Southampton Town eases restrictions on adding accessory apartments

Southampton Town officials approved a plan Tuesday night to relax restrictions on accessory apartments, but also cap the amount landlords can charge tenants to rent them.

The board voted 5-0 in favor of the change, which makes nearly 2,000 more properties eligible to add an accessory apartment.

“It’s probably not going to create tons and tons of apartments,” Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said after the vote.

Even so, he said, town approval of the measure will result in an estimated seven to 10 more units a year.

“That’s a difference,” Schneiderman said.

The board's action is an effort to offset high real estate prices on the South Fork that have made it difficult for many workers to find affordable housing nearby and instead have to live in communities farther west.

“While the Town has benefited from increased tourism and second homeownership, income-eligible households . . . are being priced out of market rate housing,” the legislation states. “In addition, as the cost of living increases, the extra income derived from an accessory apartment is needed to keep many current residents in their homes.” 

Southampton Town code previously required property owners to have a three-quarter-acre lot to obtain an accessory rental permit, but the law had no rent restrictions. The change approved Tuesday allows property owners on half-acre lots in certain less densely populated hamlets to obtain a permit, but dictates that all rents be kept at an “affordable” standard to serve the town’s workforce.

The proposed law would make 1,953 more properties eligible for accessory apartments, town officials said. 

The change would apply to the hamlets of Eastport, Westhampton, Water Mill, Tuckahoe, Noyack, Northampton, North Sea, Flanders and Bridgehampton.

The bill would also require that tenants make less than 130 percent of area median income, which in 2018 was $151,700 per year for a family of four. Family members of the landlord would be exempt from that requirement if they rent a unit.

Rents would be capped at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development fair market rate, which for 2019 on Long Island is $1,240 for a studio apartment, $1,548 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,907 for a two-bedroom. Southampton Town code does not allow for accessory apartments with three bedrooms or more. The new requirements would apply only to new applications.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.