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Architect’s rendering of proposed addition, right, to existing historic house at 59 Howard Street in Sag Harbor.
It’s “clearly an issue” that a proposed addition would be about 5 feet taller than the modest 19th century house to which it would be attached at 59 Howard Street in the Sag Harbor Historic District, the chairman of Sag Harbor’s Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board told architect Fred Stelle during an informal discussion at its March 24 Zoom meeting.
The proposal, which calls for removing two small accessory structures in the back, building the addition and installing a pool, is also on the April 7 agenda of the village’s Harbor Committee because part of the property lies in freshwater wetlands and the plan will require a permit allowing construction inside a required setback; it also will require dimensional variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals, Stelle said.
Stelle’s son Tom and his daughter-in-law Jackie are the owners of the property, which is adjacent to a wooded wetlands parcel at the corner of Howard Street and Long Island Avenue that Stelle said had been acquired for preservation by the town’s Community Preservation Fund.
Chair Jeanne Kane told him that “given it is an historical home” listed in the historic district inventory, “and when additions are proposed we really can’t be in a position that the new addition is overwhelming the existing” structure, “the height is clearly an issue.”
“The contrast in style is also one that we’re going to need to have you think about,” she said of the addition. A modern living space can’t just be attached to a historical building via a connector, she continued, adding that it would “not be in harmony with the feel of the Sag Harbor Historic District.”
The board’s historic architectural consultant, Zach Studenroth, suggested that “the further you can get that addition away from the existing house, the less … height will be an issue.” He said the new construction “doesn’t need to look old; it just needs to be harmonious” in form and materials. “It needs to fit in.”
Stelle noted that wetlands and dimensional setback requirements, as well as required setbacks from the proposed new “innovative/alternative” septic system that will be installed, make him have to “thread a needle here” in developing the project. He added that national guidelines for historic districts acknowledge that “new construction does happen.” He said the question is “what is the most appropriate way to do it?”
The board agreed to visit the site to discuss options once the case has gone before the Harbor Committee and the wetlands issues have been addressed.
In another case on March 24, Charles McCarron seemed stunned when the board stuck to its past requirement that a proposed front porch at the house he is renovating at 6 Rector Street extend all the way across the entire façade of the house, in keeping with local historic precedent. McCarron said it can’t be done because it would block safe access to a cellar door, for which cement stairs have already been poured.
Board members told him he had proceeded to do work without a permit from the board. That has put the panel “in a very compromising position,” Studenroth said, by “asking it to approve something that is architecturally … not correct.”
“This is the issue: You are building things without the permit,” Kane told him.
McCarron complained that he had spent $150,000 remaking what used to be “that ugly stinking rotten house” with its “ugly awnings and aluminum siding” and now is facing resistance over “one post” on the proposed porch — a reference to the problems of positioning the porch posts if the porch is extended from wall to wall.
McCarron walked away from the meeting briefly, leaving his Zoom screen empty, but returned and agreed to meet with Studenroth and board members at the site to review the issues.
Also at the session, the board approved a new color scheme for the old railroad building at 11 Spring Street of Chelsea Grey in eggshell finish for the façade and Historical Black for the trim. Architect Anthony Vermandois’s plan to raise the house at 81 Suffolk Street by 1 foot and construct a one-story addition was approved as well.
