Apartments in Outbuildings to Be Legalized
The creation of year-round housing in outbuildings on lots of an acre or more, to be rented to permanent residents at prices within affordable housing guidelines, got the go-ahead with a vote of the East Hampton Town Board on Dec. 1.
After a hearing on revisions to the town housing code that evening, the town board voted to allow, for the first time, the creation of accessory dwellings in detached structures, but only on acre-sized properties.
The change was recommended by a town housing committee as a way to add some needed affordable housing in the town for year-round residents.
Accessory apartments, built onto houses, have been allowed since 1984, but only 16 or 17 permits have been issued for them by the town since that time, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said on Thursday. A maximum of 20 permits for such apartments in each of the town’s five school districts, or 100 throughout the town, remains in place.
According to another revision of the law approved that week, the minimum lot size where an attached accessory apartment may be built was increased from 15,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet, or a half-acre.
In addition, the revised regulations will allow a homeowner to reside in an attached accessory apartment, rather than the main house. Homeowners will not, however, have that option if the accessory dwelling is in a separate building. In addition, only four property owners in each school district will be allowed that option. The others will have to follow current law, which requires a homeowner to live in the primary residence while renting out an accessory apartment.
Speaking at the hearing on the revised law, Diane O’Connell, a chief of the East Hampton Ambulance Association, said that the ability to provide housing on family property for adult children is a way to help them stay in the community. Otherwise, she said, with a lack of affordable housing, “they can’t live here.”
But David Buda of Springs spoke against the proposed law, which he said “should have been . . . a nonstarter” in light of existing housing issues in Springs, where, he said, illegal overcrowding is overwhelming septic systems, and the school.
The town board’s efforts to address the need for affordable housing, he said, should be focused on “multifamily apartment zoning” in hamlet centers.
Brad Loewen, also of Springs, also questioned whether backyard housing is the right idea. “The young people I talk to don’t want to live in an accessory structure on Mom and Dad’s yards for the rest of their lives,” he said. As the chairman of the East Hampton Fisheries Committee, he expressed concern about additional pollution to surface waters such as Pussy’s Pond from increased septic waste from new housing.
Two other speakers expressed their approval of the idea.
Also on Dec. 1, after hearing comments from the public, the board approved a new merit pay system through which department heads could receive bonuses of up to $5,000 annually.
Carole Campolo, a Springs resident, spoke against the idea. “Managers by definition are expected to perform at a very high level,” she said. A set of criteria by which their eligibility for bonuses would be evaluated falls short, she added. “Those are the things they should be doing every single day for the salary they are currently receiving.”
Formal annual performance reviews for all employees should be conducted, she said. Town employees already enjoy compensation packages beyond those of many taxpayers, who “are strung out already,” Ms. Campolo said, and should not be asked to cover merit pay.
The Springs Citizens Advisory Committee had discussed the concept earlier that week, Councilman Fred Overton reported, and asked that the board delay a vote. But Mr. Cantwell said the law was “pretty thorough,” and “spells out in great detail the merit pay program, which would be at the town board’s discretion. With all due respect to the S.C.A.C., I don’t know that that much is going to change here, and my instinct is we should adopt it.” The program was approved unanimously.
Also approved by the entirety of the board was a three-year extension of the town’s contract with LTV, the nonprofit entity that provides public cable television access in East Hampton, and broadcasts coverage of the town’s public boards.