Mocomanto Pool House Under Scrutiny

An application to modify a century-old Victorian home on Lake Agawam is about to be punted to another board because of modifications made to the property three years ago.

Members of the Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals met on Tuesday, August 15, to discuss an application to create an addition to the residence, Mocomanto, located at 472 First Neck Lane. During the discussion, the board considered three issues that were brought up at its last meeting on July 27: the status of a pool house that was rebuilt in 2014, the installation of drainage with a driveway expansion in a regulated wetland area and the number of bedrooms in the newly designed home.

Ken Fox—a managing partner at the Stripes Group who has been instrumental in financing companies like Blue Apron, GoFundMe and Grubhub—purchased the home on Lake Agawam five years ago, and earlier this month said he plans to make much needed modifications to the home so that it can last another 100 years.

A letter dated August 16 from the ZBA that was addressed to Mr. Fox’s lawyer, John Bennett of Bennett & Read LLP in Southampton Village, stated that there were discrepancies with the pool house that sits on the northeast corner of the property.

On February 28, 2014, Mr. Fox applied to reconstruct the property’s pool house, which was damaged by a fire the previous month. The ZBA noted in the letter that the Village Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review, or ARB, “must approve reconstruction of any structure within the Southampton Village Historic District or a regulated wetland area.”

After searching through the village building department records, the letter said, approval for the reconstruction of the pool house was not found.

On Monday, Mr. Bennett said a previous owner of the property obtained a moratorium waiver for the pool house in 1988—an express permit from the Village Board that does not expire—that permitted Mr. Fox to rebuild the structure. The previous owner also obtained a non-jurisdictional waiver from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, unlimited in time, according to Mr. Bennett. Those waivers, Mr. Bennett said, means Mr. Fox did not need permission from the ZBA or ARB to rebuild the pool house.

The letter also noted that a stone patio between the pool house and the pool was enlarged after the application was submitted.

“Such expansion constitutes a regulated activity in the wetland area also requiring approval of the Zoning Board of Appeals,” the letter read. “No such approval appears in building department records.”

Mr. Bennett said the enlarged patio is minuscule in terms of the big project, and if anything, the added patio length may need to be added to the lot coverage on file with the building department.

Mr. Fox also had dry wells installed in the front yard between the driveway and the guest cottage. Google Earth satellite photos from May 2015 show round rings being installed in the ground, to the west of the home.

Village code regulates what can and can’t be built within or near a regulated wetland. When it comes to installing structures within 150 feet of any regulated wetland, or a dry well within 200 feet of the regulated wetland, the village code prohibits the activity without obtaining a special permit from the ZBA.

“An examination of these exhibits demonstrates a credible concern the structures, or part of the structure, may have been installed in a regulated wetland area,” the letter read. “The board requests the applicant identify all structures in the area of concern, locate the structures and identify the source of inflowing material by a licensed engineer.”

According to Lisa Zaloga, the architect of the project, the dry wells were installed to allow runoff from the driveway to not pool in the yard. The driveway was modified between 2013 and 2014, and the ZBA has also requested a chronology of the alterations to the driveway.

Mr. Fox’s neighbors have stressed concern over the number of bedrooms in the proposed Mocomanto addition and have submitted their interpretation of the bedroom count to the ZBA, according to the letter.

In the letter, the board invited Mr. Fox to reply to neighbors’ assertions at a public hearing.

“This has been probably the most massive campaign of misinformation I’ve seen in practicing law,” Mr. Bennett said.

Opponents of the Mocomanto alterations and expansion on a wetland have advertised a website that supports their cause, savemocomanto.com. More recently, a website has been launched to defend the plans, mocomantofacts.com.

The next ZBA meeting is scheduled on Thursday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall on Main Street, and the next ARB meeting will be held on Monday, August 28, at 7 p.m., also at Village Hall.