Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

Garage at Steven Spielberg’s East Hampton home under scrutiny

Steven Spielberg could be forced to move a garage on his East Hampton estate because it was built too close to the property line. The director’s lawyer, Richard Whalen, went before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals last Friday seeking a variance because the structure is 38.3 feet away from the neighbors.

The law currently requires an 80-foot setback. The East Hampton Star reports that village attorney Linda Riley said Spielberg purposely built it in violation: “It’s another case of let’s build it now, and who’s going to make us take it away, because it’s already there.” Whalen argued that thick hedges on Spielberg’s 5.5-acre property hide the structure: “The building has no impact on neighbors or on the public at large.”

Spielberg is also trying to get approval for the addition of two bedrooms to a guest house that’s listed as a single-family residence. “Under our village code, a single-family residence is ‘designed or arranged for occupancy by one family on a non-transient basis.’ How does that fit?” Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairman, said.

“These are extra guest rooms that are not occupied most of the time.” “Neither you nor I knows how they are occupied,” Whalen said. “Yes we do,” Marigold replied.

“There’s a very, very buttoned-up estate manager who took me around, and I said, ‘Who lives here?’ and he said, ‘No one.” He talked about how when they have people like President Clinton come and stay, it’s used for a night or two for their Secret Service men. No one lives there.” The hearing was adjourned until June 27, when the case of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s caretaker’s apartment will also be heard.