Driveway suit takes on Shelter Island code

A lawsuit over whether a driveway built on residentially zoned land is an illegal expansion of a business has pitted neighbor against neighbor on Shelter Island, as the town board tries to clarify its town code dealing with pre-existing, nonconforming business uses.

It's a situation that has far more impact on Shelter Island because of the limited amount of commercial land. A "significant number" of businesses on Shelter Island are not in stores or in factories, but are run out of residents' homes or garages, according to Supervisor James Dougherty.

It's an accommodation to the fact that there is not a lot of commercially zoned real estate on the 12-square-mile island, and that many businesses serve seasonal clients. Still other businesses pre-date their current residential zoning.

It does create problems, particularly when a business needs to expand.

A meeting on the subject Friday packed the small Shelter Island Town Hall, with business owners saying that tightening regulations would put them out of business, and demanding that the town eliminate a part of the code which says that nonconforming businesses that go out of business for a year or more revert to strictly residential use.

Homeowners complained that there is nothing to stop a nonconforming business on residential property from purchasing an adjoining residential property and expanding its use. One woman said that could be done three or four times. "We'd end up with a Wal-Mart," she noted.

"Shelter Island is much more tolerant to nonconforming businesses than other towns. I'm sympathetic to them," said Dougherty. "Our business community is very fragile, with our isolation and the short season."

Still, he added, the heart of Shelter Island's economy is its quiet, rural atmosphere and the high real estate prices that go with it. One online Shelter Island brokerage lists 47 homes, only four of which are under $500,000. In May, Suffolk County's median closing price was $315,000.

That contributes to the dilemma facing Dougherty and the town board. "We can tolerate them [the nonconforming businesses] but we can't expand them," he said.

It's why the obscure lawsuit filed by a local restaurant is creating so much controversy. Still pending in State Supreme Court, it seeks to reverse a decision by the town that building a driveway across residentially-zoned land was an illegal expansion of a business use.