Sag Harbor Neighbors Oppose Commercial Project Next To Harbor Heights

Despite the best efforts of Stephen Loeffler to downplay the impact that his proposed redevelopment of an office and warehouse building at 152 Hampton Street would have, neighbors were not buying it when the Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals held a hearing on the proposal on Tuesday, February 15.

About 10 people from the surrounding neighborhood told the board that Loeffler’s plans to expand and convert the building next to the Gulf gas station into offices and retail stores would increase the creeping commercialization that began in the area when the former Harbor Heights service station was redeveloped nearly a decade ago.

Janine Carter, who lives across Hampton Road from the property, took issue with Loeffler’s suggestion that his neighbors supported the project, saying, “I’ve spoken to my neighbors scattered up and down Hampton Street, and there is actually strong objection to the commercialization of that stretch.”

“These are largely self-inflicted — these are not hardships,” she said of Loeffler’s request for variances. “These are decisions and choices that we can make to preserve or to not preserve the quiet, the dignity, the historic location that we have there. That will go away — it will not be something we can go, ‘Oops,’ later and wish we could have done it differently or put it back. It will be gone.”

Loeffler’s plans for the property, located in the historic Eastville community, have bounced back and forth between the Planning Board and ZBA for most of the past year.

Loeffler said he had scaled back his plans so they would only require three variances. One would allow the shift from office and warehouse uses to office and retail uses, but Loeffler said the Planning Board will only allow limited types of retail stores such as furnishings, hardware or paint stores, or hair salons and medical or dental offices. The project also requires a pyramid variance of about 980 cubic feet and a variance allowing only 19 parking spaces, where 22 would be required.

Because the public notice did not include the parking variance, and because other earlier proposed variances have been scaled back or eliminated, the board tabled the hearing until March 15 to allow a new public notice to be posted and published.

Loeffler clarified that when he said neighbors supported his plans, he was referring to those who own properties that abut his property. But he insisted that his plans would clean up the rundown warehouse, and he said he was asking people to judge him by the appearance of the building he erected at 34 Bay Street.

He said retail space was needed to make the project viable and to provide much needed retail and office space for local businesses. He told the board an expansion of the building had already been approved by a prior ZBA ruling, and that the parking and pyramid variances were the minimum required.

But others, including Kate Plumb, who lives on Richards Drive, said development pressure has made it difficult to get onto Hampton Street. “This project is just too big,” she said, saying she might be willing to support it if it offered some affordable housing units.

Loeffler said he had discussed that possibility with village officials, but that current Suffolk County wastewater standards do not allow the property to be used for apartments.

“The traffic this would cause would be horrific. It’s impossible to get onto Route 114 in the summertime,” said Sara Gage, a resident of James Place. “I think it would be a travesty to allow this kind of retail business — this sounds like a strip mall to me — in a historic part of our village.”

Arthur Salmon, a resident of Robeson Boulevard, said not only was there heavy vehicular traffic, but “there has been pedestrian traffic along that street for decades.” He, too, said there was “little neighborhood support for this development and this project.”

Another neighbor, Eileen Rosenberg, said Loeffler’s suggestion that the project would have minor impacts struck a chord with her.

“It’s only minor when it’s not happening to you,” she said.