The recent spate of community concerns about subdivisions and development in Southold Town isn’t the first time this rural town has been shocked by the potential for change.
But people in town government believes decades of planning have put Southold in a good position to keep the rural character that has defined this place, and has drawn visitors here.
Pictured Above: The proposed Cole Harbor subdivision farmland as seen last summer from Duck Pond Road.
The community filled the Mattituck Park District’s headquarters at Veterans Beach April 9 for a forum on “Understanding Subdivisions & Land Preservation in Southold Town,” co-organized by Southold Town and the North Fork Civics coalition.
Subdivisions in Southold Town are currently very much in the public eye, with Stephan Soloviev’s Crossroads Atlantic LLC’s recent proposal of two large conservation subdivisions in Cutchogue — the 372-acre Colusa Conservation Subdivision, to the east of Bridge Lane, which is slated to include 47 housing lots, and the 147-acre Cole Harbor subdivision on the north side of Oregon Road slated to include 13 housing lots.
Many in the well-informed crowd repeatedly queried why the town does not require affordable housing in conservation subdivisions, a potential change that is currently being explored by the town’s Zoning Update Advisory Committee.
The forum was to explore “how subdivisions in Southold have preserved the town’s character over many years as it has evolved,” said North Fork Civics Chair Drianne Benner as she introduced the speakers — Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski, Land Preservation Coordinator Lilly McCullough and Planning Director Heather Lanza.
A Great Place By Design
“Southold remains a great place by design, not by chance,” said Mr. Krupski, who has been involved with town government for decades as a Trustee and Councilman, before becoming a Suffolk County Legislator and then returning to take the reigns of town government as Supervisor in 2024.
“In the 1980s, there was so much development pressure — in three years, land and house prices doubled,” he said. “We’ve been through this before where there was a great surge of development pressure.”
Mr. Krupski said the town began its farmland preservation program in 1986, dovetailing with a county farmland preservation program that began in the mid-1970s.
In all, said Ms. McCullough, more than 10,000 acres of land here have been preserved through several different preservation programs, including the town. This includes 4,900 acres of farmland and 3,900 acres of passive and other open space. Of that land, 2,900 acres have been preserved through the town’s CPF fund.
“Other towns were catching up at that point,” he said. The town would issue bonds to preserve farmland in those early days, but since the passage of the 1999 Community Preservation Fund (CPF) has primarily relied on that fund for farmland preservation. And unlike many neighboring towns, said Mr. Krupski, Southold has not bonded against anticipated revenues in the CPF fund, keeping the town’s debt level low.
Ms. McCullough said the town’s CPF fund currently has more than $30 million in it, just over $10 million of which is committed to projects currently in the pipeline.
The town last updated its zoning code in 1989, and Mr. Krupski said that code changed the land development patterns so that much of the acreage here became 2-acre zoning instead of 1-acre zoning. That process decreased the number of houses that could be built, but made it so there was a large moat of unused lawn space between houses, which is now not seen as smart planning.
Subdivisions in the Spotlight
A Blue Ribbon Commission for a Rural Southold, started in 2002, made recommendations to revise the town’s subdivision code — giving owners of large properties a new tool, the conservation subdivision, in which much of the land is preserved and the housing lots are clustered together, changing the impact on the land.
Two types of conservation subdivisions were approved in 2006 in Southold Town.
In a 75/75 subdivision, at least 75 percent of the buildable land is permanently preserved and the number of lots is reduced by at least 75 percent from what would otherwise be allowed. In an 80/60 conservation subdivision, at least 80 percent of the buildable lands would be preserved, and the number of lots would be reduced by 60 percent.
Both Soloviev proposals are 75/75 subdivisions, and both cluster the houses along the Long Island Sound, preserving the farmland closer to the existing roads. Another conservation subdivision currently before the town’s Planning Board, proposed by the Tuthill family, would preserve 94 acres and produce 17 housing lots on 112 acres in Orient. That is currently proposed as an 80/60 conservation subdivision, the type of conservation subdivision which preserves the greatest percentage of the land.
Ms. Lanza said the subdivision code also now requires clustered lots on “standard” subdivisions of seven acres or more, which require that 60 percent of the land be preserved in some manner, and that the lots be clustered on 40 percent of the land. Using this method, the individual lots are smaller than the 2-acre zoning would allow, but the clustering ensures that there will still be undeveloped areas surrounding the property, whose total “yield” of housing lots would be equal to the buildable area of the property under existing zoning, usually two-acre zoning.
This “subdivision open space” portion of the property is often held by a homeowner’s association or added to one of the subdivision lots, said Ms. McCullough.
The code also requires that 20 percent of any standard subdivision of five house lots or more be reserved for housing that is affordable in perpetuity (the minimum of five houses is due to the impossibility of building a fraction of a house, said Ms. Lanza).
The town had, in the past, allowed developers to “buy out” of this requirement, paying into a town housing fund, but recently changed that rule to require the housing be built within the subdivision.
Paying to Preserve Land
The town’s Land Preservation department oversees the use of the Community Preservation Fund (CPF), a dedicated fund that receives its money through a 2 percent real estate transfer tax payed by buyers of property here.
The town often uses CPF funding, in partnership with other funding sources, including the Suffolk County Farmland Development Rights Program, to purchase the development rights on the preserved areas of conservation subdivisions.
Mr. Krupski, a farmer, reminded the crowd that the sale of development rights is a one-time shot of funding for an agricultural business that is likely already financially strapped.
“What do you do with the money? It’s not like you can say ‘I’m gonna get a million dollars and get a nice boat,” he said. “That’s your equity — you’re never going to get it again.”
Ms. Lanza added that the math farmers need to do to determine whether to sell their development rights is further complicated by farm credit lenders, who base their loans on the value of the property, which is much higher if development rights are intact.
Ms. McCullough, the Land Preservation Coordinator, said purchasing the development rights has the public benefit of preserving farmland, and also reduces “strain on sensitive infrastructure and natural resources — wastewater, roads and traffic. It also provides leverage for the town to design the subdivision,” she said. “The goal is to design the resulting subdivision so it’s most practical for the resulting farm — you don’t scatter houses around the lot. The idea is to keep as much contiguous farmland as possible.”
While these subdivisions don’t currently include affordable housing, Ms. McCullough said preservation of open space, but not farmland, does generate “sanitary flow credits,” essentially a right for a septic system that is stripped off of the preserved land, but can be used to allow greater density of housing somewhere else in town in a preferred location for affordable housing (closer to hamlet centers and public transportation).
Ms. McCullough said the town currently has $30.2 million in its Community Preservation Fund, with $10.6 million of that earmarked for a slew of land preservation projects currently in the pipeline. She said the town’s newly required use of 10 percent of CPF funds to benefit the Village of Greenport is also included in the earmarked $10.6 million.
Ms. Lanza said the town “is in a good position” to provide the funding necessary for the conservation subdivisions currently in the pipeline, with the help of conservation partners. Suffolk County is expected to be a partner on the purchase of development rights on Soloviev’s Colusa subdivision.
“The acreage is unusual — we’re dealing with a bigger block of land than I’ve dealt with since I started 20 years ago,” said Ms. Lanza. “But most of that acreage is going to be preserved.”
Ms. Lanza also pointed out that when the housing lots in the subdivision are sold, the buyers will also pay into the Community Preservation Fund and the Community Housing Fund, which the town is just beginning to use for affordable housing programs.
None of the town officials would comment on the potential cost of the Soloviev development rights — those discussions involve appraisals and confidential real estate negotiations that will become public when the town and the landowner come to a tentative deal and a public hearing is scheduled on the purchases.
Those hearings will be relatively far down the line in the processing of the subdivision applications, which are currently before the town’s Planning Board, which will also hold public hearings.
But a recent CPF deal provides a rough benchmark on the current price of development rights easements in the Cutchogue area. In early April, the Town Board approved the purchase of development rights on 30 acres of Pellegrini Vineyards in Cutchogue for $84,500 per acre, for a total of $2.53 million.
Using the Pellegrini purchase price as a guide, an estimate for the cost of land preservation of 267 acres of the 372 acre Colusa subdivision could be $22.56 million, while the cost of preservation of 94 of the 147 acres at Cole Harbor could be $7.94 million.
Ms. McCullough was quick to point out that “we appraise all projects, and there is no standard set rate” the town pays for purchase of development rights.
But What About Community Housing?
Public comments ran the gamut, and many residents highlighted specific aspects of the town’s efforts to encourage housing for working people, building on many questions at a March 28 Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association Affordable Housing Forum.
Many people also urged the town to require affordable housing in conservation subdivisions, though if the town were to change the requirements in the future it wouldn’t impact the massive subdivisions currently under consideromg.
One incredulous resident pointed out that the lots in the subdivisions “woudl generate zero community housing.”
Another resident pointed out that in much of the new construction in Southold “the homes are huge but the lots are small.”
Much of this development has taken place on existing smaller lots, which are not part of current subdivisions.
“Would you please just put in a couple smaller houses” said another.
“If we don’t let them build it, maybe they won’t come,” said Tami Loeffler of Mattituck. “Limit the house size. Make it less attractive to build gazillion-dollar houses. I’m sorry, but if you want to go to the Hamptons, go to the Hamptons.”
Ms. Lanza said the town is working to revamp its 2022 big house law “to make it better.”
Another resident asked if wealthy homeowners could apply to the town for funding for accessory dwelling units where their maid or nanny could live.
The town representatives said they could apply for a permit to build the units, but would have to pay for them on their own — the town is only planning to provide subsidies to build ADUs to people whose property here is their primary home.
Charles Gueli of Mattituck asked if the “town would consider building its own affordable housing.”
“The town is reluctant to get into the housing business,” said Mr. Krupski, adding that the town is very engaged in creating subsidy programs using a new source of money, the Community Housing Fund, which is funded through a .5 percent real estate transfer tax, similar to the CPF.
“Right now we’re developing subsidy programs that someone else would build,” he said. “It’s a subsidy program for rentals that are affordable in perpetuity, owned and operated by someone else.”
So How Many Houses Can Be Built?
Ms. Lanza said the town’s latest estimate of the residential “buildout” of the town is that nearly 4,000 new houses could be built under the town’s existing zoning, a 38 percent increase in the number of houses in town, which is currently just shy of 14,000.
The largest numbers of houses that could be built in town are in hamlets that currently have large areas of unprotected farmland, she said, including Mattituck and Laurel, Cutchogue and Peconic.
“We don’t think a full residential buildout is likely,” she said, because the town is working to continue to preserve farmland and “make sure agriculture is viable here as a business.”
But, she said, there are “1,400 lots out there that are vacant, which could have a house permit tomorrow.”
She said 356 new residential housing units have been built in Southold Town since it adopted its Comprehensive Plan in 2020.
Mr. Krupski said he’s a big believer in the Comprehensive Plan, which took 10 years to create in-house, and involved extensive community effort. The town is currently working on a zoning update based on the recommendations in that Comprehensive Plan — a process that has also been delayed.
Ms. Lanza said the town is currently “reformulating its zoning update, taking it in smaller chunks.”
“We’ll be coming out with some priorities on that soon,” she said.
Responding to an audience inquiry about what happened to the town’s zoning update consultant Ms. Lanza and Mr. Krupski said the town had parted ways with the consultant last year.
“They got us to a certain point, and we had to take it over,” said Ms. Lanza.
“There were a lot of things that were put in there that were unnecessary,” said Mr. Krupski.
Mr. Krupski added that, in the 1960s, people at the Suffolk County Health Department believed Long Island would eventually be “Levittown, all the way out to Orient,” but Southold would never have let that happen.
“It’s a work in progress, but it’s something everyone has taken very seriously for decades here,” he said. “The community we live in is a result of decades of planning.”
Read Our Ongoing Coverage of the Southold Zoning Update
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