After two months of intensive public outreach on a sweeping proposal to overhaul Southold Town’s zoning code, town officials say they are considering incorporating “fundamental changes” into a new draft expected later this year.

The proposed update aims to preserve the town’s “unique character, shaped by its rich history and rural beauty … while also paving the way for thoughtful growth that meets the evolving needs of our community.”

But significant concerns raised by the business community — especially the North Fork Chamber of Commerce — have led the town to reconsider some elements of the initial draft. Critics say the proposed code as written could harm the local economy, stifle small business growth and ultimately burden homeowners with higher taxes.

Town Supervisor Al Krupski said in an interview that the feedback generated by 11 public outreach meetings town-wide was a valuable guide and that the Town Board now “needs to consider some real fundamental changes to the proposal.”

“I’ve had lots of business owners come up to me and say, ‘This is not going to work for me … this could be a real problem,” said Krupski. “I agree with that. We have to make sure that the businesses have the flexibility to operate.”

Krupski’s family farm has been a North Fork Chamber member since the 1980s.

“So I do understand how business works, and I do understand how government works: if you don’t get all the input and consider everything, you’re not going to make a good decision.”

Town Planning Dept. director Heather Lanza, who has been hosting meetings with civic, business and community groups about the proposal since May, directed a request for comment to the Town Board.

Town councilman Greg Doroski also expects that some substantial changes will be made to the proposal, saying last week that “it’s not a choice between the old code and this proposed code. It is what’s coming out of these public engagement sessions.”

Objectives

The town’s proposed zoning updates aim to modernize a code that has remained largely unchanged for a half century, replacing a piecemeal system with a more coherent, streamlined and user-friendly framework.

The effort is rooted in the town’s 2020 Comprehensive Plan, which emphasizes the need to preserve Southold’s rural character while addressing pressing challenges including affordable housing, land conservation, economic development and climate resilience.

The new code consolidates and clarifies zoning districts, removes outdated language and introduces more consistent rules to reduce the reliance on variances and improve transparency.

A key objective of the overhaul is to tailor land use regulations to better reflect the town’s distinct hamlets and environmental concerns. New overlay districts are proposed to protect critical resources including drinking water aquifers, coastal areas and preserved lands.

At the same time, new zoning districts — like Hamlet Mixed Use and Transitional zones — seek to foster walkable, small-scale development near town centers while limiting suburban-style sprawl in more rural areas. Provisions for affordable and workforce housing are built into the proposed code, including opportunities for apartment construction, farmworker housing and higher-density development near commercial hubs.

Still, concerns remain among residents and business owners over restrictions on lot coverage, potential limits on pre-existing uses and the availability of commercial space in certain districts.

Concerns

In a detailed presentation to town officials in May, North Fork Chamber board member and land use attorney Eric Dantes called parts of the current draft vague, restrictive and “unworkable,” and contended that the proposed zoning revisions, intended to modernize Southold’s outdated code, fall short of that promise.

“We support updating the code,” Dantes said. “But it has to be done in a way that supports business and helps our young people succeed. What helps the business community helps everyone in Southold.”

Among the Chamber’s objections is the proposed restriction on how businesses can use their land and buildings — a concern echoed by chamber member and longtime local business owner Paul Romanelli, who said he’s attended nearly every zoning meeting to date.

“Some commercial spaces — they want to restrict the number of uses for the businesses on that property,” Romanelli said. “It actually makes it really difficult to have a large piece of property with only a small envelope of building you can actually build your business on. So as you grow, you’d be restricted on what you can do.”

He said that even co-locating businesses would be subject to restrictions.

“Whether it’s your business and another business that you start, or another business that wants to lease space within your property — they’re restricting that right now. Those changes have to be corrected. That’s a problem,” he said.

Romanelli said that while he respects the town’s effort to control overdevelopment, what’s proposed now leans too far toward restriction — particularly when it comes to hotel growth and agritourism.

“What they want to do in the zoning is restrict the size of hotels based on square footage of the lot. When you do those calculations out, it’s almost impossible for a hotel to make a profit.”

‘A first draft’

Krupski pushed back on the notion that the draft proposal would prevent businesses from being profitable.

“On hotels, there already is a limit now, so I’m not sure if that’s going to change or not … I haven’t spoken to other board members.”

As far as agritourism, he said that town advisory boards are working to define agricultural production more clearly.

“I just went past a business that is not tied to agriculture production — it’s got a sign that says ‘farm’ in the name, but there’s no production there,” he said. “You have to grow something. That’s what a farm is: production, whether it’s vegetables, flowers, horticulture or sod — it’s agriculture production, and you really have to tie that to your business model.”

Krupski also noted that the town is not the only regulatory body involved in agriculture.

“I don’t really know what that means — that you can’t make money at something” based on the currently proposed zoning code changes.

“Is the town’s restriction keeping you from making money? Or is it New York state labor laws, or some sort of federal program? There are a lot of regulatory partners in agriculture — county, state, federal and town. So it’s not as simple as saying the town won’t let me make money.”

Doroski, who attended the North Fork Chamber’s presentation in May, said the business community’s concerns are being addressed and considered. “The code that is proposed is a first draft. There was never a universe where that code was going to be adopted.”

‘A very expensive place to live’

Chamber members are calling for the share of commercially-zoned land to increase from 1.8% to 3.6%, along with a streamlined permitting process that takes no more than six months.

Dantes said that the current draft could render many longtime local businesses noncompliant, and that even Love Lane would not meet the new proposed requirements. He said fostering business growth is key to helping young residents afford to stay.

“Southold has become a very expensive place to live,” Dantes told officials in May. “We have school districts with declining enrollment. We have a young local population that wants to live here and is desperately looking for opportunities to work here.”

Chamber president Judy McCleery wants to see the permitting process simplified.

“This was supposed to be a building process code that is simple and that isn’t always subject to litigation,” she said.

McCleery said the economic consequences of limiting commercial development would eventually fall on homeowners.

“We’re all small businesses,” she said. “Whether we’re solo entrepreneurs or the mom-and-pop … the Ace Hardware and Mullen Motors … those are the ones that hire local people.”

Romanelli said that it seems to him that “there’s a significant amount of people that have moved out here over the years from other places and love it the way it is — and don’t want to see any change whatsoever. That is an absolutely absurd position to be in.”

He cited local redevelopment success stories like North Fork Table & Inn and Einstein Square, saying critics often overlook the community value of such reinvestment.

“Those buildings were collapsing from the inside out,” he said. “Now we have a community square in the middle of Southold Village because someone had the wherewithal to fix those buildings.”

Romanelli said the North Fork Chamber “want[s] to work with the town. We want to be able to work together. But they just can’t force so many restrictions on improvements and development,” he said.

Some in the business community are taking more of a wait-and-see approach.

 “They’re just laying out what they’re thinking about and trying to get information,” said Mattituck Chamber of Commerce president Terry McShane of town leaders. “I really think what they’re trying to do is collect additional information on things they maybe didn’t put in there.

“I think what the town is trying to do is huge,” he said. “I see both sides to it, from a business perspective and as a resident.”

‘Loud and clear’

Town councilwoman Anne Smith also said that changes to the proposal would be necessary to address the concerns of the business community.

“Whether it was an industry specific or a hamlet group, what we heard was a need for more flexibility for business owners,” she said.

Simplifying and streamlining the building permit process will be a key focus of the amended zoning proposal, she said.

“What we heard loud and clear from every business owner or people who sold property to business owners or land use attorneys was the need” to streamline the process. “Those things are already being rewritten and talked about, and I’m pretty confident we’re going to collaborate to the point where everyone’s voice is heard, and then the best decision to affect the most people will be what is put forward for consideration.”

Smith said the board is still mulling how best to present the amended proposal to the community.

“Once we see the new version, we need to decide: what’s the next way we engage? Is it individual meetings? Is it one big meeting? Then, of course, at some point this will move to more formal public hearings.”

Veteran councilwoman Jill Doherty is skeptical that an amended proposal will be ready for public review anytime soon.

“I feel that 80% needs to be changed,” she said. “Very few things in it make sense to me.”

Doherty contended that the current proposal’s strategy is that “if we limit the business community, we have more space for housing. But that’s not the way, in my mind, to balance housing and business.”

“I’m very concerned about the new business district that [would be] created. It’s creating so many non-conforming lots, whether it’s an existing business or not. We’re going to grandfather them in, but we don’t have a definition of what grandfathering even means.”

“To me, if you have a business like Mullen Motors, that you’re making non-conforming, and they need to go get a building permit, then the building department has to say, ‘Well, you’re non- conforming, even though you’re grandfathered in. So now you have to go to the [Zoning Board of Appeals] when you didn’t before, because you were conforming.’”

Doherty expects that it will take the rest of the year to complete an amended proposal, present it to the public, hold public hearings and, ultimately, vote on the initiative.

“I don’t think it’s going to be voted on until the beginning of 2026 because I think there needs to be that many changes.”

She said that the board can “maybe get a [new] iteration of this out by the end of the year, but we need to give everybody time to soak it up again, because it’s going to be so different that it’s going to be like a new product.”

A slower process is fine with Town Councilman Brian Mealy.

“We’re really being thoughtful,” he said, “to the point where this should be completed when it’s complete.

“I’d rather be doing something in a thoughtful, considerate, open-minded, transparent way and it takes longer, than trying to seemingly ignore people’s concerns. It’s important that we don’t ignore, particularly, the business community.”