Other Villages Could Provide A Model For Southampton's New Building Height Rules

As Southampton Village grapples with its height limits in the face of federal flood-resistant requirements for new buildings, at least one official is suggesting that the village adopt regulations like those in nearby municipalities, which tend to be more conservative.

Since October, Southampton has had a six-month moratorium in place on building permits for houses more than 35 feet tall. When the moratorium expires in April, or when the Village Board votes to lift it, Village Board member William Hattrick would like to see the adoption of regulations like those in the villages of East Hampton or Westhampton Beach.

“Our treatment of homes in the FEMA district is different,” Mr. Hattrick said, referring to requirements set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which mandates that new buildings in a floodplain be elevated by 2 feet to mitigate the risk of flooding, in addition to further elevation above the flood line, which depends upon the flood zone the house lies in. “That’s a major weakness for the village—we’re different from everybody else. We’re more lenient than everyone else,” Mr. Hattrick said.

In terms of FEMA regulations, all municipalities must follow the same guidelines as the state, but how they implement those regulations can vary. In Southampton Village, builders were able to take the maximum height restriction of 35 feet and add on the additional FEMA base line after the fact, leading to houses approaching 55 feet high. However, in Southampton Town, East Hampton Village, and Westhampton Beach, municipal codes dictate that the maximum height restrictions would include the FEMA flood line change—that is, it would be deducted from the overall height that is allowed.

Mr. Hattrick said Southampton has “become a spectators’ paradise” with oversized homes that the village has allowed to be built. That leniency ended with the moratorium, which came in response, in part, to an application to replace a traditional oceanfront house in a historic district. The proposal to build a 6,677-square-foot, 53-foot-tall modern-style house at 40 Meadow Lane was approved last year before the moratorium went into effect.

In the village of Westhampton Beach, the maximum height is 40 feet above mean sea level for homes with pitched roofs, and 44 feet for gabled roofs. The key difference is the base line for measuring heights. In Southampton, the village starts at median grade, which can vary depending on where a home is proposed. In Westhampton Beach, the base line for houses is at sea level, which is consistent for every home in the village. In East Hampton Village, height restrictions are taken from the median natural grade, as they are in Southampton, but the maximum allowable height is based on the square footage of the property, which in turn dictates how large the house can be.

Westhampton Beach Village Building Inspector Paul Houlihan said that by using mean sea level as a reference point, instead of the base flood elevation line as in Southampton, the tallest homes are all the same height, because sea level is always constant.

According to Kenneth Collum, East Hampton’s code enforcement officer, that village sets a 28-foot limit for homes of up to 10,000 square feet, and a 36-foot limit for homes of up to 160,000 square feet. Those heights include the additional 2 feet with respect to the base flood elevation line, as they do in Southampton Village.

While Southampton seems to be the only village grappling with the issue of height restrictions at the moment, at least one local official who did not want to be attributed said that all villages will eventually evaluate their regulations with respect to flood elevation requirements. In the case of Southampton Village, controversial new homes like the one on Meadow Lane proved to be an immediate catalyst.

Mr. Hattrick said he is happy to see that something is being done about the current regulations. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here,” he said. “If we would just adopt their treatment of FEMA zones,” he said of nearby villages, “we would eliminate that contentious issue [of supersized homes]. And that becomes the law, the new speed limit. I would love to see that.”