Board Considers 'Resort Waterfront Business Lite' Zoning Overlay For Marinas

Janice Scherer, Southampton Town’s land use administrator, describes it as “resort waterfront business lite” — a new zoning designation that permits water-dependent uses without the addition of businesses like restaurants or nightclubs.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said he wants to make sure that in solving one problem town officials are not creating others.

The marine waterfront business zoning designation, or MWB, was envisioned as a way to assist Jeff Strong, owner of a Strong’s Southampton marina in the Conscience Point area of North Sea. Mr. Strong has a pre-existing, nonconforming marina in a residential zone and wants to convert a house he owns on an adjacent parcel into an office. But that can’t happen under the current zoning code.

The Strongs asked to change the site’s zone to resort waterfront business to allow for the office conversion. But that zoning designation also allows for more intensive uses, like hotels, restaurants and nightclubs.

When the request was made last August, members of the Southampton Town Board directed town planners to look at the potential zone change or to create something new, an amendment to the code that creates a zoning category that allows only marine-related business.

Designed to encourage a limited array of waterfront uses, the MWB would be “a floating zone overlay,” meaning it exists in the abstract until someone applies for it.

The objective of the district is “to preserve, maintain and encourage a limited range of water-dependent uses,” the draft code language shared during the Town Board’s March 25 work session reads. The uses would be those traditionally associated with the waterfront, but must be compatible with residential districts.

A targeted parcel for the new overlay would have to be located on the water, and its uses water dependent, Ms. Scherer said. It would have to be an acre at minimum, with 150 feet of water frontage.

The draft code sets a standard requiring that any development in the MWB complement existing residential development in an aesthetically pleasing manner. It calls for ensuring that buildings or boat storage structures are sited so as to minimize obstructed views of the water and looks to require a design that provides public access.

In deciding whether to create the overlay, the Town Board would have to consider the need for additional water-dependent or water-related uses in a particular hamlet, Ms. Scherer explained. It would be tasked with determining a project’s potential environmental impacts and consistency with the Comprehensive Plan.

Adopting the overlay for a particular area is a completely discretionary act, the land use administrator pointed out. “You may find redevelopment is best accommodated under existing zoning or alternative zoning,” Ms. Scherer told the Town Board.

Looking at uses that would be allowed, she made clear that the office that Mr. Strong wants would be permitted as long as it is an office for a water-dependent use. She believes, where appropriate, the MWB designation could also allow for accessory housing.

While he supported a modest housing component, such as an apartment for an employee, Mr. Schneiderman said of the overlay in general, “I want to look at it through the lens of somebody who lives next door, making sure there are adequate protections for neighbors: “You’re putting this on a residential property and turning it into a commercial use.”

On the other side of the coin, the supervisor made note of instances where people buy a house next door to a working marina, then complain of the early morning activity and smell of fish. “I hate that,” he said.

The supervisor pointed out that a number of marinas in Southampton are pre-existing uses in residential zones. If someone chooses to live next to a marina, they need to understand that it’s a commercial use, Mr. Schneiderman mused.

He added, “But when we talk about expanding a marina into an area that was residential … now we’re bringing the marina to the residents, not the residents to the marina.”

The request triggering the zoning code analysis — the desire to put an office in a house next door to a marina — isn’t objectionable, he said: “It’s such a laid-back use.” But he continued to worry about opening marinas up to potential expansion.

Approving the request zone change for the Strong’s site absolutely would allow for more intensive uses, he underscored.

In crafting the new designation, there should be a focus on figuring out “how to treat these places like we don’t want them to go away,” Mr. Schneiderman emphasized. “It’s okay to be a marina in a residential neighborhood.”

Fifteen of the town’s 42 marinas are located in residential zones. In 2018, the town considered a zoning code amendment that would conform those properties to residential zoning code, and with the goal of preserving public access to waterways for commercial and recreational fishermen, pleasure boaters, personal watercraft users, charter fishing and excursion vessels, and hand-propelled craft.

“I think we have to retool this a little bit,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “Feathering out” uses could be acceptable, he said, but he wondered if there could be a way to limit any expansion to an office use only. “All you’d need to do is drop the requirement that you have to live there. It’s a home office, but you don’t live there.” Home offices are permitted in residential zones provided the office user lives in the same house as the office.

In the alternative, the town could approve the rezoning for the Strong’s Marina but include a slew of conditions ensuring that the use doesn’t intensify.

Councilwoman Julie Lofstad offered, “I’m worried we’re going to tailor this for one marina, and I really think we need to think about all the other marinas that could fall into it. And take a more global look. … We need to look at the big picture and not just one snapshot.”

Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni weighed in expressing support for writing code that prevents expansion that includes intensive uses like nightclubs. He spoke positively about the part of the new overlay that makes reference to accessory housing. “I think that’s a good idea,” he said.

Ms. Scherer suggested verbiage in the code that applies it only to existing marinas

“I don’t think we’re there yet,” Mr. Schneiderman said, as the discussion drew to a close. He wants to make sure any expansion within an overlay district is more restrictive than the main marina use.

Ms. Scherer said her department will revamp the draft and circulate it for additional feedback.