Sagaponack Village Board Tosses Out Application For Single Home - 27 East

Real Estate News

Real Estate News / 1412271

Sagaponack Village Board Tosses Out Application For Single Home

icon 1 Photo

DCIM100MEDIA

author27east on Jan 14, 2015

The Sagaponack Village Board this week rejected an application from the owners of one of the village’s last and largest undeveloped oceanfront parcels to build a lone house on a corner of the 43-acre property.

In a scathing decision that echoed much of the distrust and accusatory tone of the board’s queries about the project over the past year, the board said that it was rejecting the application because it appeared to be blatant attempt to circumvent the board’s preferences in the layout of a grander subdivision of the property.

“In reaching this decision the board has been troubled by its perception that the presentation of this site plan application has over and again suffered from an effort to mischaracterize facts or to misstate facts or to avoid facts,” Sagaponack Village Mayor Don Louchheim said at Monday’s meeting, reading from the board’s official written decision on the application. “All of which has resulted in the board’s inability to find the letters or testimony of the applicant to be credible.

“Stated differently,” Mr. Louchheim continued, “an application for site plan approval of one residence on 43.5 acres faithful to village code … could not have been made more difficult than applicant and its representatives made this process.”

The application, filed by an LLC called Sagaponack Ventures, asked for permission to build a single, nearly 14,000-square-foot house on 2.5 acres of land at the northwestern corner of the sweeping Daniels Lane property, at the farthest point from the ocean.

But since the application was introduced last spring, board members have seemed to see the somewhat slapdash application—the decision notes that the house plans submitted with the application was a rudimentary template of a prefabricated structure, downloadable from the internet—as a front for a longer-term plan to develop the rest of the lot in a configuration different from a 2008 plan that the board has made clear is its preferred development scheme.

That plan called for three 3-acre oceanfront house lots at the southern edge of the land, with a fourth lot adjacent to the northern boundary of the western lot—which would preserve the farmland vista from Daniels Lane. The Village Board, which also serves as the village’s planning and development review board, had issued a pre-application approval of that layout, before the application was withdrawn amid legal infighting among the three partners in the venture.

But if the current proposal were approved, putting the lone building lot along Daniels Lane, the board has said it believes the landowners intend to return with a new proposal to subdivide the oceanfront land—in essence, undermining the board’s earlier decision.

The property targeted for the development was initially purchased by Marc Goldman for approximately $15 million, according to town records. Mr. Goldman then reportedly sold equal partnerships to two other investors, Michael Hirtenstein and Milton Berlinski, for $15 million each. The partnership then donated an agricultural easement on nearly 26 acres of the land to the Peconic Land Trust, bringing the principals a windfall of tax credits on the latent development.

The threat of a legal challenge to the board’s decision has loomed large over the proposal due to the litigious history behind the property. The board has had a stenographer to take verbatim notes of all the public review sessions on the application. And the transcripts from the lawsuit among the partners were recently made part of the record in the board’s review of the Sagaponack Ventures application, although no specific portions of the suit were ever discussed.

Sagaponack Ventures’ attorney, David Eagan, left Monday’s meeting immediately following the board’s reading of the decision, without comment. On Wednesday he declined to say whether the owners planned to file a legal challenge to the decision, offering only a written statement on the ruling.

“Landowners everywhere,” he wrote, “should be concerned when an application to build one house on over 43 acres is denied.”

You May Also Like:

Quail Ridge Residents Scramble After Apartments Are Purchased for Redevelopment | 27Speaks Podcast

The tenants of Quail Ridge — the two dozen studio and one-bedroom apartments spread over ... 3 Jul 2025 by 27Speaks

Water Mill Property Where Hal Buckner and Dorothy Lichtenstein Left Their Marks Is for Sale

A Water Mill property that hosts a former dairy barn turned artist’s studio and a ... 30 Jun 2025 by Brendan J. O’Reilly

Sundays on the Bay Hits the Market

Sundays on the Bay restaurant and marina on Dune Road in Hampton Bays has hit ... 29 Jun 2025 by Staff Writer

Hamptons Rental Market Remains Alive and Well

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the Hamptons summer-rental market are greatly exaggerated. “Any hint that the Hamptons rental market is anything but robust is completely wrong,” said Corcoran associate broker Gary DePersia in East Hampton. An interesting dynamic is stirring in the Hamptons vacation-rental market. Although there has been an unprecedented rise in short-term rentals and the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic linger, it has been a bumper crop year for Wall Street, interest rates have remained steady and a new breed of demanding customer is emerging. Despite it all, the Hamptons vacation-rental market remains as ... 19 Jun 2025 by Joseph Finora

Jon Vaccari Joins Noble Black & Partners at Douglas Elliman

Jon Vaccari, a longtime resident of Sag Harbor, has joined Noble Black & Partners at ... 18 Jun 2025 by Staff Writer

Appeals Court Sides With Landowner Over Southampton Village ZBA

Southampton Village has lost an appeal that sought to reinstate a Zoning Board of Appeals ... 12 Jun 2025 by Brendan J. O’Reilly

Last Parcel of Startop Ranch in Montauk Sells

The last plot of land at Startop Ranch in Montauk, 107 Startop Drive, has sold ... by Staff Writer

Hamptons Real Estate Roundtable, Memorial Day Weekend 2025 Edition

With Memorial Day weekend about to kick the Hamptons into high season, The Express News ... 22 May 2025 by Moderated by Brendan J. O’Reilly

Au-Delà Real Estate Vows To Go 'Beyond'

Au-Delà Real Estate, a new boutique real estate firm based in East Hampton, is now ... 20 May 2025 by Brendan J. O’Reilly

AI Helps Rental Seekers Find Homes That Match Their Aesthetic Preferences

Consumers increasingly have an expectation of superior, more personalized service based on their own particular ... by Steven Loeb