At a special meeting Monday night, Greenport officials said Southold Town’s zoning overhaul proposal as written could shift growth to the village gateways and starve the village core of housing and commerce — and they plan to draft a letter to town’s planning dept. outlining their concerns.
The Greenport Village Board — in consultation with members of its planning and zoning boards and the village BID president — agreed to urge town officials to focus zoning updates in Greenport West around year-round housing — not new retail — while tightening rules along the waterfront and coordinating any growth with sewer capacity.
After months of intensive public outreach on a sweeping proposal to overhaul Southold Town’s zoning code, town officials said last month they are considering incorporating “fundamental changes” into a new draft expected later this year.
The revised zoning update proposal will be presented to the community in a new, more abbreviated round of public information forums, likely organized by issue into several meetings, officials said.
The second draft proposal will then be amended again to reflect additional public consensus and a final proposal will be the subject of public hearings, which officials hope to schedule later this year.
Greenport officials said on Monday that they are anxious to see that the village and its surroundings receive “due consideration” in the next draft.
‘A huge interest’
Zoning Board of Appeals member Dinni Gordon, the new chair of the village’s Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee, said the current proposal fails to prioritize affordable housing in Greenport West.
“We in Greenport … have a huge interest in what happens in Greenport West … I think it’s important for us to be pushing a little on this and making sure that when they come to a final determination, it includes attention to Greenport West.”
She said the current proposal largely mirrors existing conditions.
“I think it’s extremely important for Southold project to focus on the village, which is such an economic engine of the North Fork,” Gordon said, where — from a housing standpoint — “the greatest residential density exists.”
Gordon said the update reads as if it is “designed, perhaps properly … to accommodate what already exists,” and noted that “there is no community housing overlay” in Greenport West. She said that “despite being labeled as non-residential, two districts [proposed for Greenport West] do hold promise for limited residential uses.”
Greenport West includes land within the hamlet of Greenport, outside the northern, eastern and western boundaries of the incorporated village.
She called the new Corridor Business zoning district “the most significant change,” saying it converts former light industrial on the north side of Front Street into a mixed-use district that “permits multiple and single dwellings, hotels and small businesses … as of right.”
Although labeled non-residential and intended for “vehicular oriented commercial uses,” Gordon said the proposed Rural Business 2 zoning district “shows some promise for modest residential development” and “covers a good deal of territory along Route 25, including the businesses around Albertson Lane.” Looking across the town map, she said RB-2 “looks as though some code thought of this district … as sort of the potential for mixed use development and accommodation to the main thoroughfares of the North Fork.”
Gordon also noted that “until the business community raised objections … retail and restaurants were not permitted” in CB or RB-2 — “an effort to control suburban sprawl” — and questioned why the draft carries no mapped Community Housing Overlay: “None is designated … the great need for housing should surely influence the planning process more than is apparent here.”
‘Due consideration’
Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi also noted that the Town Board is considering allowing restaurants and retail businesses in the proposed Corridor Business districts following concerns raised by Southold’s business community.
“There was a lot of arm waving by folks in the business community outside of the village saying, … ‘you can’t be restricting at the periphery of the hamlets,’ when our businesses are saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to see you expand the businesses outside of downtown Greenport, because we don’t need a CVS there, or McDonald’s or Starbucks … And if they increase restaurant uses in particular and retail uses there, we’re not going to get the housing, and we’re going to be seeing the pull of business outside the village.”
Greenport Business Improvement District chair Nancy Kouris said the business community wants growth steered back into the heart of the village.
“We want to support sustainable housing solutions, and we want to strengthen the village economic core,” she said. “We want to express support for zoning policies that encourage conditional uses, that bring a clear community benefit, not just additional retail or … retail redundancy. Last thing we need is a CVS or a Panera Bread.” She added, “We want to promote mixed use development in downtown area … [and] discourage over expansion … We do not believe Southold Town’s zoning priorities are ready to be finalized without due consideration to Greenport.”
Planning Board chair Patricia Hammes said the town should view every area “through a housing lens first … and then everything else should be complementary to that.” She warned that sewer access near the proposed Corridor Business zone will make “restaurants [and] hotels … the best use.” She added, “I want to hope that somebody’s looking at this to make sure that we’re not going to end up with Montauk style … resorts” in marine zones.
Deputy Mayor Patrick Brennan said his takeaway from the night was “housing, housing, housing” and argued that “none of this is going to happen without sewer,” calling for a comprehensive approach to the west end of Front Street: “We’re not going to accomplish our housing goals … without that.”
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said Greenport should be treated as the center of its surrounding hamlet areas. “They just separated us out because it was a separate municipality,” she said, citing the village’s key utilities. “We have the sewer. We have the water.”
ZBA chair John Saladino questioned whether the proposal reflects Greenport’s needs.
“I’m not sure that Southold Town’s interest in the new zoning code have Greenport Village’s best interest at heart,” he said, later adding that “the primary need of the incorporated village right now is a place where people can live and not have to borrow everything their parents own.
“I just don’t see … anything … that encourages anyone … from investing outside the incorporated village.”
Stuessi said village officials would promptly draft a letter to Southold, that will be shared with the public.