East Hampton Town announced Thursday that the town is taking emergency action to remove the storm-damaged “stilt house” on Mulford Lane in Lazy Point, an iconic much-photographed building that had long stood on pilings in the water as coastal erosion took its toll on the shoreline.
After a heavy freeze in late January, the pressure of the ice caused the pilings to buckle, “causing the structure to collapse and creating an imminent risk to public safety, navigation, and nearby coastal resources,” according to a Feb. 5 statement from the town.
The town said the house had been seaward of the shoreline for “approximately two decades, has been uninhabitable and disconnected from utilities for many years.”
On Feb. 3, The Town Building Department placed a placard on the property deeming the site unsafe under the New York State Property Maintenance Code, at which time the the Building Department determined the building “posed a serious risk of further breakup and debris dispersal into Gardiners Bay and surrounding wetlands.”
The town then submitted an Emergency Authorization request to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to remove the building using a barge, and has retained Chesterfield Associates to do the work without disturbing the shoreline, using containment measures including a debris boom and disposing of the debris at a DEC-approved upland facility. The town says the work is expected to take about two days.
“Protecting public safety and our coastal environment is a responsibility we take seriously,” said East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez. “I am grateful to Governor Hochul and her team for their support and quick coordination as we work with the DEC to address this hazard. This structure had reached a point where inaction would have put people, property, and natural resources at risk, and acting quickly and responsibly is the right course.”
“Our focus has been to address the hazard quickly and responsibly, with a plan that protects public safety, reduces risks to navigation, and limits impacts to nearby wetlands and coastal waters,” said Town Councilmember Tom Flight. “Using a barge-based approach with containment measures allows the work to be done in a controlled manner and helps prevent debris from spreading into the bay and along the shoreline.”
East Hampton Town had received nearly $10 million in federal Emergency Watershed Grant Protection funding in 2014 to purchase properties in the neighborhood that are at risk of erosion, a project that is still in the works.
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