Sag Harbor Village Trustees Scale Back GFA Law

By Kathryn G. Menu

Sag Harbor Village officials unveiled a new gross floor area (GFA) law Friday afternoon, scaling back the legislation, which determines the size of a home based on its lot size.

According to Mayor Sandra Schroeder, that local law as well as another regulating swimming pool construction, will be up for public hearing at the April 12 meeting of the Sag Harbor Village Board at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building. The board announced it has decided to hold off on legislation aimed at increasing affordable housing in the Sag Harbor School District by placing an impact tax on homes built over 2,500 square feet

Ms. Schroeder on Wednesday said she hopes the laws are adopted following the public hearing and prior to the end of a moratorium on home construction that falls into the parameters of the proposed zoning code changes.

“We have been talking about this kind of legislation since before I was on the board of trustees,” she said. “It is nice that we finally have something in place. I think what we have introduced is the best option for our village, and addresses a lot of the concerns we heard residents raise.”

The new GFA law would allow homes to be about 400 square feet larger than the original legislation, which was introduced in January. Under the new proposed law, the GFA law would only apply to homes on lots 6,250 square feet or larger, as opposed to the 5,000 square feet originally proposed.

“The general comments of board members were basically we should, to some degree, increase what would be permitted as far as GFA,” said village attorney Fred W. Thiele Jr. on Friday.

A home on a lot of 6,250 square feet cannot have a home that exceeds 2,500 square feet. For lots 25,000 square feet and over, a home cannot exceed 4,000 square feet, and in between those numbers a sliding scale is proposed to determine the square footage of a residence. For example, a property with a lot area of 15,000 square feet could have a home that is 3,200 square feet and a 20,000 square-foot property could have a home that is 3,600 square feet.

A special permit is available for those with a lot area of 25,000 square feet and above — to be approved or denied by the village board. If that special permit is approved a homeowner could have a home as large as 7,000 square feet depending on their lot size.

Currently, the median lot size in Sag Harbor is 12,905 square feet with the median GFA coming in at 1,590 square feet, according to research gathered by the village’s planning consultants, Inter-Science Research Associates in Southampton. Without the GFA law, a home on that size lot could be 5,164 square feet under lot coverage regulations. Under the new law, that same home could only expand to 3,032 square feet, or 1,442 more than the current median gross floor area in Sag Harbor.

According to Inter-Science’s research, 95 of the village’s 1,653 houses would fail to conform to the new law, and of those, 70 properties are already non-conforming under the current zoning code.

Under the proposed law, 1,213 of the village’s 1,653 homes would have the potential to expand as of right by 1,000 square feet or more, representing 73.4 percent of all homeowners in Sag Harbor. A total of 1,440 would have the ability to expand by 500 square feet.

As in all cases involving zoning, these restrictions can be appealed through the zoning board of appeals.

On Friday, Richard Warren of Inter-Science, said his firm went back and looked at three distinctly different neighborhoods in the village to ensure it was not disenfranchising any one neighborhood in Sag Harbor with the legislation. They explored the house and lot sizes in Redwood, Azurest, Sag Harbor Hills and Ninevah, and Glover Street to Garden Street.

In Redwood, there are 125 lots, with a median lot area of 15,082 square feet, a little more than 2,000 square feet more than the median lot size of the entire village. The median GFA in that neighborhood is 1,596 square feet, said Mr. Warren, just six square feet more than the median GFA of all homes in Sag Harbor. In Azurest, Sag Harbor Hills and Ninevah, the median lot size is 12,467 with a median GFA of 1,378, and in the Glover and Garden streets neighborhood, the median lot size is 8,525 with the median GFA at 1,445.

“We wanted to make sure one neighborhood wasn’t skewing the data,” said Mr. Warren, noting all three neighborhoods came in with GFA and lot areas very similar to what exists throughout Sag Harbor.

The new legislation also has changed language related to accessory structures, which were capped at 600 square feet initially with the exception of artist’s studios. After complaints from some members of the public about allowing artists a larger accessory space, the board decided it should be an across the board 600 square-foot cap, said Mr. Thiele.

While demolition within the historic district is defined as the demolition of any part of a structure, outside the historic district it is defined as the demolition of an entire building — a clarification requested by building inspector Thomas Preiato, said Mr. Thiele.

Legislation regarding the Sag Harbor Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board’s policies has also been folded into the GFA law instead of appearing as its own legislation. That legislation creates timetables for approvals and denials of applications, a public hearing requirement for any demolitions in the historic district, and new noticing procedures for neighbors. According to Mr. Thiele, the village has also adopted Department of Interior Standards for the restoration or rehabilitation of a historic structure.

The law also creates specific guidelines for the ARB to follow when it comes to solar panels — namely that in the historic district they cannot be viewable from the street or any adjacent properties.

Lastly, while a number of residents asked the village to incorporate language protecting historic trees and placing limitations on clear cutting, Mr. Thiele said the board has decided that should be separate legislation that needs to be researched more thoroughly.

“Those are things that the board can consider in the future,” he said.