LI builder ‘nailed’
Hamptons home too high – so he’s gotta rip roof off
It’s the height of stupidity. Luxury Hamptons developer Peter Cardel erected a gorgeous, custom mansion in Amagansett, home to movie stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson and Alec Baldwin.
But the house on Meeting House Lane was built taller than building codes allow.
Neighbors fumed, and Cardel is being forced to strip off the roof and gut the entire top level of the house, which now needs to be rebuilt much lower.
“He thought he could get away with building a house that was higher than he was allowed to build, but he got caught and he is now tearing the house apart,” a source said.
“This never happens — tearing off the roof because the house is too high. Neighbors were furious that the house was towering over everyone else,” the source added.
The foundation was so high that water allegedly flooded neighbors’ properties.
“The guy is like a menace,” the source said.
In 2012, The Post reported that Cardel built a house from scratch for wealthy clients too close to the curb. So he had to tear the whole thing down and start again.
Those clients, Eric and Margaret Friedberg, came back to the Hamptons from a vacation expecting to see their home on the road to completion.
Instead, much to their surprise, they found that their home was built on the wrong spot, leaving them no room for a back yard or pool.
The home’s newly poured 45foot-by-45-foot foundation, made up of 10-inch thick concrete and steel rebar, had to be smashed and carted away.
“Mistakes happen,” Margaret Friedberg said at the time, adding that she stood by her builder.
Residents say Cardel built his recent home taller than what was allowed under what is known as a basic “pyramid law,” which limits the height of a building as it gets closer to property lines — to prevent a home from towering over neighboring homes.
“He violated that law,” a witness said. “The entire neighborhood was up in arms.”
He thought he could get away with building a house that was higher than he was allowed to build, but he got caught. Anonymous neighbor