A state appeals court has upheld a 2017 Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals decision to grant area variances for a three-lot subdivision at 550 and 554 Hill Street.
Hill Street neighbor Eric Ruttenberg, along with other neighbors, had petitioned the Suffolk County Supreme Court to overturn the ZBA’s decision, but the court dismissed the petition in 2020. Ruttenberg then appealed the dismissal to the State Supreme Court Appellate Division, and the case was argued this January and decided on July 26.
The court found that, “contrary to the petitioners’ contention, the ZBA’s determination … was not arbitrary and capricious, irrational, or an abuse of discretion.”
Despite this victory for the ZBA, the three-lot subdivision is, at present, not moving forward. The Village Planning Board, in a 3-1 decision, voted down the subdivision plan in June; the owner of the 2.8 acres, former ZBA member James Zuhusky, has initiated a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Planning Board’s decision.
The Appellate Division decision notes that the two parcels include two single-family houses and a warehouse used by moving and storage companies. “Storage and warehouse use is not a permitted use in the residential zoning districts at issue, but because the property had been used in this fashion since prior to the enactment of the zoning code, it was legal as a prior nonconforming use,” the decision continues.
In 2012, Zuhusky asked the ZBA — he was a member of the board at the time — to approve variances for a four-lot residential subdivision, but he later reduced the request to three lots to assuage the Planning Board’s concerns. The ZBA approved a number of variances in 2017, but rejected plans for accessory guest houses on two of the three lots.
John Bennett, the attorney who represented Zuhusky in the case, said that the fact that the Appellate Division upheld the ZBA’s decision is “more proof of how inappropriate that Planning Board denial is.”
