Residents turned out en masse last night for a Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association meeting centered on land use and zoning in the hamlet and critical issues such as affordable housing and nitrogen overload in area waterways.
Heather Lanza, Southold’s director of planning, along with Mark Terry, principal planner, and Bill Toedter, president of the North Fork Environmental Council, and Leslie Weisman, chair of the zoning board of appeals, were present at the American Legion Hall in Mattituck to speak and answer questions.
Lanza began with an explanation of zoning districts in town, offering insight into Mattituck’s specific makeup. For example, she said, 38 percent of land in Mattituck and Laurel is farmland. Of those 3,000 acres, 880 are protected from future residential development, she said.
In addition, there are 720 acres of protected open space in Mattituck and Laurel, equaling 21 percent of open land in Mattituck and Laurel, just under the townwide number of 25 percent.
Lanza then pointed out what parcels are still open for development, including the land across from the Capital One bank owned by Paul Pawlowski.
Currently, there are 385 single and separate lots in Mattituck and Laurel, with 3,200 housing units, mostly single family homes, Lanza said.
Commercial industrial uses comprise 175 acres, or two percent, she said.
About 30 percent of the land area in Mattituck and Laurel, or 2,400 acres, is designated for residential use; townwide that number is 32 percent. Regarding density, Mattituck sees .4 homes per acre, with some areas, such as Sigsbee Road, with higher density.
Meanwhile, 940 homes, or 29 percent, in Mattituck and Laurel are used for seasonal occupancy. “That’s not good or bad. It just is,” Lanza said, adding that townwide, that number is 36 percent.
Of the 15,300 homes in town, 5,5000 are used seasonally. Year-round population in Mattituck-Laurel is 5,600.
Glancing out over the crowd, Weissman said, “It’s wonderful to see such community activism and passion.”
Weisman then explained the role of the ZBA but reminded that it’s the town board that has legislative powers; the ZBA cannot amend or create zoning regulations, they can only provide relief.
Audience questions centered largely on the issue of affordable housing, with one woman stating that she believed Mattituck is a “dumping ground” with the Cottages and other projects in past years.
Terry and Lanza said another affordable project has been pitched for Southold Town.
Terry said the Cottages is the only perpetual affordable subdivision created. “Others were dispersed throughout town and somehow, weren’t covenant restricted to remain affordable.” One example of such a situation exists on Jasmine Lane in Southold, he said.
“People have voiced that concern: ‘Where are our sons and daughters going to live?’ We know we have a problem and we’ve tried to address that problem,” he said.
An affordable home is being created in Orient and other areas throughout the entire town are being looked at, Terry said. The planning board recently directed the planning department to tell applicants that the town wants affordable housing dispersed throughout town.
One woman said she’d rather see houses, rather than rentable apartments, on Pawlowski’s parcel.
Lanza said because she and the others were officials for the town, no specific project could be discussed and those questions should be raised during the public hearing process.
One resident asked if Pawlowski owned a parcel next to the one being proposed for development and preservation; Pawlowski said there is no other parcel touching the one he’s proposing for his plan.
Others said they were fearful “we’re going to see another Riverhead.”
‘That’s a valid concern,” Lanza said. “You have the zoning in place but you don’t want what we call ‘the Route 58 effect.’ We don’t want to see that.” Those issues will be addressed in the land use chapter of the comprehensive plan, she said.
Others asked about the definition of affordable housing. Weisman said affordable housing is based upon a statistical analysis from the federal government and has to do with the mean average income in a given area.
Some worried that affordable housing was “Section 8” housing.
“It’s not Section 8,” Weisman said. “Affordable housing in this community is firefighters, school teachers, nurses. You’re not looking at outside people who don’t live here. They’re our neighbors. They’re your kids, who are not able to stay here because housing is simply out of reach, unless they inherit your house.”
Section 8, she explained is a completely different, federally regulated and subsidized program.
In order to be listed on the town’s affordable housing registry, a resident needs to qualify by income.
“We badly need affordable units in perpetuity,” Weisman said.
Terry explained the affordable housing floating zone, which would allow for a higher density in an affordable housing district, as well as other incentives.
One of the restricting factors the town has is sanitary flow, which has made it difficult for developers to pursue affordable housing projects in Southold, he said. Developers can purchase sanitary flow credits to increase density on certain parcels, he said. “We just haven’t been really successful in landing units on the ground,” he said. “It’s a recipe of reasons why we haven’t landed any in town.”
Toedter then discussed how the NFEC looks at proposed projects and weights the potential environmental impacts.
“Many people think we don’t like development, but we live in the real world. We have to look at balance. Is it right for the environment? The community?”
He also discussed nitrogen loading in local waterways and said Suffolk County hopes to introduce two new wastewater systems by next year. One idea would be a community system where wastewater is denitrified and reused.
The MLCA also unanimously elected to keep its current board in place and welcomed new member Marjorie Dunn.
