East Hampton Looks At Seasonal Housing Options For Montauk Businesses

East Hampton Town housing officials and business leaders this week presented the town with a proposal for four potential approaches to helping business owners, especially in Montauk, provide housing for their employees.

After months of research and discussion about the long simmering issue of seasonal housing for Montauk’s thousands of transient workers, a joint committee of housing and business leaders said that one of the quickest and simplest steps may be to simply allow houses that are currently in commercial zones to be used to house more people than would typically be legal.

Tom Ruhle, director of the town’s Housing Department, said that the group suggests that the town consider allowing a business to purchase existing houses in areas zoned for commercial uses and house up to eight employees in them.

Absent the special consideration, no more than four unrelated people would be allowed to live in a single structure.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said that a survey of the town’s commercial zones by town planning staff showed that there are about 96 existing homes in commercial zones townwide—44 of them in Montauk.

Among the other suggestions from the committee were allowing businesses to apply for permits to park RVs, campers or small mobile homes on their commercial property to be used for housing, as long as they were only present seasonally and were thoroughly screened. The committee also suggested allowing businesses to build or convert structures on their properties for use as seasonal staff housing.

Bill Akin, who explored the seasonal housing issue as part of a Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee effort, said that the group surveyed businesses around Montauk and compiled a rough estimate that there are about 3,000 seasonal jobs in the hamlet.

Another approach was also pitched to the Town Board on Tuesday morning. Ryan Chadwick, owner of the Grey Lady restaurant on West Lake Drive, proposed using a half-acre, town-owned parcel near the town commercial docks to locate a half dozen small portable homes, each about 400 square feet with quarters for five people. The homes, which Mr. Chadwick likened to houseboats on wheels, could be parked on the lot for the summer and then removed to be used in winter vacation spots like Colorado.

The board said it would task town attorneys and fire marshals with exploring the details of the proposal.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell noted that the town parcel, behind the public bathrooms across West Lake Drive from the town commercial dock and The Dock restaurant, appeared at first blush to be a good location for such a test run because it is adjacent to a parking lot, there are no other residences surrounding it and it’s located close to several large seasonal businesses.