The crowd that packed into the Southold Recreation Center Thursday evening to hear Southold Town’s plan to prioritize urgent issues in its zoning update seemed pleased to find community housing the top priority.
They also lent a chorus of voices to environmental issues they felt should be higher priorities — including protecting the town from rising seas, protecting drinking water and putting in place a code to prevent clear-cutting of trees.
Southold hired a consultant, ZoneCo, to undergo a massive overhaul of the town code nearly four years ago. A draft of the company’s work was unveiled in April 2025, leading to massive confusion and questions from the public in a series of more than a dozen public meetings last summer.
After losing staff in the Planning Department and parting ways with ZoneCo. in the summer of 2025, Town Planning Director Heather Lanza said her department realized finalizing the massive update in-house wouldn’t be feasible with the staff they have.
Town Supervisor Al Krupski kicked off the meeting with a reminder that he inherited this project, which was begun under previous Town Supervisor Scott Russell.
“We’re coming on the four year anniversary of when the old town board interviewed this company to start this project,” he said, adding that nearly $200,000 has been spent on the project, mostly through a state grant.
“A lot of that effort is not wasted. We’re going to incorporate it moving forward,” he said, adding that the town’s Comprehensive Plan on which the zoning changes are based, is still a good guide for the town’s future because it was done by town staff who know the issues, and incorporated a great deal of community input. The creation of that plan took 10 years.
A New Process
Earlier this spring, Ms. Lanza unveiled a new plan, to prioritize zoning issues that had topped community concerns at last year’s forums.
Revamping the code to encourage more community housing — housing that is “within reach of moderate to low income residents, people who live and work in our community,” she said at Thursday’s meeting, —emerged as, by far, the top priority.
“We need to remove barriers and be guided by smart growth principles,” Ms. Lanza told the crowd at Thursday’s meeting. “And the Community Housing Fund, where we’re collecting funds to subsidize community housing, we can’t spend that money the way we need to until the code is updated.”
She added that the proliferation of short-term rentals in Southold has taken a great deal of housing stock out of the market for people who live here, and the Town Board is currently drafting code to limit short-term rentals and instate a lottery. Currently, rentals of less than 14 days are not allowed in Southold, but that code has proven difficult to enforce.
“Getting a handle on short-term rentals is important part of bringing more housing back to market,” she said.
After community housing, she said, priorities include improved zoning for businesses and agriculture, protecting community character by updating the town’s big house law, streamlining the way definitions are handled in the code, addressing Zoning Board of Appeals interpretations and coastal resilience.
The town will not be using a highly contentious new zoning map that was included in last year’s draft.
“A lot of people were concerned about the map, but you don’t need to worry. We’re not using that map,” said Ms. Lanza, as a sigh of relief emanated from the crowd. “Your input has been valuable and is not wasted. We heard you on many of the issues and concerns, and identified major changes we want to make.”
She said the process for adopting these changes will include drafting code addressing each issue that will be finalized by the Town Board’s Code Committee, then put forward to the public at forums, followed by public hearings and adoption of new code.
She said she expects it to take three to five years to “complete 10 priority phases. We’ll take one or two at a time, each taking four to six months, depending on their complexity and the public review.”
“This will allow us to make steady progress, ensuring each piece gets a good look,” she said. “Personally, I’m invigorated by this new plan.”
She added that one priority not listed is the town’s new wireless code encouraging cell towers, which is written and will be up for public hearing at the board’s next meeting, Tuesday, June 16 at 6 p.m.
Public Feedback
While last year’s public meetings were generally contentious and filled with confusion about the vast scale and confusing language of the 200-page rewrite of the code, attendees at Thursday’s forum were receptive to the new approach, and gave thoughtful suggestions.
David Mammina of East Marion said he “thinks it’s wonderful” that the town is no longer using the map, and suggested the town partner with non-profits to develop housing.
Greenport Village Workforce & Affordable Housing Committee Chair Dinni Gordon recommended suggestions for housing be specific to each hamlet, and enable “opportunities for the sensible growth and longterm stability of the North Fork.”
George Maul of New Suffolk recommended the town work with architects to envision the future of each of the town’s hamlet centers if they included community housing, similar to a project Ms. Gordon’s group has recently embarked on in Greenport.
(Mr. Maul also serves as The Beacon’s Creative Director, a non-editorial role)
“They had four architects show a vision for what Greenport could look like. Maybe it wasn’t what everyone wanted to see, but it was an idea of how it could be,” he said. “I think that would help with consensus in the community, and show people what we’re aiming for. It would get rid of NIMBYism.”
Former Greenport Mayor David Kapell agreed, adding that he believes the town could look into building housing on its Town Hall Annex campus, and on a privately owned property across Youngs Avenue, a brick building near the train station that was formerly a financial services office.
“There are many, many programs that would subsidize affordable development that town could take advantage of,” he said.
“I’m happy to see housing as a priority,” said business leader Paul Romanelli, who added that at a recent summit of business leaders organized by the town’s Economic Development Committee, a top issue was housing for employees. He urged the town to rethink areas like Love Lane in Mattituck, where there are empty spaces above storefronts that could be apartments if they had relief from parking or septic issues.
“Make sure that’s integrated in. It’s really important,” he said.
Numerous people urged the town to move environmental issues higher up on the priority list.
Suzanne Donovan of Greenport suggested that all of the priorities be viewed through their impact on coastal resilience.
“Look at everything through that lens rather than setting it as the number seven or eight priority,” she said. “That should be throughout the entire conversation.
“A land clearing code should go into the priorities list. That should be done ASAP,” said Barbara Friedman of Orient. “We just see too many lots being clear-cut. We need to stop that.”
Her comments were met with a hearty round of applause.
Mr. Krupski said that, while the town is looking at using a similar code recently adopted by Southampton Town as a template, it needs to view that issue through the lens of restructuring its code enforcement so this and other new codes, like ones being developed for short-term rentals, are enforceable.
Ms. Friedman also recommended the town limit pumping rates from private wells in nearshore areas to 5 gallons per minute, to prevent saltwater intrusion.
Caroline Yates, who chairs the town’s Water Advisory Committee, urged the town to take the results of a US Geological Survey study expected this summer into account when making code changes.
Dave Bergen of Cutchogue also leant his support to including land clearing regulations and moving coastal resilience higher up the priority list.
“There are opportunities in the Zoning Update to provide overlays for coastal resiliency,” said Mr. Bergen, who had previously served as a Southold Town Trustee. “I do not want that to go three to five years out.”
He added that he’s heard Town Board members say many times that a land clearing code would be handled during the Zoning Update.
“Did I hear you just say it’s no longer going to be? Could it be done a lot quicker?” he asked
“We’re reevaluating code enforcement. If we’re going to enact a short-term rental law, we need to be sure we can enforce it,” said Mr. Krupski.
“Code enforcement is a challenge,” agreed Mr. Bergen, who added that people who are spending millions on a piece of property won’t be deterred by a $1,000 fine for cutting down trees.
Mark Solomon of East Marion thanked Town Board members for “being the voice of reason. I always thought you interpreted things in a sensible way.”
He asked the town to make rezoning the abandoned oyster factory at the end of Shipyard Lane in East Marion a top priority.
Ms. Lanza said the town can’t single out specific properties in the zoning update.
“I’m a little disappointed about the three to five year timeline,” said Mr. Solomon.
“Me too,” said Ms. Lanza.
Mr. Krupski seemed pleased by the collaborative tone of the conversation.
“It’s heartening to see people really care about our community,” he told the crowd.
Here’s the Southold Zoning Update Website, where you can sign up to get alerts about the progress toward these goals.
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