Southampton ZBA Rejects Appeal Of 230 Elm Street Building Permit

Neighbors of the former Polish Hall at 230 Elm Street, the new home of catering company Elegant Affairs, had asked the Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals to throw out the venue’s building permit — but the board voted unanimously on Thursday, July 28, to uphold the building inspector’s decision.

The ZBA members found that based on the merits of the neighbors’ application, there was no reason to overturn the building inspector’s decision to issue the permit in March 2021.

They also considered whether the appeal was filed in a timely manner but ultimately decided to reject the appeal on its merits alone and not weigh in formally on the timeliness.

The permit called for a few interior changes to 230 Elm Street affecting, for the most part, bathrooms and accessibility. Neighbors, led by Jay Fitzpatrick, filed an appeal, calling on the ZBA to invalidate the permit and arguing that it would further an unauthorized use of the property, namely a catering hall.

The building has a certificate of occupancy issued in 2000 that identifies it as a catering hall, although the attorney for the neighbors sought to convince the board that catering was approved only as an incidental use of the facility, which they said was primarily a social club.

For their part, members of the Polish-American Political Club of Southampton, which leased the facility to Elegant Affairs, and their attorney, Richard Hamburger, presented testimony and affidavits stating that the building has been used as a catering hall for decades — long before the certificate of occupancy was issued.

“I don’t think the application was made in a timely manner, and on that alone I could make a decision,” ZBA member Luke Ferran said during the July 28 meeting, adding that he believed the building inspector was reasonable and acting within his job description when he issued the permit.

ZBA member Julia McCormack agreed the appeal was not timely and that the building inspector had acted within his purview.

Building permit appeals must be filed within 60 days of when the permit is issued, although ZBA Chairman Mark Greenwald was sympathetic to the appellants’ position that the clock didn’t really start until the Planning Board approved the plan.

“On the merits, I think we’re all saying the same thing,” Greenwald said. “The certificate of occupancy stands, and the building permit stands. Do we need to dance around the issue of the statute of limitations too much?”

Jeff Blinkoff, the ZBA attorney, told Greenwald that the board could rule on the merits only, and if the board rejected the application, it would render the timeliness question “academic.”

Since the board did, in fact, go on to vote to reject the appeal, no vote was taken on whether the appeal was filed within an acceptable time frame.