Suggestions from the community for how to put together the best possible Community Housing program abounded at a public forum at Southold Town Hall Tuesday evening.
Southold is in the midst of revamping sections of its town code that involve community housing this fall in order to spend the more than $8.5 million the town has collected in its Community Housing Fund.
These funds can be used for a variety of projects, including to subsidize projects built by developers, construction of accessory dwelling units and down payment assistance, as well as maintaining existing community housing.
Pictured Above: The proposed Community Housing Overlay District for Southold.
Community Housing Maps Unveiled
At the Sept. 29 meeting, the public also got a first look at a series of maps of proposed Community Housing Overlay Districts (CHOD), where multi-family housing could be built. These preliminary maps were prepared by the town’s Planning Department on a hamlet-by-hamlet basis, showing in purple where housing could be built.
The maps are available online here.
These areas are generally within hamlet centers or within 1/4 mile of a hamlet center, and on Route 25 and Route 48 within HALO zones — an area surrounding an existing hamlet center, Town Planning Director Heather Lanza told the crowd.
In those areas, she said, community housing could be built at a density of up to 12 units per acre. Projects above three units would require site plan review by the town’s Planning Board, and projects of three units and under would simply need a Building Permit.
Currently, the town requires a zone change for a property to be used for community housing, which includes a public hearing before the Town Board. That step of the process would be eliminated.
The density of the projects would also be dictated by the Suffolk County Health Department, which approves septic systems. Southold Town has 116 “sanitary flow credits” in a bank that can be used to offset health department requirements.
The North Fork Civics are holding a separate forum on “Housing and Septic,” in which a representative from the Suffolk County Health Department will discuss these requirements, next Thursday, Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at 768 Main Road in Greenport.
Ms. Lanza said the new maps pertain only to multi-family housing, and her department will soon also be exploring how best to guide mixed-use development in the hamlet centers.
Areas that are prone to flooding, within 100 feet of wetlands and within a block of preserved or hoped-to-be preserved farmland would also not be included in the CHOD.
She said the minimum lot size on which Community Housing could be proposed is 1/4 acre, though several lots smaller than 1/4 acre are in the overlay zone, with the thinking that they could one day be aggregated into a larger lot.
Town Planner Mara Cerezo and Community Development Project Supervisor Andrea Sullivan also gave an overview of the work the town’s team has done this year since Ms. Sullivan’s office was moved into the Planning Department, including the numerous code changes involved with this project. Here’s an overview of the other code changes.
Town Planners have decided to prioritize code changes involving Community Housing, after scrapping a plan to update the town’s entire zoning code at once last year.
Suggestions Abound
The room was filled with civic association members, former and current elected officials in the Village of Greenport and the public at large, who gave a variety of suggestions.
Former Greenport Mayor Dave Kapell said he’s pleased by the work being done, but the town should make an effort “to identify the size of the problem in quantitative terms.”
“How many housing units do we need in the town, and what’s the impact this work will have on the problem?” he asked.
North Fork Civics Coalition member Mark Reisenfeld, a planner, agreed.
“Many communities post dashboards and scorecards on their websites, showing the progress of various programs,” he said. “That would help both the Town Board and the community understand what’s going on over time.”
Town Board member Alexa Suess, who ran the meeting, said it was difficult to set benchmarks while the program was being developed, but said that “allowing the public to see that data is incredibly important.”
Glynis Berry of Peconic Green Growth, an architect, shared several ideas, including a requirement that houses be energy-efficient and well insulated.
“Affordability is not just the cost of building house, it’s the cost of maintaining it and living there,” she said. “If you have an efficient unit, you may be paying $100 a month instead of $1,000. It has a huge beneficial impact for the community. It’s good for environment, and it’s good for people living there.”
Ms. Berry also pitched what she called a “far out idea” — “creating a new hamlet with very small lots that are affordable, with a collective wastewater system.”
Outside of Greenport, the North Fork does not have sewer systems, which is an impediment to building dense housing here.
Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi said that of the village’s more than 80 employees, only two (outside of elected officials) own houses on the North Fork, and many commuute from far distances.
Mr. Stuessi also serves on the town’s Zoning Update Advisory Committee, which early on in the Zoning Update process had made numerous recommendations about where the town could place the Community Housing Overlay Districts.
He said Mr. Kappell’s “request to get more data is hugely important.”
“How much needs to be built?” he asked.
“It would be good for the community to take a look at what has been built of market rate housing — multimillion dollar houses,” in recent years, he said. “Maybe we need to hit pause on that and focus on community housing. It’s a dire need.”
Mr. Stuessi had harsh words for the town’s proposed down payment assistance program, which would provide prospective homeowners with up to 18 percent of the purchase price of a home valued at up to $999,999.
“It’s essentially a handout,” he said. “That money could go very fast if that is our priority. Look at the highest and best use of the $8.5 to $9 million we have, which is building housing. People need something to rent or buy that is truly affordable.”
He added that he hopes the town and the village work together to identify and buy parcels that can be used for affordable housing, both inside and outside the village.
“Greenport is part and parcel to the Community Housing Fund, and I very much hope we will see the dollars spent on the need,” he said, adding that the Village Board will soon hold a special meeting on this subject.
Town Supervisor Al Krupski said the proposals the town is currently considering “have nothing to do with Greenport Village. You can do anything you want with your zoning in the village. What we’re talking about does not effect the village.”
While Greenport Village does have its own zoning code and the code updates being discussed wouldn’t effect property in the village, Community Housing Fund money is collected from buyers of real estate there, the same as in areas of Southold Town outside the village, and the money can be spent there as well.
Jeanette Judge of Southold asked that more two-family homes be included in the code changes, and said she is also concerned about the down payment assistance program.
“I didn’t think that was the intention of this money when we purchased our homes and paid into the system,” she said.
She added that a lot of “existing homes out here are underutilized because of the size of then,” and she has a lot of older clients who “cannot pay the taxes, upkeep and insurance on their homes.”
“Tons of people don’t have places to live,” she said. “You collect all those funds and you’re holding on to them. You’re buying farmland and all our kids are moving away, down south, because they can purchase a home there and not here.”
Real estate agent Jerry Cibulski agreed.
Much of the population of Southold is 55 and older, he said, adding that a recently built 55+ community in Cutchogue, Harvest Pointe, filled up much sooner than expected, despite the controversy before it was built (it is market rate housing as well).
He added that many Southold residents are aging in place and area alone in their houses.
“Accessory dwelling units are a big piece of the puzzle,” he said, adding that they are crucial for people living with dementia to be close to their families.
“We don’t have the missing middle, we have the missing first step,” agreed Realtor Tom McCarthy, adding that the town is not going to be able to solve the problem without addressing the septic issues.
“Community-based sewerage systems in some locales should be looked at, hard,” he said. “The key to affordability is density, and the key to density is sewage systems.”
He added that a 30-acre parcel the town recently purchased on Youngs Avenue could be used for “a centralized system on five to seven acres.”
The town recently asked New York State for technical assistance exploring whether community housing could be built on that property.
North Fork Civics Housing Working Group member Tony Asch of Orient recommended the town provide a “soup to nuts onboarding process for qualified community housing developers,” approaching developers, proactively, with approved templats for housing that can be built here.
Katy Stokes of Southold, also a member of the North Fork Civics Housing Working Group, asked if the overlay districts could include “more parcels of an acre or larger, so that we could actually have more opportunities for multifamily homes and not have parcels be so small.”
She urged the town to do a new survey of community housing needs, updating one in the Community Housing Plan that is now several years old.
She added that the town’s proposed short-term rental code, allowing a limited number of short-term rental permits, should include steeper penalties, including, potentially disgorgement of profits.
The Town Board could set a public hearing on that code as early as next week.
Real estate attorney Patricia Moore said she likes the Community Housing Overlay District design, which she said will lead to a “more simplified site plan process, expediting it so you’re not spending money on lawyers and processing.”
She added that, with a minimum parcel size of a 1/4 acre, “you could put three units in if you meet the sanitary requirements.” She added that this type of community layout was prevalent in the town dating back to the 1800s, before two-acre zoning was established in the late 20th Century.
“We are trying to create the same diversity in the community that was lost,” she said.
She added that new construction can address issues that arise with building in flood zones.
Tami Loefler of Mattituck said she lives with her parents because she can’t find an affordable place to live here, but she’s concerned that many of the areas in the overlay districts are on the Main and North Roads (25 and 48).
“Are we deciding people can only live on major thoroughfares?” she asked. “I would hate to see that, because you’re at a lower income level, you don’t merit living in a quiet space. There’s a risk of creating segregated districts by income levels.”
Town Board member Alexa Suess said the town had put the overlay districts over existing hamlet centers “to promote walkability and access to public transit.”
The town is urging anyone with questions about this project to email
zoningupdate@southoldtownny.gov. The town is also posting the documents to its Zoning Update website.
— Beth Young
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