As the need for attainable housing on the North Fork continues to grow, Greenport Village will be drafting code changes in the new year to allow accessory dwelling units in existing accessory buildings without the need for review by the village’s land use boards.
Pictured Above: First Street, Greenport. Most of the village’s residential areas allow two-family residences, though some areas further from the center of the village only allow one-family use. The village is considering allowing two-family dwellings in all residential zoning districts.
While the details of the proposed changes have yet to be formalized, Village Board members agreed with the spirit of the proposal, made by village Affordable & Workforce Housing Committee Chair Dinni Gordon at the board’s Dec. 18 work session.
The board members asked the village’s new planning consultant, former Southold Town Assistant Planning Director Mark Terry, to begin drafting code for review.
“This would be a code provision for creating an ADU, attached or detached, in a pre-existing structure, similar to what was village policy until 15 to 20 years ago,” said Ms. Gordon. “It would be created as-of-right, with no ZBA or Planning Board needed. It would have to be in compliance with safety codes, with an inspection before a certificate of occupancy could be issued.”
Ms. Gordon said her committee has recommended these ADUs be a minimum of 275 square feet, and have no more than half the footprint of the principal building on the lot, and that the apartments be exempt from village parking requirements.
While her committee is not recommending the occupants of the building be required to be on an affordable housing registry, they are looking for the code to ensure they not be used as short-term rentals.
Ms. Gordon also recommended the village change its zoning code to allow multiple family dwellings in all residential zoning districts. While the village has a history of multi-family housing, many of these homes have recently been converted to single-family dwellings during the recent spate of gentrification, and relatively recent changes to village code that had encouraged single family homes.
Currently, there are two residential districts in village code — R-1, which only allows one family residences, and R-2, which allows two-family residences. The committee recommends making all residential districts in the village R-2.
“These combined changes would make a greater contribution to the need,” said Ms. Gordon.
She then turned the microphone over to two people whose lives would be impacted by these changes.
The first, Dana Locatell, is the owner of an existing four-family house on Main Street in the village, a property where many village residents — including Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips — have lived as they began making their way in the world.
“The property has a detached two-car garage with an empty loft above — it’s a prime candidate… it could accommodate a low-cost studio apartment, ” said Mr. Locatell.
“I do all one year or two-year leases — no short-term rentals,” he said. “I’m not a believer in short-term rentals.”
Twenty-four-year-old Joseph Owens said his family has lived in Greenport since the early 1900s, but were never homeowners, and he’s not sure if he will be able to continue to live where he grew up, despite working at some of the best employers on the North Fork.
“We’ve rented the entire time, watching the village we love be slowly priced out,” he said. “A single rental costs more than a month’s take-home pay. Who is this village actually for?”
He criticized the village’s recently adopted short-term rental code, which doesn’t include a minimum stay but does require the rentals only be in homes that are also used long-term.
“Relaxing short-term rental laws doesn’t help the broad working class,” he said. “It does nothing for home health aids, teachers, security guards and the people who keep this village functioning….. We’re chasing tourists over neighbors, short-term profits over over the survival of long-term families. I want my future children to walk these streets. Please pass common sense ADU laws. Make sure Greenport remains a community, not just a resort.”
Board members discussed but did not settle on the best way to ensure the ADUs that could be created in accessory structures are affordable, and also said they want to make clear that the owner of the property could live in the ADU and rent out their house.
Mr. Terry, who was actively involved in developing Southold’s plan for spending its Community Housing Fund and was an advocate for affordable housing in the town, said there are many details that need to be addressed in drafting this code. Among the issues he mentioned were the “equity in dispersion of these units across the village,” the commitment of sewage flow into the village’s sewer system from these types of units and how they will be taxed. If public money is used to build the units, he added, the people who build the units would have to commit to renting them to people who make a specific percentage of the Area Median Income.
“It’s very interesting. I’m encouraged,” he said of the conversation. “The housing stock here is just perfect for this.”
“What I’m hearing is that you will be allowing ADUS that aren’t rent or tenant controlled, like in the Town of Southold,” he said. “I have to look at the code and see if that could be accomplished….. You could have someone say I’m charging $6,000 a month for an ADU. If you’re going to address workforce housing, that’s where rent controls come in.”
“I can come up with different scenarios the trustees could put forward,” he said. “The objectives should be very well spelled out — is it for workforce housing, seniors, someone aging out of a larger homes? There are all these different scenarios that would work.”
Working with Southold?
Ms. Gordon said her committee is also pressing Southold Town to pledge to become a state-certified Pro-Housing Community. Greenport was the first municipality on the East End to take the pledge two years ago, and every East End town but Southold has since signed on.
“I think in general, the Southold board members and staff feel there’s a lot of other stuff going on with Southold with respect to housing,” said Ms. Gordon. “Several people feel it’s not the way the town should go at this point…. It’s just making the declaration that you’re committed to this and will continue to press for housing opportunities for every North Fork resident.”
Ms. Gordon and board members also gave an update on the village’s application for a technical assistance grant for a feasibility study of potential sites for affordable housing, some of which are outside the village. Mayor Kevin Stuessi said the village is waiting for Southold Town to weigh in on its support for one of the parcels.
Greenport Village signed an intermunicipal agreement with the Town of Southold this past summer to allow the use of town Community Housing Fund money in the village. But unlike with the town Community Preservation Fund money for land preservation and water quality, Southold is not required to spend 10 percent of that money in the village.
“I wish there was a 10 percent requirement” for Community Housing Fund money to be used in the village, said Ms. Gordon, who also sits on the town’s Community Housing Fund Advisory Board as a representative from Greenport. “The proposals that are coming to them area all in Mattituck… I feel very strongly that the Community Housing Fund participation should also come to Greenport, even if there is no legal requirement, as it does with the Community Housing Fund.”
Southold Also Plans ADU Changes
Southold Town is also planning changes to its town code regarding accessory dwelling units in the new year as part of its implementation of its Community Housing Plan, which allows CHF money to be spent on a number of housing initiatives, including ADUs, loans for first-time homebuyers and subsidies for developers of larger scale affordable housing projects.
Town Community Development Project Supervisor Andrea Menjivar and ZBA Chair Leslie Weisman gave an overview of the proposed ADU code changes to the Southold Town Board at its Nov. 18 meeting.
A major change would be removing the requirement that ADUS in detached structures receive a special exception permit from town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, if they meet all the other requirements of the code, including setbacks.
“If we’re really going to do something about creating more housing stock, we better find a way to make it less expensive, les onerous, and with less levels of government,” said Ms. Weisman. “We have to find ‘carrots’ in this process to encourage people.”
Currently, applicants for ADUs in accessory buildings need a special exception permit from the Zoning Board, a process that was put in place to give the town oversight of whether the tenant was eligible for affordable housing, said Ms. Weisman.
But with Ms. Menjivar now heading a new housing department within the town, that process could instead be handled through the housing office.
“They would make an application to Housing & Community Development prior to going to the building department for a building permit, and that’s all you need,” said Ms. Weisman, adding that, if the building did not meet requirements such as setbacks, the building department would still refer it to ZBA for variances.
She added that the process, as currently set up, requires applicants to first go to the ZBA for the special exception permit, then go to the building department, and if the building department decided it also needed variances, it would then go back to the ZBA again, delaying the process by months.
“This simplifies it because two important departments are just communicating with each other without much fuss,” she said.
After a bit of discussion, the board agreed to keep the minimum size of the ADUs in accessory structures at 220 square feet, and was supportive of the idea of allowing ADUS in accessory structures to be two stories.
The board was also supportive of adding language requiring that only one of the units, either the ADU or the principal building, be rented, with the other one used by a property owner or their family member.
A public hearing on the proposed changes is expected to be scheduled in the new year.
Ms. Menjivar also asked for the board’s feedback on use of the Community Housing Fund for loans to build ADUS at the board’s Dec. 16 work session.
Board members seemed to agree that the loans would not have any interest, would be repaid over 20 years and would be for up to $125,000. Property owners would be required to begin repaying them after three years, though they could begin to repay them sooner.
The board has not yet formally voted on these stipulations.
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