The moratorium on hotel developments in Southold is set to continue for yet another year.
The Southold Town Board in the North Fork approved an extension on the moratorium against hotel, motel and resort development for another 12 months, the Suffolk Times reported. The moratorium was initially put in place for a year last June; the Suffolk County Planning Commission recommended a six-month moratorium at the start.
The initial pause was tied to a comprehensive zoning update the town was undertaking. A draft code is available for the update, but community participation is expected to continue through the summer.
An estimated timeline suggests a finalized comprehensive zoning code won’t be finalized and adopted until late this year or early next year.
The draft code foretells heavy restrictions on hospitality development across the town.
In hamlet centers, only one room would be allowed for every 8,000 square feet of net lot area. Developers may not be interested in lining up to build a 40,000-square-foot motel that can only have five rooms.
In one zone, hotel use is being replaced by “Country Inns,” according to the draft code. Those properties would be capped at 10 guest rooms and 20 guests and would have to reuse existing properties fronting either Route 25 or County Route 48.
In another zone, hotels would be capped at 30 rooms “to limit impacts to the environmentally sensitive shoreline.”
“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,” Southold Town Supervisor Ed Krupski said regarding the moratorium extension.
Krupski added that the town board could end the moratorium at any time.
One resident who supported the moratorium said that there are plenty of hotels available elsewhere, such as Riverhead, and that the community has other concerns to address.
“We don’t really need hotels,” she said to the town board, adding that affordable housing was more important.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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