Montauk's Hero Beach Club Restaurant Plans In Limbo

The specter of Montauk’s raucous summer party scene lingers over a downtown motel whose owners hope to add a restaurant, one that some worry could too easily become a service bar for a giant outdoor social scene.

The owners of the former Oceanside Motel, now known as Hero Beach Club, have asked permission to add a tiny restaurant—just 16 seats—and expand the hotel’s outdoor decking, additional amenities that they say are traditional expectations of someone staying at a resort-style motel.

But East Hampton Town planners have warned the Planning Board that permitting the restaurant could open the door—literally—to large crowds at the property, under either the current owners or a future owner.

Fire codes set the maximum occupancy for the restaurant space at just 27. But building and fire codes do not set limits on outdoor spaces—like the large lawn that lies in front of Hero Beach Club’s ocean-facing hotel rooms.

The owners have said their intentions are not for the restaurant to do anything more than satiate its paying guests and instead have pitched their plans for the property as a high-end retreat from the party scene, with tranquility the focus rather than bacchanalia.

But they also have said the restaurant will be open to the public. Meanwhile, they filed an application to the State Liquor Authority for a liquor license at the restaurant, and it acknowledges plans for live music—naming Jimmy Buffett as among the possible acts—and describes the planned maximum occupancy for the property only as “less than 500.”

The town’s longtime lead planner, Marguerite Wolffsohn, warned that the potential for the restaurant at the hotel goes beyond what normally would be expected for just a restaurant, because of the other amenities at the property.

“In this case, it is coupled with a motel, you have the restaurant, you have the decks, and you also have the lawn area,” she told members of the Planning Board at a meeting last week. “You’re not saying it’s just this little restaurant. It’s this little restaurant with this big outdoor area, and you’re not limiting where [customers] go or how many people can go there.”

Members of the Planning Board, whose approval of a special permit is needed to allow the restaurant, voiced their own concerns on the matter.

“I think it’s appropriate in a resort to have a restaurant, but, at the same time, I think it’s understandable that people are concerned about what it might become,” board member Ian Calder-Piedmonte said. “Somebody should be able to drink a soda by the pool—I don’t want to ban that. But I also don’t want it to blow up into something that it’s not supposed to be.”

Planning Board member Kathy Cunningham noted that the board needs to be cognizant not just of what the current owners have planned but what use a permitted restaurant could be put to in the future.

“While these investors are terrific, and we love them, and they are doing a great job, they may not own this forever,” Ms. Cunningham said. “It will change hands at some point. It’s our responsibility to plan for the future.”

Board member Patti Leber, who is from Montauk, said she did not believe the property has adequate parking, and that parking on South Eton Street, which runs alongside the motel, was a source of complaints this past summer.

Nonetheless, some of the board appeared to be comfortable with the restaurant proposal at face value. A majority of the board members said they were satisfied that the legal requirements for parking were being met, despite debate about grandfathered parking allowances and the fact that most of the spots in use now encroach on town rights-of-way.

And while some board members voiced concerns about the plans for a standard septic system, all acknowledged that the long-term plans for a sewer system in downtown Montauk would be the best way to handle waste from a seasonal commercial property.

“You guys have done a first-class job of cleaning that place up and making it nice,” board member Nancy Keeshan said. “I get the sense that what you’re doing there is not some scary nightclub resort. It’s a … tranquil area that, I think, is a nice addition to that spot and part of the character of the business district. I’m very supportive and ready to move this along.”

Board member Diana Weir called the plans for the property “a great improvement” and said she believed the owners have the right to a restaurant there.

The Hero Beach owners—an investment group led by Jon Krasner, an investment fund manager who has also purchased Montauk’s venerable Shagwong Tavern and opened Saltbox restaurant in recent years—sued the town last summer over a law that prohibited take-out food establishments at resort hotels.

The owners argued that the law had been intended to specifically target their original application, which asked for permission to create a retail store, serving food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages, to serve the guests of the hotel. Planning staff had raised concerns about the potential for crowds from that proposal that were similar to the ones they raised about the restaurant proposal.

The lawsuit is still pending, but the application to the town has dropped the retail approach in favor of the restaurant, which is an allowed accessory use at a resort, although it requires special consideration by the Planning Board that gives the board the latitude to reject such proposals if they do not meet certain criteria.

Hero Beach attorney Tiffany Scarlato said this week that the restaurant meets the legal demands for the special exception permit and that considerations like the potential for crowds in unregulated areas are not something the Planning Board can apply to a decision about whether the restaurant satisfies code requirements for an allowed accessory use.

Board members did query the hotel’s representatives about the plans for the septic system. The application officially proposes replacing the existing system with a newer standard septic system. But as of January 1, if the permits for the property have not been approved yet, county codes will demand that a nitrogen-reducing system be installed. Such systems are considerably more expensive for commercial properties.

Representatives said the owners would be willing to commit to hooking up to a municipally run sewer that the Town Board is considering, even though such a system is likely at least four years away from being constructed, even if the town proceeds with implementing the concept immediately.

Planning Board members Job Potter and Randy Parsons both said they were against the idea of adding the restaurant to the property because of the septic concerns and potential for large crowds.

“At this point, I think adding more load to the septic there would be a mistake,” Mr. Potter said. “I remain a non-supporter for the restaurant concept. I’m sorry for that.”

Mr. Parsons, like Mr. Potter and Ms. Weir a former Town Board member, said that his mind might be changed if the addition of the restaurant were to come only after a sewer system were built. But parking, he said, would still be a problem.

“We have to draw the line in Montauk and say when it’s too much,” he said. “And for me, this is too much. Too much wastewater, and it’s too much parking.”

No vote was taken on the application, and one has not yet been scheduled by the board.