The Hamptons have long been a site for mansion-building, but community members are concerned that their community is falling apart. There is no space for small homes or their local inhabitants anymore. While zoning laws haven’t raised much concern, they’ve gotten much attention recently.
“If in a few years my modest house is surrounded by McMansions,” East Hampton local Christina Buckley said at a meeting in March, “and I can no longer pass my neighbors daily on my street walking their dogs, saying hello, I may choose to leave. It will be because the soul of my community is gone.”
Construction Is Expanding Into Smaller Communities
Mansions have been built in the Hamptons for decades, but construction was usually only found in the wealthiest areas. Now, new houses are being built in communities like Montauk along the beach on Long Island’s eastern end. According to an estate agent, the houses are being offered for rent at a combined price of $1.5 million.
Surfers called them “monstrosities,” and a correspondent of the East Hampton Star called them “the antithesis of everything you find endearing about Montauk.”
“The big houses used to be much more confined to the, quote, ‘estate sections,’” former Wall Street equities analyst Jaine Mehring said. “The big change is that the houses are everywhere now.”
An Effort to Change the Local Zoning Laws
Currently, the size of new houses compared to the land they were built on is permitted to be ten percent of the size of a plot plus 1,600 square feet. A working group tasked with reforming the building code, of which Mehring is a part, recommended a cut to seven percent of a plot’s size plus 1,300 square feet.
Diminishing the Community’s Character
During one of the group’s meetings, builder Ed Krug spoke in favor of the amendment. “Every time we allow an oversize house,” he said, “we diminish our community character by that much. A thousand paper cuts later ,and we are not going to be an attractive semi-rural place, which is why we came here.”
He seemingly argued that it is not the development that is a concern but the type of home. Overly big and grey-colored mansions without character are what catch the community’s attention. Enough that they are willing to attend meetings about zoning laws to seek meaningful change and prevent what they see happening around them.
Krug told The Times, “I’m not throwing shade on anyone’s right to make a living, but I think these guys have created a market for a certain kind of house. When did we normalize the idea that you need a 6,000-square-foot beach house?”
A Seemingly Favorable Agreement
When the board met again, they seemed to reach a compromise of seven percent of the plot’s size plus 1,500 square feet, with three members speaking in favor and two opposed as of March 18. Whether this amendment is finalized remains to be seen; the change is expected to come into effect by July.
