Final ZBA Hearing on North Sea Camp Is Thursday

The final zoning board of appeals hearing on a controversial application to open a day camp in North Sea abutting Little Fresh Pond is Thursday, and crowds of residents in opposition are expected to overflow the board room once again.

The ZBA meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday. Jay Jacobs, the owner of the land and an operator of other day camps, including in East Hampton, is seeking approvals to expand a pre-existing, nonconforming use at the site. But groups of residents have appealed a building department decision that the application can proceed without the ZBA's review, and say that the site does not have a pre-existing use as a summer camp of the scope Jacobs' proposes.

The site was most recently home of the , a members-only tennis club. Neighbors in opposition say that plans for a day camp, which includes widening a stretch of Majors Patch, will lead to increased noise and traffic in the neighborhood, and pollution to Little Fresh Pond.

Jacobs maintains that measures will be taken to prevent effluent from entering the pond, and the camp will not deteriorate quality of life for the neighborhood.

Members of the Little Fresh Pond Association and North Sea Neighbors, and others with concerns about the pond's health, spoke passionately at , urging the ZBA to reject the camp application. Jacobs said at the hearing that a day camp is the best use for the property. "It operates eight to 10 weeks for the year, different from a home project, which would have multiple homes that would operate all year long," he said.

Jacobs, the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, has sued the president and vice president of the Little Fresh Pond Association, . They counter that he is in violation of state law.