Southampton Town Unveils Proposal To Allow Hotels To Rise Again

The Southampton Town Board is considering creating a new “floating zone” overlay district that could allow new small hotels to be built in highway business zones around the town, at the sole discretion of the board.

Current town code has effectively barred the construction of new hotels and motels by limiting development to a maximum of four units per acre of land. Town Attorney James Burke called it “completely unfeasible” to even consider building a hotel or motel under existing rules.

Accordingly, the number of hotels and motels, and affordable short-term lodging options for visitors, has dwindled in recent decades, as many motels were converted to permanent low-income housing — often with problematic overcrowding, squalor and quality-of-life issues for surrounding neighborhoods.

The owners of two Riverhead hotels came to the Town Board earlier this year asking that the town “tweak” the zoning regulations for the highway business zone to allow a hotel to be built on a Hampton Bays property that for decades has been home to the famous summer party spot the Boardy Barn.

The proposal was generally well received, both among community members and town officials. But planners said they worried that making the changes to the code that the developers’ attorneys had suggested may risk sparking a flourish of new hotel projects.

“The point for all this is that we want to allow for temporary lodging throughout the town where there isn’t any in certain hamlets,” Supervisor Maria Moore said at a first public hearing on the proposal on Tuesday. “If we were to just say they were allowed in highway business, this could create a proliferation of hotels. If we allow one where the Boardy Barn is and then someone wants to put one where Macy’s is, then we can’t say no.”

The town’s planning administrator, Janice Scherer, said that the zoning overlay would allow the town to accept or reject a proposal at any stage and would give them the power to limit development as seen fit to suit a neighborhood or hamlet. Whereas the town’s Planning Board only has the power to review a proposal and decide whether it fits pre-determined criteria for being acceptable, the Town Board would be able to be more subjective in their consideration and discretion about what should or shouldn’t be allowed.

“You have more discretion when you do it this way. You can elect to not even consider it if you don’t like it,” Scherer said.

She noted that the town’s Comprehensive Plan specifically calls for the creation of more small-scale hotels for transient tourists in the town’s highway business districts.

Along with the cap on units, the overlay would allow for swimming pools and a restaurant.

Some skeptics from the community said they were more suspect of leaving such potentially impactful decision to the discretion of an elected board.

“I play devil’s advocate, because no one else does: It’s all great and all, this discretion, but when I hear that, I think abuse of discretion, back-office deals and nobody knows what they are doing,” Hampton Bays resident Gayle Lombardi said. “It’s not a process that works. That goes for housing, it goes for this.”

The Town Board on Tuesday was slated to approve a somewhat zoning overlay district for affordable housing projects.

Lombardi said that in Hampton Bays in particular, the town needs to embark on a new study of the Montauk Highway corridor before it starts allowing new hotels in the area. She harked to some of the disastrous conditions that have grown out of failed former efficiency motels turning into permanent residents.

Scherer said the overlay would not allow kitchenettes and would not allow any conversation of units into apartments.

Bridgehampton resident Meredith Berkowitz also warned about the fears of backroom dealings with elected officials by hotel developers.

“How do you protect against back-office deals, and how do you make sure it is vetted with the community first?” she asked, proposing that the town shelve the idea until the new year.

Moore said that she was typically opposed to using floating zones to sidestep zoning laws because it nullifies long-term planning. “We shouldn’t have that much discretion,” she said, though she said she thought that, in this instance, it made sense

“This zoning and the community housing overall district are not giving anyone anything,” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara said. “This is just the start of a process.”