East Hampton library expansion plan goes to court

The long battle over the expansion of the East Hampton Public Library has entered a new arena - a courtroom.

After seven years of fighting to get an exemption from East Hampton Village's zoning code so its classic red brick library building could be expanded, the library board has decided to go to State Supreme Court to reverse the zoning board's rejection of the proposal.

"We have the smallest per capita book numbers for our children of any library in Suffolk. We're the last ones," said library board vice president Bruce Collins. "We're looking to bring us up to the average . . . this [legal battle] is going to be interesting."

Like many things in East Hampton Village - one of the most affluent and historic villages in the nation - it's not a simple issue.

The expansion was promoted as a children's wing expansion and other improvements. But Mary Jane Brock, a former library board member who opposes the project, said, "This is not a children's wing . . . less than a third of the square footage is for children. The information given to the public is only a partial truth . . . [but] who's going to vote against a children's wing?"

The library, which was last expanded in 1997, actually filed a more ambitious 10,000-square-foot expansion proposal with the village seven years ago, then withdrew it and - after extensive review - filed an amended plan to build a 6,802-square-foot two-story addition to the 20,000-square-foot existing building. It included a 60-seat lecture hall.

The village zoning board of appeals in June rejected the application, saying the expansion was too large for the 2.26-acre site, could not provide adequate parking, would use up too much open space and would bring in too much traffic at one of the busiest intersections in the town.

The 41-page decision is posted on the village website.

In response, the library board of trustees scheduled a referendum asking its patrons - anyone who lives in the East Hampton, Springs or Wainscott school districts - if the library should build the expansion with no tax increase, which was overwhelmingly passed 657-135. The library board said construction costs were already raised privately.

The library board, in filing its lawsuit this week, cited the referendum results as one of the reasons for its action.

Collins said he knew of no other case where a village has refused to abide by a public referendum. But while the results prompted the library board to sue, many of the voters do not live in the village.

Officials expect the case won't go to trial before October.