East Hampton Looking At Ways to Make Temporary Shoreline Protections Actually Temporary

Rows of 1-ton sandbags that were arranged in front of waterfront homes threatened by convulsive erosion were supposed to be temporary protections while a longer term solution — like relocating the home or lofting it on pilings — could be devised.

But in every case where the giant sandbags, known commonly by the brand name GeoCubes, were installed under emergency temporary permits, they remain in place — more than a decade later, in some cases.

The rows of bags act in the natural environment exactly like a permanent seawall — the construction of which has been expressly banned in East Hampton — causing exacerbated erosion at their flanks to neighboring properties, blocking public access to the shoreline and speeding the loss of sand along the shoreline around them.

East Hampton Town has been essentially powerless to force the removals of the seawalls — a point Town Board members are reminded of almost every week by Amagansett resident Joe Karpinski — despite a specific caveat in the emergency permits issued that allowed them to be installed stating that they had to removed within nine months.

The town has proposed updating the provision in the code that allows the bags to be employed to protect a home in erosion emergencies to give it the power to ensure that they are, in reality, only temporary — including forcing a homeowner to post a security deposit with the town of twice the dollar value of the construction, and give the town an easement allowing it to come onto the property and remove the bags if the homeowner refuses.

“It’s clearly not functioning the way it was intended,” Chief Environmental Analyst Brian Frank said of code that allows the emergency erosion protection measures, which was adopted in 2007. “In an ordinary review of an erosion control structure, you’d be looking at alternative configurations and mitigation measures to less the impacts. The reason we don’t do that with this legislation was because the presumption is that they are only going to be temporary.”

Rather than ending the practice of allowing the bags to be used in emergencies, the town is drafting a new version of the permitting process that puts some teeth in the time constraints. Along with the large security deposit and the threat of physical removal, the new code would limit the length of the sandbag walls to only the dimensions of the house itself, not the entire property, as has been the common practice, and allowing the town building inspectors to solicit analysis of the need for emergency measures from coastal experts other than those hired by a homeowner to design a protective structure.

Councilwoman Syliva Overby suggested that the neighbors of any property applying for one of the permits should be notified of the proposal and given a chance to weigh in before the expedited permits are issued.

After two homes on Bay View Avenue in Amagansett erected GeoCube walls across some 300 feet of shoreline, neighbors poured out in protest because the new revetment essentially blocked access to the shoreline by the other residents of the street.

“We have cubes that have been placed in places they are prohibited and the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] and the town have refused to enforce the rule,” Karpinski, who lives on Bay View Avenue and has harangued the board about the failure to have the GeoCubes weekly in letters to the editor and phone calls and appearances at board meetings, said on Tuesday.

Nicholas Grecco, one of the homeowners whose house is protected by the non-compliant GeoCube walls — along with that of his neighbor, Stella McCartney — told the board that the nine-month time frame is not realistic, considering the complexity of the alternatives facing homeowners.

“The issue on my mind is how the town will bridge the time between the emergency permit expiration and when any sort of solution could be implemented,” Grecco said. “Even if a resident chose to retreat the house, the new plans … could never be accomplished in nine months.”

He harked to the sandbag revetment across downtown Montauk — which does not use GeoCubes — that was also billed as a “temporary” solution by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when it as built and has protected the hotels for nearly decade.

“What I’m asking for is fair language to be incorporated that allows extenuating circumstances to be addressed under the code,” Grecco said. “Create a code that works for everybody.”

Councilman David Lys proposed that a second potential three-month extension be added to the code, giving homeowners as long as a year — because, he said, undertaking a major project like relocating or raising a house, or deciding to give up the fight and move out, can be a drawn out undertaking.

“There might be a month to figure out insurance, time to get a temporary permit in place, decide if you want to retreat, sell, put in a coastal erosion solution, then getting a contractor … is six months realistic?” Lys asked. “Sometimes, you can’t even get a refrigerator delivered in six months.”

Councilwoman Cate Rogers said she’d support the additional extension as long as there is a firm plan of action in motion. Other board members were not as supportive of the additional time.

“I find it hard to believe that if I’m a homeowner that lives on the water and I’m watching my beach erode and I’m seeing the storm action, that I’m not thinking well in advance about what I’m going to do to save my [house],” Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said.

She noted that the town’s Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan, an extensive analysis of the town’s coastal areas adopted in 2022, includes graphs and detailed descriptions of the dangers from erosion and rising seas that face each waterfront area in the town.

Board members acknowledge that those buying homes along the waterfront need to be made more aware of the threats their investments may face, and the limited options they will have to protect them.

“There are very limited options for the property owner: move back potentially, depending on the property size; move up, potentially; or they can move out,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said.

“We probably need to do a better job of making the general public, who may be interested in purchasing waterfront properties, aware that they are not really purchasing that property. They are just renting it from Mother Nature — short term.”