ZBA gives applicants final chance to get it right
“It looks like an archaeological dig,” ZBA member Patricia Shillingburg said about this Ram Island Drive property in December. She and her fellow ZBA members are no happier a month later as they continue to see revised plans that raise questions about what the owners plan.
They said it last month and again Wednesday night. The ZBA not only wants to know what a finished structure will look like, but what steps are being taken to reach the desired end.The difference this time is that if homeowners Rob and Genevieve Lynch and their representatives fail to explain exactly what’s being done on their property at 72 Ram Island Drive, they will be forced to use the site to build only a structure that needs no variances.
“If you don’t do it right this time, you’re done,” ZBA member William “Pitch” Johnston III said.
What the ZBA wants now is a plan that red lines all changes made from the time the Lynches first got approval from the ZBA for a project to enlarge their house to current plans.
“I just don’t want a drawing that doesn’t represent what we’re going to approve,” ZBA chairman Doug Matz said.
When the couple initially received approval to enlarge their nonconforming house in March 2014, Mr. Lynch and his representatives promised the foundation would remain. That didn’t happen and building inspector Chris Tehan issued a stop work order.
That sent the couple back to the ZBA where Mr. Lynch and architect Bill Ryall, builder Bob Plumb of Salt Construction Co. in Sag Harbor and consultant Bruce Anderson apologized, but said when work was under way, they discovered the need to remove the foundation.
What they should have happened was to return to the Building Department to report the situation instead of proceeding and hoping no one would notice once construction was completed, the ZBA instructed.
After many mea culpas from the Lynch team and some slaps on the wrist by the ZBA, a plan to move forward appeared in the works last month.
The ZBA expected to be able to approve the work this week, only to find drawings that now show some more changes they hadn’t expected.
The final house would still fit within the building envelope on the site.
But the ZBA wants to see not just the finished house but plans that explain how it’s constructed.
“The reality is I do care about the process” and not just the end result, member Phil DiOrio said.
“I don’t know what else has changed; what else aren’t we seeing,” Mr. Matz said, looking at the latest plans. Now the ZBA wants the couple and their representatives to provide a plan that’s red-lined to show all changes that have been made since the project started last year up to the present time.
“We just want to know what they’re going to build,” member Patricia Shillingburg said. “We don’t want to approve something the Building Department is going to reject,” she said.
There’s a perception that the Lynches and their representatives appear to be acting as though local boards don’t matter and are just something to be gotten around, said Councilwoman Chris Lewis, who is liaison to the ZBA.
“Mr. Anderson in December told us we don’t know what we’re doing,” Ms. Shillingburg said.
So now the applicants will have one more chance next Wednesday to make clear not only what the finished house will look like, but the process of getting it there.
