Southold outlines steps to unlock $8 million housing fund

The North Fork affordable housing crisis is a never-ending discussion.

Building off that, the Southold Town Board was updated Tuesday on sweeping code changes officials say must be in place before the town can begin tapping the more than $8 million collected through its Community Housing Fund.

“All of this is actively being drafted. No one here has the brakes on at all,” Town Planner Mara Cerezo said at the work session.

Southold Town planners are working with attorney Kara Bak — as a consultant — on seven steps to revise the code, many of which include incorporating the Community Housing Plan.

The town board plans to hold more regular code committee meetings starting Sept. 15, so residents can take part in public hearings on the changes.

Officials said this is their top priority, following the town’s zoning update reset in June, where they put community housing first, scrapped last year’s controversial zoning map, and laid out a phased path forward after months of public confusion.

“I would emphasize getting this right the first time,” Town Attorney Ben Johnson said. “Not that we’re talking about rushing through it, but I would emphasize that some of the reason this is so complicated and a little convoluted is because we’ve rushed it in the past.”

The first step would be to include a new Town Code chapter: Chapter 112. It would be much neater and be devoted to Community Housing Administration, which Planning Director Heather Lanza said is “drafted and ready to go.”

The second step would update town chapters 17 and 34, which regulate the Community Preservation Fund and a housing fund, which is generated through zoning buyouts no longer allowed in the code. It would also replace the town’s Housing Advisory Commission with the Community Housing Advisory Board.

Step three would be to replace the Affordable Housing District with a new Community Housing Overlay District, which would open more areas, followed by step four, which would remove antiquated references in the town code regarding sanitary flow credits.

“Once we have this reviewed by the Community Housing Advisory Board and adopted into code, we would be in better shape,” Community Development Project Supervisor Andrea Sullivan said of steps one through four.

Steps five through seven include revising accessory apartment regulations, making rental permit town code sections consistent and allowing apartments as permitted principal use in the Hamlet Business zoning district.

“When we segment some of these things, and we start to approve them, logistically, how do we move through that process smoothly?” Supervisor Al Krupski asked. “I don’t want to get hung up on that we did one through four, but we have to wait for comments. How do you schedule all those components and not get stuck?”

Ms. Lanza said she doesn’t feel the steps necessarily hinge on each other.

She also said she hopes to have the proposed code changes uploaded to the town’s Zoning Update website by Sept. 11.