Southold homes getting too damn big, North Fork residents say

Unlike in the Hamptons, there is no “scene” on the North Fork — a culture that is embraced by residents of the area, which is largely agricultural. Occasionally you’ll see a North Fork T-shirt with the image of a fish and the words, “In the Hamptons they call it sushi. Here, it’s just bait.”

Worried that home construction has gotten out of hand in the North Fork town of Southold, some residents are are calling on officials to limit residential development.

George Cork Maul, director of the New Suffolk Civic Association, said some of the homes built in recent years have been out of scale with their neighbors, Newsday reported.

“They block the viewscape and they change the sense of small-town community,” he said, the paper reported.

Southold currently only regulates a minimum lot size. The New Suffolk Civic Association and other groups presented ideas for new regulations to the Southold Town Board last month.

Among the suggestions were a limit on maximum gross floor area.

Not everyone is on board. Councilman Jim Dinizio said it would be difficult to regulate home sizes and said he’s “not a person who thinks that house size is any problem in Southold Town.”

[Newsday] — Dennis Lynch