Ten-year extension on nonconforming uses scrapped by Town Board
A proposal to amend Shelter Island’s law affecting nonconforming uses in residential areas will get a do-over as a result of comments made at last Friday’s Town Board meeting.
The board now plans to adjust language in its proposal that would have allowed owners of nonconforming businesses up to five two-year extensions after a one-year period in which the property hasn’t been used for the purpose for which it was designated.
“We’re not going with 10 years,” Supervisor Jim Dougherty said at Tuesday’s Town Board work session. He suggested it might be a total of five years, but that’s something Councilwoman Chris Lewis will try to hammer out with town attorney Laury Dowd.
“I’ll meet them halfway,” Councilman Paul Shepherd said of cutting the 10-year extension period to five.
Because the proposed changes to the code will go through some major changes, there will be another public hearing scheduled before the board makes any decision, Mr. Dougherty said.
The town has 106 parcels being used commercially, 30 of which are on nonconforming parcels, Mr. Dougherty said. According to figures he provided from the tax assessor, the value of all commercial properties on the Island is $96.45 million, accounting for 3.19 percent of taxable assessed value on Shelter Island.
The board has been struggling with an effort to define allowances for nonconforming businesses in residential zones and examining how it wants to address discontinuances of nonconforming uses for years, the supervisor said. The issue has business owners complaining that restrictions are aimed at eliminating or sharply curtailing local commercial operations.
Following a number of aborted starts to deal with the issue, the board had appointed a special committee — comprised of Ms. Dowd, local businessman Mike Anglin, resident Lisa Shaw and ZBA member William “Punch” Johnston — to draft the proposed amendment.
First to speak at Friday’s hearing were neighbors of the former Shelter Island Gardens Nursery on St. Mary’s Road. They came out to protest that the proposed provision that would have enabled a business to keep its nonconforming use for up to 11 years, even though there’s no visible activity on the site.
At issue for the neighbors is the blight that has developed at the former nursery, with overgrown vegetation and grafitti-adorned buildings in disrepair. That the property is to be auctioned on April 13 is some relief to the neighbors, but they fear a new owner might not be any more to their liking.
“I don’t see that Shelter Island needs another nursery,” neighbor Dee Clark Moorhead said. “We’re living in a mess.”
Provisions are needed for the town to take action when a property owner allows a lot to deteriorate, neighbor Ron Jernick said. He noted that other towns take action to fix up derelict properties and bill the work to the owner.
There has to be some basic security and maintenance that go with any consideration of extending to property owners the right to keep a nonconforming use when a business has ceased to operate, Dering Harbor Mayor Tim Hogue told the Town Board.
Supervisor Jim Dougherty gave the neighbors one assurance: the current law, not the proposed new law, would govern what the next owner could do with the lot.
Under the current law, if use was abandoned for a year, the property would lose its special status. That hasn’t been applied to the nursery because owner Sean McLean maintained there was some activity still occurring at the site. Now that the property is in foreclosure and about to be sold at auction, it’s unclear whether the nonconforming use will pass to the next owner.
Under the proposed new law, an owner could have up to a year to reopen a closed business, but then could have applied for as many as five two-year extensions to keep the nonconforming use. Now the Town Board has indicated a willingness to alter that, perhaps down to five years.
Despite the neighbors’ concerns, former supervisor Alfred Kilb Jr. warned that any hasty effort to end a nonconforming use on a property could be a detriment to Islanders who stand to lose vital services.
“You can harm your community,” Mr. Kilb said. “The business use is what’s allowing that residential area to exist. That nursery has served this community for many years in a positive way, so be careful of what you want to eliminate.”
