Village Slaps Georgica Homeowner, Contractor With Charges for Pilings

The homeowner and contractor who in front of a Georgica oceanfront property late last week have been served with a summons from East Hampton Village and state charges are expected to follow.

Mollie Zweig said she lost about 100 feet of sand and a snow fence at her home in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, and her partner and contractor Bob Sullivan installed the pilings to retain sand, they said.

Though Zweig said she had a verbal approval from the village to restore her property, it turned out she did not have permits from either the village or the Department of Environmental Conservation. Village officials asked work to stop, which it did for several days.

However, the posts remained in place.

Then on Thursday afternoon at 1:25 p.m., village Code Enforcement Officer Tom Lawrence issued a stop work order. But when he returned at 3:15 p.m., he said he observed work being done to extend the 6-foot pilings further above the sand.

The pilings were being buried by the sand as it was deposited on the beach, Lawrence said.

"Frankly, I'm amazed by the amount of sand that has washed up or returned at the beach," he said.

According to Lawrence, the purpose of extending the pilings was to make them visible and prevent a "trip and fall" scenario.

A phone message left with Zweig was not immediately returned.

On Friday just after noon, Lawrence served Zweig and Sullivan with summonses citing each of them for three counts of violating village law under sections pertaining to the beach - the Coastal Erosion Hazard Areas Act, which the DEC allows the village to regulate - and Preservation of Dunes.

Punishment under each section of the code vary from $250 to $1,000 in fines to up to six months in prison with regards to the Coastal Erosion law.

Peter Scully, the regional director of the DEC, said his office has kept in contact with local officials. "The village has made a determination that the installation of the pilings is in violations of the Coastal Erosion Hazard Areas Act and we concur," he said on Friday.

"We will most likely be issuing a notice of violation for constructing without a tidal wetlands permit," he said, adding that photographs the Environmental Conservation Police received were "illuminating" in that during high tide, the poles are in the water. 

However, Lawrence said it is his understanding that the the posts are one-foot in from Zweig's property line.

"I'm not trying to steal any beach," Zweig said on Wednesday. "I'm only trying to protect my property that I pay taxes on."

Zweig and Sullivan are due in court on the charges on Oct. 14.

Lawrence said that he is optimistic that before October the situation will be resolved. "The ultimate goal is a proper permit to effect a dune restoration program," Lawrence said.

Meanwhile, Citizens for Access Rights, a civic group which supports public access to beaches, is monitoring the situation.

"Although CfAR respects the rights of property owners to protect their land, we do not condone the actions taken by the homeowner," the group said in a statement. "The end result of the obtrusive and unapproved structure at Georgica is the inability for the general public, and emergency services, to effectively traverse the beach."