Publication: The East Hampton Press

East Hampton Village Appeals Board asks for new parking plans from library

Nov 3, 09 4:39 PM  
Recommend
Comment
Email this article
Print this article
Get news alerts
RSS Feeds
Share
Steven Schneider, a Holtsville-based engineer, was brought in as a witness by Jeff Bragman, to point out what he claims are inaccuracies in the way the library completed its parking studies.
Steven Schneider, a Holtsville-based engineer, was brought in as a witness by Jeff Bragman, to point out what he claims are inaccuracies in the way the library completed its parking studies.
see all images

The discussion of the proposed expansion of the East Hampton Library continued with a fact-by-fact debate over previously submitted plans and statements from prior hearings at the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.

The library has had an application pending with the ZBA since 2003 for a special permit to build a 6,802-square-foot addition to its current building on Main Street. The ZBA members decided at the October 2 meeting to continue the public hearing for the library because the ZBA had to adjourn after two and a half hours and those in opposition to the library’s expansion had not had time to address the board.

At Friday’s meeting, which lasted another two hours, the roles were reversed as Jeff Bragman, the attorney for the Village Preservation Society, which is opposed to the library’s expansion, readdressed many of the same points that he had two meetings prior, which Bill Esseks, the library’s attorney, defended at the last meeting.

As he has in the past, Mr. Bragman rejected plans the library has submitted, including a parking and traffic study, done in 2005, a draft environmental impact statement from 2008, and many of the experts Mr. Esseks has brought before the ZBA to testify. Mr. Bragman maintains that because the library has made calculations based on “patron space,” the square footage of space used by people, rather than the total square footage of the building, many aspects of the library’s plans are wrong and make the project seem smaller than it will actually be. He said the miscalculations affect the perception of the proposed expansion, the number and size of parking spaces needed, the amount of wastewater flow that will be generated, and don’t account for unallocated space in the existing building.

Mr. Bragman focused much of his time at the podium on the library’s traffic and parking plans, which he said are based on outdated standards and are difficult to understand.

“The chart that the applicant produced is so confusing, you can’t understand what they want to do at the end of the day,” he said.

The library’s parking plan is based on parking standards developed in 1993 that require smaller spaces per car than the most recent standards developed by the Institute of Transportation Engineers in cooperation with the federal Department of Transportation, said Steven Schneider, a Holtsville-based traffic engineer who was asked to analyze the library’s plans by Mr. Bragman.

The library’s parking plan proposes 10 additional spaces, which according to the library’s traffic study, would create a surplus of 35 spaces in the parking lot at any given time, which Mr. Bragman criticized. He said there isn’t enough space in the library’s parking lot now for all the patrons and employees. Mr. Schneider said the ITE standards were approved sometime after the library’s original application was submitted to the ZBA and that based on those standards, the library’s current parking lot is not in compliance with the guidelines.

“They don’t have a vested right to expand this parking lot until you make them comply to the existing approvals,” Mr. Schneider said.

Mr. Bragman then moved on the library’s proposed floor plans, which he said does not give enough information for someone to check the calculations of gross square footage or provide an alternative. Mr. Bragman said that information has become relevant because he thinks there could be a more efficient way to use the space the library has and make the proposed addition smaller and have a lesser impact on the environment and the community.

He added that he thought there were many viable options proposed to the library, including a smaller expansion and a branch library.

He also said the library’s use of patron space instead of actual square footage has distorted the amount of wastewater the addition would generate, since the Suffolk County Department of Health Services uses the latter to determine that allowance. Mr. Bragman said that if the ZBA approved the library’s expansion, the library would then have to apply for a variance with the Department of Health Services to allow for the extra wastewater.

“It’s just evidence that the project is too big for the site,” Mr. Bragman said.

Finally, Mr. Bragman countered Mr. Esseks’ primary argument throughout the hearings—that because the library is a state-chartered educational institution, its application should be exempt from strict review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. But Mr. Bragman clarified the distinction. He said the library is an association library but the charter does not refer to it as an educational institution so it should not be considered exempt.

mailbag@27east.com ©2010, 27east.com / The Press News Group Ph: 631-287-1500