When the Sands Point Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, October 27, Mayor Peter Forman said the Village intends to refund three homeowners. Each had paid for a site-plan review that the Village now considers unnecessary. Long Island Press reported that the board approved three local laws that night. One of them changes the review requirements so that certain minor alterations no longer count toward the threshold that triggers a review. Forman put the cost of a review at roughly $25,000.
Those refunds show how the Village sorts renovation projects. In Sands Point, a renovation's cost is set less by the scope of the work than by one ratio: how much of the house is being altered compared with its gross floor area. Once the work reaches half, Village Hall treats the project much like a new house. Anyone pricing an older Sands Point home, or planning to sell one to a buyer who wants to renovate, is pricing that ratio along with the house.
Half the house is the line
The Village Code's definitions section calls an alteration a "Major Structural Alteration" when it equals or exceeds 50% of the gross floor area of the building as originally built, or as last modified under a site-plan approval. Anything below that is a "Minor Structural Alteration." The code defines an alteration broadly. It covers changes to interior or exterior structural parts and any increase in size or height. Ordinary repairs are excluded.
Chapter 132 of the Village Code lists what requires site-plan review in the residential districts. Brand-new dwellings are on the list, and so is "any Major Structural Alteration or any Alteration that exceeds a Gross Floor Area limitation imposed by a decision of the BZA." Rebuilding after a fire triggers review too, if the reconstructed area equals or exceeds 50% of the gross floor area at the time of the damage.
The base the 50% is measured against matters as much as the percentage. If the house was last modified under a site-plan approval, that approved version becomes the new reference point. So a buyer needs to know two things about a house: its size, and how the Village last recorded its size.
| Project characteristic | Treatment under the current code |
|---|---|
| Alteration below 50% of gross floor area | Minor Structural Alteration |
| Alteration at or above 50% of gross floor area | Major Structural Alteration, site-plan review required unless a code exception applies |
| Alteration exceeding a BZA-imposed floor-area limit | Site-plan review required |
| Fire or incident rebuild at or above 50% | Site-plan review required |
| Ordinary repairs | Not an alteration under the definition |
What crossing the line adds to the budget
Site-plan review costs more than the time it takes. Chapter 82, the Village's fee chapter, attaches its own costs to projects on the far side of the 50% line.
- A $25,000 reserve payment. The Village can make site-plan approval conditional on a $25,000 payment into a Village capital or repair reserve fund. It applies to any addition to or reconstruction of a principal structure that equals or exceeds 50% of the gross floor area as originally built or as last modified under site-plan approval.
- A permit fee priced off a Village cost standard. Building permits cost $17 for each $1,000 of estimated construction cost. For a new single-family home or a Major Structural Alteration, the Village's cost standard is $400 per square foot. The estimate uses that standard or the actual cost, whichever is higher, and the fee is recalculated against the actual cost when the work is finished. On a 3,000-square-foot alteration, the standard alone gives an estimate of $1.2 million and a permit fee of $20,400.
- A larger protection deposit. The deposit against damage to Village or private property is at least $1,000 for an ordinary building permit and at least $2,500 when the permit needs site-plan approval.
- Open-ended review costs. The code states that the deposits do not limit an applicant's liability for the costs the Village incurs reviewing the application.
These costs land together, which makes the threshold a cliff. Two renovations of nearly the same size can carry very different soft costs if one sits just under half the house and the other just over.
The existing code does include a narrow exception process for small additions. To qualify, the original house has to be smaller than half the district maximum, the addition has to be under 10% of the existing gross floor area, there can be no more than one prior addition of that size, the owner has to have bought in an arm's-length purchase and live in the home, and no other discretionary BZA approvals can be needed. The Village Board decides each case.
What the October 27 vote changed
The October 8 hearing notice set out the package. The definition change removes the word "Structural," so the terms become "Major Alteration" and "Minor Alteration." The Chapter 132 amendment exempts "certain Major Alterations from site plan review," and the Chapter 82 amendment revises fees connected to site-plan review. The Village's announcement identifies the drafts as Proposed Local Laws 6, 7 and 8 of 2026.
Long Island Press describes the purpose of the change as covering alterations that do not affect a home's "bulk or relevant dimensions." That points to the practical effect. A large interior renovation that leaves the house's footprint, height and massing alone is the kind of project the change appears designed to take out of the review count.
The adopted wording still has to reach the codified text. The online Village Code reflects legislation through September 22, 2026. Until the new laws are codified, the exact exemption criteria, the revised fees and the effective date are details to confirm with Village Hall at 26 Tibbits Lane. They should not be assumed from a summary.
The second ceiling is written in acres
The 50% rule decides what process a project goes through. A separate formula in Chapter 176, the zoning chapter, decides how large the house can be at all. In Residence A and Residence B, building area is capped at 12% of the first acre, 8% of the second acre and 6% of any land beyond that. Habitable floor area uses ratios of 0.12, 0.06 and 0.04 over the same bands. Residence A requires 87,120 square feet, or two acres, per family. Residence B requires one acre.
On a full two-acre lot, the formula allows about 8,712 square feet of building area and about 7,841 square feet of habitable floor area. "Building area" means the combined footprint of every building on the lot, minus listed exclusions such as modest eaves, steps and certain open porches. A pool house, cabana or detached garage takes from the same allowance as the main house.
A June 25, 2026 Board of Zoning Appeals notice shows the formula at work. For one 75,200.2-square-foot lot, about 1.73 acres, the notice lists an allowable building area of 7,758.4 square feet and an allowable habitable floor area of 7,125.60 square feet. Running the formula reproduces both figures exactly. Anyone who knows a lot's square footage can work out its ceiling before calling an architect.
When the built house and the approved house differ
The same June 25 agenda shows the process when a finished house does not match its approval. In one application listed there, a house approved for 10,152 square feet of building area was built at 11,273.18, and the owner is asking to modify the approval to 10,682.18 square feet through alterations that include partial deconstruction. A second application on that agenda asks for building area above the formula allowance on a lot smaller than the two acres its district requires.
More routine projects go before the same board. The June 15 agenda included a proposed 1,025-square-foot cabana with requested rear-yard coverage of 28.5% against a 15% maximum. The October 20 agenda listed a new house with a three-car garage and pool, a pergola variance and a pickleball court request. The next BZA hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m.
For a buyer, the documents behind a house carry as much weight as the house. The most recent site-plan approval sets the base for the 50% calculation. Any floor-area limit the BZA attached to that approval becomes a ceiling of its own. And the approved square footage has to match what was actually built.
Questions to settle before an offer or a listing
- What gross floor area does the Village have on record for the house, and was it set by an original approval or a later site-plan modification?
- Did any BZA decision on the property impose a gross floor area limit?
- What do the lot's square footage and district imply under the building-area formula, and how much of that allowance do existing accessory structures already use?
- Does the planned renovation change the home's bulk or dimensions, or does it stay inside the existing envelope?
- Once the adopted October laws are codified, does the project fall under the new exemption?
A few questions buyers ask
Does an interior gut renovation now avoid site-plan review? According to Long Island Press, the change applies to alterations that do not affect bulk or relevant dimensions. Whether a particular project qualifies depends on the adopted text, which the Village can confirm.
Is the $25,000 the same as the review fee? They are separate charges. Chapter 82 sets the $25,000 as a reserve-fund payment tied to the 50% threshold, and actual review costs are billed on top of deposits.
Does the 50% rule apply to a house rebuilt after a fire? Chapter 132 lists reconstruction of a principal structure damaged by fire or another incident among the projects that require site-plan review, when the reconstructed area equals or exceeds 50% of the gross floor area at the time of the damage.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how these rules apply to a specific property with the Village, an attorney, or your architect.
If you are weighing an older Sands Point house or getting ready to list one, Beth Catrone can help you pull the Village's floor-area record and approval history before price or terms are set. Let's Connect.
