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As seen on Zoom, Namita Modi, Pat Trunzo’s architect for his proposed house at 12 Marsden Street, shows an elevation of the project to the Sag Harbor HPARB on December 14.
For sale sign for four lots across street from the building lot at 12 Marsden Street, where owner Pat Trunzo is seeking approval for a two-story house containing 5,285 square feet of floor area. PETER BOODY
After a two-year pause for what proved to be one of the most divisive political issues in recent Sag Harbor history, Marsden Street property owner Pat Trunzo last week renewed his effort to develop his property — or at least one piece of it.
This time, he’s asking the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board to approve a single house on one of his five parcels, a three-quarter-acre lot on the south side of Marsden Street. The rest of the lots, totaling 3.37 acres, with the addresses 7, 9, 11 and 15 Marsden Street, are on the market for sale at $9 million for the package. Trunzo’s proposed house is at 12 Marsden Street.
This time, no one on the panel had any objections that can’t be tweaked.
“I think the aesthetic of it is appropriate,” commented the panel’s architectural historical consultant, Zachary Studenroth.
Chairman Steve Williams and ARB member Michelle Arrington agreed. Member Judith Long bemoaned what she called the “cliché” of another big, white, new house with black trim, and a landscaping plan that she said looked “very suburban: It could be in Mineola.”
As for the house, she said its size would be “jarring” but she acknowledged “that you made it smaller.” Other than the black trim and the current landscaping plan, “It’s fine,” she said.
Because the house will be greater than 3,000 square feet in total floor area, the village code requires the ARB to hold a public hearing before it can grant a “certificate of appropriateness” for the plan. The board, with Meghan Toy abstaining because she said she had been “outspoken” about the property in the past, voted to set the hearing for its next meeting on January 26 at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Building.
When Trunzo last went before the board in 2021, he was calling for three houses on three of his five lots, each with more than 6,000 square feet of floor area on two floors — all three larger than the house he’s proposing now, which will contain 5,285 square feet. The house previously proposed for 12 Marsden contained 6,330 square feet of floor area.
There was never a vote last time, but HPARB members — charged with protecting the aesthetic harmony of the Sag Harbor Historic District — resisted, saying the houses were all too massive and out of sync with a neighborhood of small houses.
Trunzo eventually withdrew the application and entered talks with the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund and the Sag Harbor School District to preserve the property and use it as an athletic facility.
But neighborhood resistance exploded and in the whirl of passionate opposition to the plan, the CPF abruptly dropped out and the School Board went on to ask voters to approve a $6 million bond and a $3.425 million expenditure from its reserve fund to buy the property.
In what was called the largest turnout ever for a school district ballot, voters in May rejected the funding plan by a tiny margin of 75 votes out of 2,237 cast, with 1,156 school district residents or 51.67 percent voting “no” and 1,081 or 48.33 percent voting “yes.”
Trunzo was in the audience in the Municipal Building on December 14 for the monthly meeting of the HPARB, when his new application was aired, but he did not take the lectern, as he had in 2021 and in 2019, when he first informally discussed his plans with the board.
There was no discussion last week of his plans for the rest of the property.
Trunzo was represented by attorney Denise Schoen and architect Namita Modi, who went over the plan for the two-story house with a detached garage in the rear connected by a breezeway. There will also be a pool, patio and pool house in the back.
“We listened to you and we made it smaller,” Modi said, “but we also made it look smaller,” using setbacks in the structure and less glazing in the front elevation to avoid an impression of mass. Also, the highest roofline will be lower than previously planned, at 30 feet, 10 inches instead of 33 feet, eight inches.
