As public awareness of the North Fork’s housing affordability crisis deepens, the Southold Town Board on Tuesday heard a comprehensive update on major code changes the town says need to be implemented before it begins spending the $8 million-plus it has collected in its Community Housing Fund.
The Town Board plans to begin holding regular Code Committee meetings on Sept. 15 in an effort to hold public hearings on the code changes later this year.
Pictured Above: Town Planner Mara Cerezo, Planning Director Heather Lanza and Community Development Project Supervisor Andrea Sullivan at the Town Board’s Sept. 9 work session.
Town planners are working with a consultant, attorney Kara Bak, who also serves as Southampton Town’s Director of Housing & Community Development, on seven steps revising different sections of the code.
Many of those changes involve incorporating the town’s Community Housing Plan, adopted so that it can spend money in the CHF fund, approved by voters in 2022 and funded through a .5 percent real estate transfer tax, into the code.
While many residents have publicly expressed frustration at the slow pace of Southold’s implementation of its Community Housing Plan, Southold planners say this project is currently their top priority, especially since it became the first item up for review in the town’s new piecemeal approach to updating its zoning code.
“All of this stuff is actively being drafted. No one here has the brakes on at all,” Town Planner Mara Cerezo told the Town Board at its Sept. 9 morning work session. “As much as you want to be at the table with us going forward, we’re here.”
“There’s so much work going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski. “This is ongoing, by staff, every day.
What Are the Code Changes?
The biggest change, Step 1, include a new Town Code chapter, Chapter 112, which is devoted to Community Housing Administration — “where general rules regarding affordability and eligibility will be contained,” said Planning Director Heather Lanza. “It’s a much neater package to have it in a separate chapter, with the rules all located there. It’s drafted and ready to go.”
Ms. Lanza said Step 2 is to update chapters 17 and 34 of the town code, which govern the Community Preservation Fund and a Housing Fund generated through inclusionary zoning buyouts that are no longer allowed in the code. The town has about $1 million in that fund generated primarily by the 124-unit Harvest Pointe condominium complex in Cutchogue, which decided to pay into the fund rather than build affordable units on site.
Ms. Lanza said Chapter 34 will stay in the code, because the money in the zoning buyout fund has to be spent according to the Chapter 34 rules, but it will refer to Chapter 112 for guidance on spending Community Housing Fund money.
“There are two separate pots of money, and there’s a way to spend each one,” said Councilwoman Jill Doherty, who has been an active advocate for affordable housing on the Town Board for more than a decade.
The changes in these chapters would also replace the town’s Housing Advisory Commission with the Community Housing Advisory Board (CHAB), which oversees expenditure of CHF funds.
Step 3 would be to replace the town’s current Affordable Housing District with a new Community Housing Overlay District, and Step 4 would be to remove obsolete references in the town code regarding sanitary flow credits (Chapter 117) and subdivisions (Chapter 240).
The Community Housing Overlay District would open up more areas, including a cleared piece of land behind Town Hall that is owned by the town, to be developed with community housing, said Ms. Lanza.
“Once we get through Step 4, go to public hearing and adopt the code, can we simultaneously go forward with the housing program — with spending the money?” asked Ms. Doherty.
“I think through Step 4 is where we have to get through to spend the money,” said Ms. Lanza, adding that the town would need to adopt the overlay zoning along with Chapter 112.
She added that there are developers of projects “hovering around waiting” for these code updates so they can apply for housing subsidies.
“Right now, we’re stuck,” she said. “Steps 1 through 4 really take out the major roadblocks.”
Town Board Member Alexa Suess said the CHAB would want to have a look at the code before it is sent out for formal public hearings, while Town Board Member Anne Smith said community forums, either held by the town or in partnership with the North Fork Civics, could be held ahead of the public hearings.
“Once we have this (Steps 1 through 4) reviewed by the Community Housing Advisory Board and adopted into code, we would be in better shape,” said town Community Development Project Supervisor Andrea Sullivan, who administers the town’s Community Housing Fund. She added that she will also be concurrently working on a Down Payment Assistance Program the town is hoping to implement in the new year.
The remaining steps outlined by Ms. Lanza included revising the town’s Accessory Apartment regulations in Chapter 280, making the two sections of the town code that reference rental permits consistent and adding apartments as a permitted principal use in the Hamlet Business zoning district.
Ms. Lanza passed around a table of different references to accessory apartments in different sections of the code.
“Our code is wildly inconsistent. That’s a big job just to do that,” she said.
Ms. Sullivan said other projects still in the pipeline that may require code changes include accessory apartments, general subsidies and accessory dwelling units.
Ms. Lanza said the Planning Department hopes to have the proposed code changes uploaded to the town’s Zoning Update website, southoldzoningupdate.com, by this Friday, Sept. 11.
While some board members said they would like to schedule Code Committee meetings for several Wednesdays throughout late September and early October, Ms. Doherty reminded the board that it will be finalizing the town’s 2027 budget in that time frame, which could conflict with the time it can spend on this project.
“I would emphasize getting this right the first time,” said Town Attorney Ben Johnson. “Not that we’re talking about rushing through it, but the problem is that a lot of this is complicated.”
— Beth Young
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