High Up in the Sag Harbor Hills

By Douglas Feiden

No group of citizens over the past year has attended more public meetings of the village’s regulatory boards — or spoken out more passionately — than the residents of Sag Harbor Hills.

That pattern was in evidence again at the meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday, November 15, when a handful of homeowners came to register their concerns about a proposed house on a long-vacant lot at 3 Gull Rock Road.

At issue was an application by property owner Greg Morrison for multiple variances that would allow him to build a two-story, five-bedroom, 2,640 square-foot home with a finished basement, two screened porches and decking on a corner lot near the water.

The narrow lot, which technically has two front yards, requires relief for three front-and-back yard setbacks that are about 10 or 11 feet short of requirements, as well as pyramid law relief for two protrusions into the sky plane of 1,999 cubic feet, according to ZBA filings.

“Greg Morrison and his wife have three grown children and four grandchildren, ranging in age from seven months to four years old,” said land-use consultant Laurie Wiltshire, the owner’s agent. “They are very eager to begin construction of what will ultimately be a part-time home for three generations of the family.”

She said the requested relief wouldn’t cause an “undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood or create detriment to nearby properties.”

Noting the property’s topography — 18 feet above sea level on one side, rising to a slope of 34 feet on the other — several neighbors disagreed:

“The height, from my viewpoint, is going to be like I’m looking up at the Empire State Building,” said Beverly Granger, who lives on Sound View Drive.

Added Bill Pickens, whose Ninevah Place home is contiguous, “This is a very severe property with a very steep drop, and we worry about catchments, run-off and septic tanks. It sits very high up, and it will be a tower in its effect on homes of just one or two stories.”

Kevin Norman, also of Ninevah Place, whose home is directly behind the proposed development, agreed. “This would just loom tower over my property,” he said.

ZBA members had their own questions about the number and size of the variances the house would need, Ms. Wiltshire said she’d take the objections back to her client and the ZBA tabled the measure.