Inside the Hamptons’ Zoning Wars

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In October 2019, Billy Hajek, the East Hampton village planner, inspected a property on a one-lane road running along a narrow strip of land separating Georgica Pond from the ocean. On it sat a shingled vacation house, which dated to a time before strict wetlands regulations and had been built close to the pond, where it had long been hidden by a tangle of tall reeds, swamp bushes, and honeysuckles. Since buying it for $10.3…