Accessory Apartments Amendments Adopted in East Hampton Town

After months of debate and tinkering, the East Hampton Town Board this week finally adopted new rules expanding the allowance of accessory apartments on residential and commercial properties throughout the town.

The new amendments will double the total number of accessory apartments allowed in the town from 100 to 200, and from 20 in each school district to 40.

The town also lowered the minimum size of a residential lot that can be eligible for an accessory apartment to just a half acre and increased the allowable size of the apartments to 1,200 square feet for apartments within the main dwelling, or 600 square feet for apartments in detached structures like above garages.

The amendments also remove previous limitations on occupancy by more than two people — an accommodation meant to allow a two-bedroom apartment to be occupied by a family of three or four — and allow tenants to live in the apartment seasonally as long as they can show proof of ongoing employment within the town throughout the lease period.

Town officials have long hoped that accessory apartments on existing residential properties would be a low-impact way of creating hundreds of new affordable housing units, while also giving a financial boost to current homeowners facing rising costs of living. But thus far, only a handful of the apartments have been created, mostly by homeowners seeking to create a separate living space for adult members of their immediate family.

Homeowners with interest in creating the apartments have told the town that the main hurdle is the construction costs of creating an apartment compared with the limited rents that can be charged to comply with the town’s rules intended to keep the apartments “affordable” under regional standards — which cap the allowed rents at about $2,300 a month.

Town officials have said that one of the potential uses of the Community Housing Fund could be construction loans to help homeowners cover the upfront costs of creating accessory apartments.

Jeremy Samuleson, the town’s planning director, said this week that the town will not wait and see if the new rules spur the sort of creation of new apartments that they hope it will.

“Did we adjust the dials in a way that finally found the sweet spot for the market to be responsive to this opportunity? That remains to be seen,” he said. “If it works, the town just created 100 units of housing at zero cost to taxpayers.”