Southold Town is searching for ways to incorporate coastal resilience into its Zoning Update, after many residents asked that protecting the coastlines be made a priority.
After much public criticism of a planned massive overhaul of the town’s zoning code in 2025, the town’s Planning Department announced this spring that it is prioritizing changing certain aspects of the code that will have the greatest impact — community housing, changes to uses in business zoning districts, short-term rentals and changes to the town’s big house law are among the top priorities.
Pictured: Southold Town Beach, on the outskirts of Greenport on the Long Island Sound, has been closed to bathing this year after a series of storms undermined the beach this winter.
At a packed public forum in June, many residents urged the town to make coastal resilience a higher priority, and to develop code to prevent overclearing of trees.
Town Planner Mara Cerezo and Planning Aide Julia Mei Hanzl, along with Planning Director Heather Lanza, discussed possible options for incorporating coastal resilience into the Zoning Update at the Town Board’s July 28 work session.
“A number of residents are concerned about coastal resilience,” said Ms. Cerezo. She gave an overview of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Climate Change Adaptation and Resiliency Plan program, known as C-CARP, which local municipalities, including the Town of Riverhead, are using to adapt their coastlines to climate change. If it participates, the town would be part of a cohort of municipalities planning together for their climate future.
Ms. Cerezo said C-CARP involves three main parts — an inventory of the parts of the town that are vulnerable to climate change, adaptation strategies and a blueprint for implementing resiliency projects. Participation in a C-CARP cohort would also give the town 34 points toward the state’s Climate Smart Communities program, which provides grant funding to municipalities that plan for climate change.
“There’s no fee to participate, however the town’s contribution is time,” said Ms. Cerezo, adding that the project, expected to kick off in January, would involve 10 to 15 hours of town staff and volunteer time each month.
The town would have until Aug. 15 to decide whether to participate.
“We’re evaluating whether it makes sense to take advantage of this program — what is the practical end result of this?” said Ms. Lanza. “Do we need another plan right now? My opinion is the C-CARP is another plan we don’t really need. It gives you a plan but not really concrete things to do, and I think we already know what we need to do.”
Ms. Lanza added that the town has been working on a Coastal Resilience Overlay District that would “limit the structures that can be built in places that will be inundated in the future.”
“We could make that a priority in our Zoning Update project,” she said. “A lot of information and resources are out there already to make that happen. Right now we’re in the middle of the housing work. We’re not doing nothing now, and even in the housing work, we are considering coastal resiliency. That’s just how we do work now.”
Ms. Lanza suggested the town consider working with The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience program, which has already held community resilience-building workshops on Fishers Island and in Montauk.
Councilwoman Kate Stevens, who represents Fishers Island on the Southold Town Board, was involved with that project on Fishers Island.
She said it was a two-to-three hour community meeting “addressing hazards and strengths, reducing vulnerabilities and identifying opportunities to take action.”
Ms. Lanza said such a meeting would support the town’s work on a Coastal Resilience Overlay District.
Ms. Mei Hanzl, who began working for the town in March, has been meeting with the town’s volunteer Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) to pursue state Climate Smart Community certification. The town took the Climate Smart Communities pledge in 2019, but has not since made significant progress toward becoming certified.
The town revamped the CAC’s mission statement in 2025 to enable this dedicated group of volunteers to do more to protect the environment.
“We have not been capitalizing on this program,” Ms. Mei Hanzl told the Town Board of the Climate Smart program, which includes a scorecard of points that make the town eligible for grant funding for resiliency projects. “There are points we should have in our pocket. The CAC has been working on this for years, and with this we will be more likely to get grants.”
“We have the key personnel for going forward with this,” said Councilman Brian Mealy, who serves as the Town Board liaison to the CAC. He also praised Ms. Mei Hanzl’s interest in the Climate Smart Communities program.
“We have the right person at the right time, and the willingness of the committee,” he said.
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