Government

First public forum on housing chapter of comprehensive plan Monday night

KATHARINE SCHROEDER FILE PHOTO | Peconic Lane Community Center will play host to the first public forum on the housing chapter of Southold Town's updated comprehensive plan tonight.

The first public forum on the housing chapter of Southold Town’s Comprehensive Plan will be held tonight, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. at the Peconic Community Center in Peconic.

The chapter addresses the shift in real estate trends in Southold toward the second-homeowner market and the need for housing for seniors and working people.

One recommendation for addressing the housing crisis is the “adaptive reuse” of existing housing by encouraging accessory apartments and conversions of existing outbuildings.

The draft also recommends using Community Development Block Grant funds to provide grants and loans to create
accessory apartments and multi-family housing.

The chapter recommends establishing areas known as NORCs, or naturally occurring retirement communities. These are residential areas where large numbers of seniors already live that will become eligible for grants to provide social services nearby so those seniors can age in place.

The plan also recommends using funds raised when developers in inclusionary zoning areas decide to pay into an affordable housing fund, rather than build affordable housing as part of their development, and partnering with Habitat for Humanity to improve substandard housing and build new homes for households on the town’s affordable housing registry.

The full text of the chapter is available online by following this link.

A second public meeting on the housing chapter is scheduled for Saturday, March 3 at 10 a.m. at the town’s Human Resource Center on Pacific Street in Mattituck.

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