A dashing Manhattan venture capitalist is making enemies fast as he plans to expand his lake-front Victorian in Southampton Village, with more than 300 people, including neighbor Chuck Scarborough, raging against him.
Ken Fox — whose company, The Stripes Group, has financed Blue Apron and Seamless/Grubhub — hopes to grow his quaint, 1880s shingled home into a 25-bedroom, 14-bathroom “McMansion,” his opponents complain.
“Find another town to destroy,” seethed one petition signer, Olivia Salina.
Fox’s eight-bedroom home — which he purchased for $10.7 million in 2012, known locally as “Mocomanto” — is on both the state and national historic registries, and sits on protected wetlands on the banks of Lake Agawam.
The lake is already environmentally fragile — nitrogen runoff from fertilizer use caused a toxic algae bloom in May.
“Mocomanto is one of the oldest and most architecturally significant structures on Lake Agawam,” Scarborough and his wife Ellen wrote the zoning board last month.
“Unless the design is modified to preserve the architectural integrity of the house, we urge you not to grant any variances or exceptions,” wrote the Scarboroughs, who live on the lake two houses south of Mocomanto.
Some three dozen neighbors have joined them in writing protest letters to the zoning board, and as of Friday, more than 300 had signed a change.org petition urging village officials to oppose the plans.
A website, savemocomanto.com, has been set up to organize the opposition.
A local environmental group, Peconic Baykeeper, which boasts Mike Bloomberg partner Diana Taylor as a boardmember, has also vowed to fight the expansion.
“People are petrified to have their children go near the lake,” said lawyer Patrick Fife, who is representing the neighbors.
In a June letter to zoning officials, Fife catalogued repeated unauthorized improvements at the property, including the installation of “giant septic tanks.”
Scores of opponents turned out against Fox at a June 22 zoning board meeting.
One neighbor, Joyce Giuffra, complained at the meeting that her mother was “appalled” on Mother’s Day to hear “offensive lyrics from music that was blasting over our property line.
“She’s 80 years old; she was horrified, and she took our children inside,” Giuffra said, according to a transcript.
“We’re concerned that he’s going to be creating a party house in this very quiet family-oriented neighborhood that we have.”
She added, “Many times, Mr. Fox is zooming up and down” their shared driveway, noting that six children live nearby.
“One of my children actually was almost hit by Mr. Fox in his Jeep.”
Fox, meanwhile, told The Post through his lawyer that, as planned, Fox’s new house would still be smaller than many of his neighbors’.
“My client is a happily married man with a young child,” said the lawyer, John Bennett. “He has the right to build the house.”
The zoning board meets on the application on July 27.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano