No Excuses

On February 10, the Southampton Village Board voted, 5-0, to increase many of the fees that the Building Department charges builders and property owners.

Two members of that same Village Board, Roy Stevenson and Robin Brown, then proceeded to have work done on their properties — without building permits.

Stevenson, a former chairman of the Planning Board, clearly should have known better. He was granted an easement on village property for a brick entrance ramp to his eponymous toy store on Jobs Lane, and he had Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation approval for repairs to the storefront — which was a good start. He said he told Village Police that the work would be underway, and he told Village Hall he would have a dumpster on site. (And who at police headquarters or Village Hall was going to argue with a village trustee?)

Where he went wrong was failing to tell — or ask — the Building Department about his plans. All around, he should have engaged in more asking and less telling.

The Planning Board would later waive a public hearing regarding his entrance ramp. It was a courtesy that was not afforded to another applicant, Elegant Affairs, just weeks later when it applied for a ramp at 230 Elm Street.

Unlike Stevenson, Brown is new to village government, but that’s not an excuse. The work done on her home without a permit, including a new basement egress and enclosing a porch, was not minor.

Southampton Village is notorious for scrutinizing nearly every change a homeowner wants to make. Any village resident should have known that at least a call to the Building Department was necessary, and a permit likely was needed. Carrying out work without a green light from the Building Department was brazen, especially for an elected official who just saw her colleague making headlines over a similar situation.

When village trustees skirt the village code, intentionally or not, it creates justified resentment among village residents who do follow the law — and pay those newly increased fees.

Mayor Jesse Warren, who had no comment this week about Brown’s code violations, not long ago used a novel interpretation of the village code to demand Planning Board review of the plans for the interior of 230 Elm Street. He should impress that same level of adherence to the code on his Village Board colleagues.