Southold hotel moratorium extended a second year

Hotel developers will have to look elsewhere when deciding where to build vacation lodging on the East End for another year, after the Southold Town Board, during its May 28 meeting, approved an extension of its moratorium on hotel, motel and resort development within the township for another 12 months. 

The moratorium was originally approved by the Town Board in June 2024. It was unanimously adopted after the Suffolk County Planning Commission recommended a six-month development pause. 

“The town has noted that they are in the process of a comprehensive zoning update that should be complete by March 2025,” its June 5, 2024, report stated. “The commission believes it is important that the town update the commission on its progress within the first three months and after the six months to discuss the need for an extension, so that the town can end this moratorium at the appropriate time that allows suitable development to continue.”

“Given the complexity of zoning regulations and the need for public review and deliberation, the Town Board finds it necessary to extend the moratorium to ensure thoughtful policymaking,” the moratorium extension law states. 

The town’s comprehensive zoning update draft code is available for review online at southoldzoningupdate.com. 

In and near hamlet centers, hotels are still allowed in the draft code, but with a higher restriction on the number of rooms, and a larger minimum lot size. The maximum number of rooms in a hotel would be one room for every 8,000 square feet of net lot area. This would mean for a net lot area of 40,000 square feet, the hotel would be able to have five rooms. 

In the Rural Business II Zone, currently known as the Limited Business Zone, hotel use is replaced by “Country Inns” in the draft code. These have more restrictive limits on the number of rooms permitted — 10 rented guest rooms for a maximum of 20 occupants — and require the reuse of existing buildings fronting Route 25 or County Route 48. In the Marine II zoning district, a 30-room cap has been added on the number of allowed hotel rooms “to limit impacts to the environmentally sensitive shoreline.” 

The community participation period for the draft code and map started at the end of April and will continue this summer. Town Supervisor Al Krupski said that there have been a lot of “constructive comments” heard from community members during zoning forums regarding zoning and hospitality uses so far. 

The zoning forum schedule is available online as well as a Suffolk Times article breaking down notable changes in the code. 

The moratorium extension law description states that the Town Board believes more time is needed to finalize the zoning updates to ensure “proper alignment with the Southold Town Comprehensive Plan, environmental constraints and density regulations.” It also states that “without an extension of the moratorium, new large-scale development may proceed before necessary amendments to Southold’s zoning legislation are completed, potentially undermining the town’s long-term planning objectives.”

The estimated timeline for the zoning update process indicates that a comprehensive zoning code will likely be finalized and adopted in late 2025 or early 2026. 

Mattituck resident Joanne Lechner supported the moratorium extension at the May 28 meeting. “If you give yourself more time to figure out how you’re going to do this, I think it’s a great idea,” she said. 

Southold resident Elizabeth Britman also urged the Town Board to extend the moratorium for another 12 months. She said she understands the argument that there should be hotels so tourists have a place to stay, but she echoed other community member’s earlier comments that hotels are available for lodging in Riverhead. 

“Everything is very busy, whether there are places to stay in … our town or not,” Ms. Britman said. She urged the Town Board to consider “what the community needs, which is housing — affordable housing for people … There are buildings that are vacant, but why do we have to go with … what these outside companies are saying we need, when we really know what we need. We don’t really need hotels.”

Mr. Krupski said that hotel use is an approved use on many town parcels, but the Board is extending the moratorium on the basis that the zoning code update is still a work in progress. “What we’re doing in this zoning update, we need specific things about what you think should be allowed there or under what parameters they should be allowed there,” Mr. Krupski said. 

Mattituck resident Eric McClure said he supported the moratorium extension because the zoning code has yet to be finalized, but added that if the code were to be adopted before the end of the 12-month moratorium extension that he would be “comfortable” if its end was in line with the new code adoption.

Mr. Krupski said the moratorium extension could be ended by the Town Board at any time as necessary. 

“The whole process, what we have today, allows for a hotel in many locations throughout town,” Mr. Krupski said of the zoning code. “We could get to the end of the road and allow for the exact same uses, we don’t know but we need input on that. Or there could be other limitations put on those.”