The Southold Town Board unanimously agreed May 13 to change its accessory dwelling unit code to remove a provision requiring that accessory buildings have certificates of occupancy (CO) for three years prior to being allowed to be converted to affordable living space.
The issue came to the forefront last year after residents who received grants for the New York State Plus One ADU Program were unable to go through with their projects due to the town CO requirement, including one applicant who works for the town’s planning department.
At the May 13 public hearing before the vote, Caroline Shrank of Southold said she received a $107,000 grant through the program, and also received a total of $50,000 in grants to upgrade her septic system to allow her to build an ADU, but said that after she received the grants she discovered her project didn’t meet the town’s zoning rules.
She said her proposal would be in an accessory building on her property, but the town rules, including the three-year CO issue and a limit on spending half the value of a structure to renovate it, have made it impossible for her to follow through.
She said she’s already received a six-month extension on the grants in the hopes the town would change its rules.
“I would like to help people in the community with low income housing, and this allows me to save my house and live here forever,” she said. “You allow an addition to a house, but it doesn’t look as good, and it infringes on my privacy, and the other person’s privacy.”
“The original intent was for people with larger homes who no longer needed that space,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski. “It wasn’t as widely accepted as we though it would be. We thought it would be more convenient than renovating an additional building on the property. It hasn’t worked, not only for our community, but a lot of other communities as well.”
Several residents spoke to the overall ineffectiveness of the town’s ADU code. Many highlighted the difficulties many towns and cities have had getting residents to participate in their ADU programs.
“Southold should allow people who have second homes to build ADUs on their property,” said Southold-Peconic Civic Association member Katie Stokes, who serves on a North Fork Civics subcommittee on affordable housing. “That takes too many properties out of the pool of possible ADU sites.”
She also suggested the town participate in state enabling legislation allowing the value of the ADU to not be included in the tax assessment of a property, and that the town include senior citizens and people who have proof of employment in town to occupy ADUs. The town’s current rules require they be rented to a family member or someone on the town’s affordable housing registry.
Greenport Civic Association President Carol Linley, who also serves on the North Fork Civics subcommittee, suggested the town allow living area in ADUs be on more than one floor.
Dinni Gordon of Greenport, who chairs Greenport Village’s new Housing Committee, recommended the town provide technical assistance to people considering building ADUs. She highlighted the work the NY Forward grant program does to provide information on finding builders, dealing with leases and insurance.
Southold Housing Commission member Cheryle Amara urged the town to hire a housing administrator — a position the town has been looking to fill since it adopted its Community Housing Plan in 2023.
“A professional could reach out to all these legalities. As soon as you can get that housing person, that would be great!” she said. “They’ll be busy.”
“We see this as an incremental step to improving the program,” said Councilman Greg Doroski. “Some of the issues raised tonight, we hopefully will incorporate later.”
“The removal of the three-year CO requirement is an incremental step the town has been making over time,” he added. “It was originally required that it be from before 1996, and then it was reduced to 10 years, then to three years, and now we’re wiping it out…. Right now, if we can get the benchmark set, we can move forward.”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty pointed out that Ms. Shrank’s project would likely have to start over from scratch, because the change isn’t retroactive, and due to the provision about the value of the addition, which wasn’t addressed in this update.
“It’s helpful to us, as town board members, to know what questions to begin asking to be sure we’re not adding obstacles and providing false hopes,” said Councilwoman Anne Smith.
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