new homes be situated as close to the center of the property as possible.

According to Mayor Mark Epley, changes to the village code could focus on creating more stringent pyramid and sky plane laws, which use angles to limit how much of a house can be seen from the front and sides of a property. Currently, the angles are set at 45 degrees, but that would be reduced to 35 degrees under the proposal being considered. The goal, the mayor said, is for property owners to locate new homes in the centers of their lots, which in turn would limit improvements in their side and front yards while keeping drainage on their own land and helping to protect neighbors’ privacy.

Mr. Epley said the change would mostly affect houses that are being built on smaller residential lots in the village, and that it would have little impact on mansions constructed on larger lots. Prospective homeowners who would like to have more improvements on their property, or on a different part of the property, would simply have to purchase a larger piece of land. “It has virtually no impact on the larger properties,” Mr. Epley said, “but if you have smaller properties it forces you to rethink the way you are constructing your property.”

Property owners building homes will also have to comply with the current height maximum of 35 feet, While that height restriction is being reviewed, a building moratorium implemented in October and originally intended to last six months, until April, may be extended another four months while more research is conducted. The village will hold a public hearing on extending the moratorium on April 9.

Several recent applications have sought to exceed the 35-foot limit, based on the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires new construction in the floodplain to be elevated to avoid flooding. Some houses were proposed to be taller than the village limit when measured from ground level, and several homeowners have already received exemptions from the moratorium by petitioning the village trustees.

According to Paul Travis, head of the village planning commission, sky plane and pyramid laws work pretty much the same as each other, but deal with different views of the house. For both, the permitted height of the house is determined by standing at the edge of the property and drawing a 45-degree angle from the ground. The height of the house may not exceed the 45-degree line, so the farther back the house is set from the property lines, the more living space can be achieved before the 35-foot height limit is reached.

“The line goes up from the ground at an angle and it requires you to set the house back,” Mr. Travis said. “As your mass goes up, you have to set the house back to fit. The reason it is referred to as a pyramid is because when it meets, that is what it forms.”

The village could grant aesthetic variances to exceed the sky planes in some instances.

While Mr. Epley said he supports the proposed changes, the village is still looking into how they would be affected by FEMA regulations in flood zones. Mr. Travis said the challenge lies in defining what is considered ground level in Southampton Village.

“We are still looking at the way the FEMA regulations apply to the properties and whether or not you can bring fill in or not,” Mr. Epley said. “It is things like that that are not part of the FEMA laws, so we are trying to decipher what is there.”