Building permits in the Town of Southold

Southold Town and the Village of Greenport

The Town's Justice Court handles matters that occur in the Town of Southold or the Village of Greenport, and its list of agencies includes Greenport Village Building and Zoning. If your house is in the village, start with that office; we could not find a village page of its own to cite. For the rest of Southold, this guide follows the Town Building Department's forms and fee pages.

What goes in a Southold application

The building permit form linked from the Building Department page says applications and forms must be filled out in their entirety, and incomplete applications will not be accepted. Its checklist asks for:

• The building permit application, complete, signed and notarized
• A survey or site plan drawn to scale at original size, showing the lot and its buildings, the neighboring properties or streets, and any waterways
• Four sets of plans bearing the signature and original seal of a New York State licensed professional engineer or architect
• The contractor's proof of insurance and Suffolk County license
• An original signed owner's authorization when the applicant is not the owner
• A floodplain development permit application, if one applies

No work covered by the application, land clearing and site work included, may begin before the building permit is issued. None of the pages we read say whether Southold accepts applications online.

Wetland distances that add permits

The checklist flags two approvals that can come before building. Southold Town Trustees permits may be required for any work within 100 feet of a tidal or freshwater wetland, and New York State DEC permits may be required within 300 feet of a tidal wetland or 100 feet of a freshwater wetland. The Trustees page links applications for a wetland permit, an administrative permit, and a wetland and coastal erosion permit, and dates its application fees as of April 11, 2023.

The Trustees page also links a Coastal Contractors License application, and the fee page lists an annual coastal contractor license at $100, but neither page says what work that license covers.

Building fees, and when you pay them

Southold's fee schedule lists new dwellings, additions and alterations, including deck additions to existing dwellings, at $250 plus $0.50 for each square foot of floor area, and a certificate of occupancy for that work at $100. If any land clearing, excavation or construction starts without the applicable Town permits, all the fees tied to that work double.

The Town's pages differ on timing. The fee schedule says fees are paid when the application is filed with the building inspector, while the permit form says the department calculates the final fees from the schedule and collects them after the permit is written. Ask the Building Department when to pay.

Twelve months to start, eighteen to finish

Every building permit expires if the work has not started within 12 months of issue or has not been completed within 18 months. The job also has to be complete, with its certificate of occupancy in hand, within 18 months, or the permit may need renewal. No building may be used or occupied, in whole or in part, until the Building Inspector issues the certificate, which comes after all the required documents are submitted. For an older house, the Building page links an Application for Pre-Existing Certificate of Occupancy.

The Southold Zoning Board of Appeals

The board is a quasi-judicial body of five members appointed by the Town Board, and it cannot create or amend zoning, a power that rests with the Town Board. An area variance turns on a balancing test of six factors set by state Town Law, and a use variance requires proving unnecessary hardship under four stringent tests.

• Start with a current Notice of Disapproval from the Building Department, dated within the last 60 days, plus the survey or site plan filed there.
• A typical area variance filing is an original and seven copies, eight sets in all, or nine sets for waterfront, freshwater wetland or commercial parcels. The surveyor must show existing and proposed setbacks, patios and driveways, and wetland, bank and bluff lines with their buffers.
• Under the fee schedule adopted October 4, 2023, an area variance for a fence, an accessory structure or building, or an alteration or addition under 200 square feet costs $500, and a use variance costs $2,000. Fees double if the improvements were finished without permits.
• Once the hearing closes, the board must issue its written decision within 62 days. Its office is in the Town Hall Annex Building, at (631) 765-1809, open weekdays from 8:00 to 4:00.

Points to raise for a Southold job

Find out how far the work is from the nearest wetland before anything else, since that decides whether the Trustees or the DEC are involved. Then ask each contractor for the proof of insurance and Suffolk County license the Town's checklist calls for, who will file, and who will draw and seal the four plan sets. Our guide on checking a Suffolk County license walks through the county lookup.