Richard Perry/The New York Times
The $25 million home of Joshua Harris, where large metal plates were installed and covered with sand. The barrier cost around $50,000.
His neighbor, Mark Rachesky, another billionaire hedge fund founder, put up similar fortifications between his home and the surf. Chris Shumway, who closed his $8 billion hedge fund two years ago, trucked in boulders the size of Volkswagens.
Across a section of this wealthy town, some residents, accustomed to having their way in the business world, are now trying to hold back the ocean.
But the flurry of construction on beachfront residences since the hurricane is touching off bitter disputes over the environment, real estate and class.
Some local officials said they were worried that the owners were engaging in an arms race with nature, installing higher and higher barricades that could rapidly hasten erosion — essentially sacrificing public beaches to save private homes.
Last week, down the beach from Mr. Shumway's home, another project was under way. Bulldozers and backhoes were carting stones and piling sand, assembling what appeared to be ramparts. It was to protect the home owned by Vince Camuto, one of the founders of the Nine West fashion brand.
These fortifications have been built along a stretch of coast just over 2,000 feet long in one of the most exclusive sections of Southampton, off Gin Lane. The houses they protect cost as much as $60 million and stand, flanked by swimming pools and tennis courts, on hedge-lined lots of three to five acres.
Under local law, the beach in front of the dune is public, accessible to all. The section behind the dune belongs to the homeowners, but must be left open to the public. The homeowners are erecting the barricades on their parts of the beach.
Information about the projects was gleaned from interviews with local officials and zoning documents. Mr. Harris's alone cost nearly $50,000, according to town records. Others appear to have cost far more, interviews suggested.
The homeowners would not comment. Some of their representatives and consultants said the fortifications were environmentally sound and met all state and local regulations.
Still, the scope of the construction is dividing Southampton's full-time residents and its wealthy summer guests.
"If you lose the use of the beach, you've lost Southampton," said Fred Havemeyer, a member of the Town of Southampton board of trustees, which opposes the construction. "All these people are extremely rich and they're broadcasting the message of 'Me first.' "
Mr. Havemeyer and other trustees said the homeowners had taken advantage of a rule adopted by the State Department of Environmental Conservation after Hurricane Sandy that permitted damaged bulkheads and other beach fortifications to be rebuilt outside standard procedural requirements.
Some of the homes already had protective structures, but they were much smaller. The trustees have asked the conservation department to investigate whether the new structures violate existing restrictions.
The department said in a statement that it "continues to look into this matter."
Several of the protective barriers of boulders and bulkheads are now covered in mountains of sand so high that they obscure much of the houses when viewed from the beach.
Mark Epley, mayor of the Village of Southampton, acknowledged that officials had signed off on the projects, and that the homeowners might have a right to carry them out under current rules.
Still, he said, he grew so concerned after the barricades started going up that he took a building inspector to evaluate them in the middle of a nor'easter, "with sand smacking us in the face."
"When I first saw them, I was very taken back," Mayor Epley added. "It's alarming."
Anthony C. Pasca, a lawyer for Mr. Shumway, said the plan for the reconstructed stone barricade on the beach in front of Mr. Shumway's house was checked by officials from both the Village and the Town of Southampton. (The town includes the village.)
Village officials inspected the work after it was completed, confirming that it was done correctly, Mr. Pasca said.
The project "was meticulously planned, permitted by all levels of government and completed in accordance with those permits," he said in an e-mail.
Some defenders of the barricades said that with ocean waters creeping forward year by year, homeowners were unlikely to stand by and let their properties be washed away.
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