DAN'S PAPERS, April 18, 2008 Page 16 www.danshamptons.com
Towne
(continued from page 13)
remarkable and very imaginative surprise. And if you’re not freaked out by 50-foot trees traveling past your door in the middle of the night for the next few months, all the better. Indeed, Gianos is taking an enormous financial gamble. He paid $35 million for the land. He’s hoping to convert it into $140 million in gross in what appears might be a huge recession. Yet he has these huge expenses to bear. It’s quite a risky undertaking. You have to admire him. His bringing in these over five-story-tall trees to the property puts me in mind of a lawsuit that has just concluded in Sunnyvale, California — aptly named as you will soon see — and also of another controversy involving trees that Gianos himself created just ten months ago. Ten years ago, Richard Treanor and his wife Carolyn, who live in Sunnyvale, had eight beautiful redwood trees 20 feet tall brought to their property and planted in the yard that they were expected to soon grow to be as high as 80 feet. The couple expected that these trees would be a wonderful statement of their commitment to the environment. The trees would absorb carbon dioxide and be wonderful homes for a wide variety of birds and climbing animals. They bought a Prius. They were totally committed to supporting nature. They waited. However, what they forgot to consider, unfortunately, was that their immediate neighbor, Mark Vargas, had installed the staggering number of 128 solar panels on the side of his house facing south ten years before. Vargas
runs everything with this solar power — lights, heat, air conditioning, even his electric car. He is totally self-sufficient. Well, wouldn’t you know it, late last year the redwoods began blocking the sun that shines on the solar panels. Vargas’s power began failing. His solar car died. Citing an obscure California law that says people are not allowed to put up anything that would obstruct solar panels of their neighbors’ homes by more than 10 percent, Vargas sued. And in Santa Clara court, after presenting photographic evidence of tree number one and tree number two and so forth, he won. The case is currently in appeal, but if it stands, the couple will, gasp, have to either cut down or move the redwoods. So there you are. As for the second controversy involving trees, ten months ago when the general public was loudly protesting the purchase of the 50acre farm by Mr. Gianos, not only because this would mean the end of farming in Southampton Village but because it would also mean the end of the beautiful view across this open farmland that everybody so much enjoys when they go by the corner of Wickabogue Road and Olde Town Road, Mr. Gianos countered by planting six-foot tall hedgerows on the property, all along Wickabogue and all the way
along Olde Towne, completely blocking that view. And under present law, he is within his rights to do so. There has often been talk of whether the magnificent views in the Hamptons should be protected so that we can all enjoy them, but so far, nobody has done anything about it. Thus far, there are no new laws. These hedgerows were up for nearly a year. And it was only after he got his approvals to build Olde Towne that he took them down. So what we will have here is an approximate reproduction of the first village of the State of New York, on the site of the first village of the State of New York, with 440 fully grown trees brought in from New Jersey at night by a man who owns a nursery there and says this is the largest contract for trees he’s ever filled, larger even than the one he did for Disney, accessible by a former dirt road called Olde Town Road, which was named in 1680 because it was how you got to the site where the old town used to be before they moved it, built as a private community for millionaires or billionaires, probably gated, not oceanfront, across from the hospital, and just for seven families, and nobody else, unless invited by them. I have so many mixed emotions about all of this, I can’t believe it. •
RESTORE A YOUTHFUL SMILE
is ing See ieving th Bel ts & Tee s an m I pl as little a S! R in U HO 24
HAVE YOU LOST OR ARE YOU LOSING YOUR TEETH? If so, you may be a candidate for Dental Implants. At the offices of Dr. Howard Popper and Dr. Jason Popper, we have placed thousands of implants since 1985, including Long Island's FIRST “Teeth in an Hour.”
JOIN OUR FAMILY OF HAPPY PATIENTS
THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE. CLEAN MOUTH BETTER HEALTH - THE PERILS OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE
• Periodontal disease attacks the gums and the bone supporting the teeth in the jawbones, thereby leading to loss of teeth. • Periodontal disease can be a chronic condition which requires ongoing care. Professional periodontal treatment is an investment in the health of your mouth and your overall well-being.
Why Dental Implants?
Before
Before
After
After
Before
After
• Preserves facial structure - helps prevent bone loss • Helps keep you looking younger • Allows you to eat whatever you want, not what you have to • Your ability to taste will improve • Allows you to speak & laugh naturally • Life-long solution • Improved quality of life Intraveneous Sedation administered by Board Certified Anesthesiologists. For a Complimentary Implant evaluation and /or Periodontal evaluation please call:
Before
After
Howard A. Popper, D.D.S. Diplomate, American Board of Periodontology
Jason P. Popper, D.D.S. Periodontics & Implant Dentistry
Before
After
Before
After
ER NSF TRA IENTS PAT COND & SEINION OP OME! C WEL
(631)-385-9400
999 Walt Whitman Rd., Suite 302 Melville, NY 11747
(631)-928-5850
One Medical Drive Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776
www.incredibleimplants.com
IT’S AFF MORE OR THA DABLE N THINYOU K! *Fin a Avai ncing lable