A preliminary draft of Southold Town’s long-awaited Zoning Update has been released to the public, though the town board is expected to review this draft throughout this month before releasing a “public review draft” in April.
The overhaul of the zoning code has been in the works since Southold adopted a Comprehensive Plan Update in September of 2020. The Comprehensive Plan outlined the town’s priorities to make future planning “compatible with existing community character while supporting and addressing the challenges of continued land preservation, maintaining a vibrant local economy, creating efficient transportation, promoting a diverse housing stock, expanding recreational opportunities and protecting natural resources.”
The Town Board hired the Ohio-based firm ZoneCo in 2022 to update the zoning code based on recommendations in the comprehensive plan. Comprehensive Plans provide the crucial legal justification for zoning code changes, which can be highly controversial due to potential changes to the ways private land owners can use their property. Southold last did a major zoning code update in 1971, based on the code that was initially put in place in 1957.
“For the past five months we have been reviewing sections of the draft new code, working with our zoning consultant to ensure the new code captures all the intricacies of the existing code that are important, while simplifying its organization, removing inconsistencies and making it generally easier to use,” said Southold Town Planning Director Heather Lanza in a March 5 letter to residents interested in the zoning update. “We are also checking it against our Comprehensive Plan and the input we gathered from you last spring to make sure the new code addresses the concerns and needs of our town.
“This has taken longer than expected due to the many details that must be reviewed,” she added.
Read Our Past Coverage of Southold’s Comp Plan & Zoning Update
ZoneCo and the town have built a website dedicated to the project, southoldzoningupdate.com. The preliminary “town board review” draft of the document was uploaded to the Reports tab on the website Friday afternoon, March 7, along with a map of the proposed new zoning and a 24-page memorandum from ZoneCo Lead Principal Sean Suder outlining highlights of the changes.
Mr. Suder said in the memo that the proposed changes improve the structure of the town code.
“The current zoning code has been piecemeal updated over time and as a result is unclear, inconsistent, not user friendly, ambiguous in parts, creates the need for too many variances, and is overall broken and ineffective at regulating modern land use and development in the Town of Southold,” he wrote.
The zoning update also includes the creation of several “overlay districts,” areas where certain characteristics of the built and natural environment should be protected. These include overlays for aquifer protection (of the groundwater used for drinking water), preserved land and conservation, historic preservation, community housing and coastal resilience.
A new hamlet mixed-use district (HMU), formerly called “hamlet density,” would “allow for compact, walkable developments that support local business while preserving the town’s small-town and rural character” and a new transitional (T) district would “transition between commercial and residential areas in a context-sensitive manner that provides for commercial uses in residential-scale structures.” The code also includes new regulations requiring large stores and retail centers to put most of their parking to the side and rear of the buildings.
The Community Housing Overlay District allows “for greater flexibility for affordable housing types,” according to Mr. Suder’s memo. “For example, the density and development pattern of these areas is calibrated to balance attainable housing with the town’s rural character. Additionally, the proposed code allows higher density housing in designated areas close to hamlet centers to promote walkability and reduce the cost of transportation needed to connect to businesses. Also, the proposed overlay implements eligibility requirements for attainable housing units to ensure local accessibility.”
The Coastal Resiliency Overlay “establishes stricter development standards in flood-prone areas to mitigate stormwater impacts” and “encourages the use of natural shoreline stabilization techniques instead of bulkheads and hard barriers, and regulates the construction of docks, piers and marinas to prevent ecological disruption.”
The code also calls for limitations on impervious surfaces and requirement of permits for significant tree removal.
The Southold Town Board began discussing a tree removal code in December of 2024.
Ms. Lanza and the town’s planning department held a series of well-attended public forums on the proposed zoning changes throughout the spring and summer of 2024, and she said in her March 5 letter that they plan to continue the public outreach for three to four months this spring and summer, after the public review draft is released.
She said the target date for the release of that document is April 1.
The public review period will include in person workshops, online options for those that cannot make it in person, a “zoning resource center open to the public that will allow in-person viewing of the materials, as well as a way to provide input,” and a “number of industry-specific meetings to review specific code changes,” according to Ms. Lanza’s letter.
“Rest assured that the Public Review Draft of the new proposed code and map will be a draft, and the Town Board will be very interested to hear your feedback and respond to it, making changes where needed,” said Ms. Lanza. “Thank you again for your interest in this monumental and necessary work to update Southold Town’s zoning. We look forward to working with everyone to create a great zoning code for Southold Town.”
The Town Board met in what were described on the town’s website as two executive sessions on March 11 and March 14 to “review the new zoning code and map.”
Executive sessions are not open to the public, and boards may discuss contracts, litigation, personnel matters, potential acquisitions of real property and matters that would imperil public safety or disclose criminal justice proceedings in executive sessions.
Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said Friday, March 14 that the board was acting on advice from its counsel that the meeting could be held in private because they could affect the value of properties within Southold Town. He added that the board expects to discuss a timeline for public information meetings on the Zoning Update at its next public work session on March 18.
Southold Town Attorney Paul DeChance said on Monday, March 17 that the town website’s characterization of the meetings as executive sessions was not accurate, but rather that the sessions, which were held off-site at the town’s Peconic Lane Community Center, were considered “board retreats.”
Mr. DeChance said the board did not deliberate at those meetings, but rather received an informational briefing from the town’s planning staff on the 200+ page document.
Mr. DeChance added that a third meeting scheduled for March 17 was cancelled because the briefing from the planning staff was completed on March 14. When reached mid-afternoon on Friday, Mr. Krupski had said the 9 a.m. session had just wrapped up.
“The board has to familiarize itself with the document in order to engage with the public,” said Mr. DeChance, adding that the town had released the town board review draft to the public because of the great interest among the community in seeing the document.
While town boards don’t often engage in board retreats, these types of meetings are common among school boards, which are comprised of unpaid elected leaders who often have little experience in the operation of a government entity. Training of board members has been found in the past to be a lawful use of board retreats in New York State.
For more details, visit southoldzoningupdate.com.
Read Our Past Coverage of Southold’s Comp Plan & Zoning Update
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