Dan's Papers - March 13, 2009 - Town Contemplates Suit

Billionaire Ron Baron built a six-foot high wall along the oceanfront side of his property in East Hampton. It is made of reinforced concrete, runs for about 450 feet and is built parallel to the ocean on the dune at the back of the beach.

Everyone knows you cannot build anything through a sand dune along the ocean. The sand dunes, which run almost 70 miles continuously along the ocean, are protected. People are permitted to walk through them if they stay on the trails. You see no KEEP OUT signs along any of the beach dunes in the Hamptons. And you see no walls, unless they were built more than 70 years ago, before there was zoning.

The particular stretch of dunes that Baron built his wall across is extraordinary, even for a sand dune. Some dunes along the ocean are only 50 feet wide. This particular dune - or set of dunes - is almost a quarter of a mile wide. It is so wide that while other dunes shift or even disappear over time, this stretch, known as the Double Dune, have been in this place for nearly two million years.

When it was first noticed that there was a concrete wall through the dunes last fall, the head of the Town's Natural Resources Department, Larry Penny, noticed it and sent a letter to Baron telling him that he was in violation. Baron's lawyer, Leonard Ackerman, responded by claiming that it was not a wall at all. It was underground. And it was a "retaining" wall built there to keep the treasured dune stabilized. So that is why Baron did not inform anybody of its whereabouts.

If you look at the wall, however, it is neither underground nor "retaining" any natural dune. It is about midway through the dune, parallel to the ocean, and on one side bulldozers built up the ground a bit, and on the other side, the ocean side, they carved it down six feet so as to keep people out. It "retains" what was built up.

Sand dunes that have been in the same spot for two million years do not need help from Baron.

There is only vacant land behind the most easterly 300 feet of this dune. There had been a private estate there before, but Baron said when he bought the property for a whopping $109 million, that he would tear them down if they were not moved before the closing, and so they were. He has an application ready to present to the Town to put a private driveway through the property and make it into six building lots. He intends to develop this property.

Along the most westerly 100 feet of the dune, which Baron has also now enclosed with this continuous "retaining" wall, is the private home that he has lived in for the last 10 years. It would be very hard to argue that Baron does not know about the laws that protect sand dunes.

Baron was given 30 days to remove his wall. He did not do so. When that time lapsed, he was informed of the consequences, which included fines up to $5,000 and up to four years in jail. The fine was laughable to someone with the means of Baron. The thought of a jail sentence was a bit more sobering. But with good lawyering, it would never happen. But it might.

More to the point, the Town also told Baron that his proposed development, which by this time he had brought to the Town, would not even be considered until the wall was removed. That might be considered extremely sobering. The Town of East Hampton, to its credit and despite financial troubles, has committed itself to all sorts of legal costs to defend the dunes - given that lawsuits are what rich men often do when they want to get their way.

When the 30 days came and went, the Town two weeks ago issued an order that requires Baron to personally appear in court on March 16 to explain himself. If he does not show, it is possible that a bench warrant could be issued for his arrest.

An ordinary person would certainly realize the seriousness of the situation and show up. Baron, however, is saying that he will not show up because they got the wrong man.

His lawyers have presented records to the court. The property is owned by two interlocking corporations with strange, nonsense names that are of limited liability and are some sort of trusts, of which, Baron is not even a director. He may or may not even know who owns this property. It's somebody else, not him.

The Town's response is that it's him. The law says - and this is not just a Town law but a law in almost any American jurisdiction - that if someone breaks a law and puts between themselves and the authorities all sorts of legal gobbledegook to make it appear they have not broken any law, the authorities can order "the person in charge" to take responsibility for what is done.

That, everyone believes, is Ron Baron.

Many people, some richer than Baron, own oceanfront property along the two mile long stretch of Further Lane in East Hampton. None built walls. And if one did, he'd either remove it if asked or show up in court to say why he should not do so.

Baron seems to be digging himself a hole. And it is not going well in this community.