Several local laws regarding shellfish and yard sale permits will be amended by the Southold Town Board to adjust the process by which they are changed, pending public hearings on Feb. 25 and March 4.
The changes to the Shellfish and Other Marine Resources law, the Peddlers, Solicitors, Loitering, and Transient Retail Merchants law, and zoning laws regarding personal property sales will allow fees to be “set from time to time” by Town Board resolution.
Currently, the fee for a noncommercial permanent resident or taxpayer shellfish permit is $5 and expires Dec. 31 of the year it was issued. Permanent residents older than 62 are not required to pay a fee, according to the Shellfish and Other Marine Resources law.
A license application fee is currently $200 per year or $50 per day or fraction thereof, according to the Transient Retail Merchants law. The pending change would make the fee subject to change by Town Board resolution and be nonrefundable for each license. The pubic hearing for both aforementioned local law changes will be held at Southold Town Hall Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m.
The fee for yard sales, attic sales, garage sales, auction sales or similar types of personal property is currently $15, as written in Chapter 280 Zoning. The amendment will allow the Town Board to set new fees by resolution. The public hearing for the zoning law will be held at Southold Town Hall Tuesday, March 4, at 4:30 p.m.
Town Supervisor Al Krupski said these local law amendments will help streamline the fee-change process when necessary.
“All that does is it allows us to set [the fees] by resolution,” Mr. Krupski said. “So it makes it easier for us to set the fee. That’s all it does.”
He said the Town Board is not changing the fees yet, but it will make the process to change the fees easier than amending the law each time it needs to be changed. The fees typically change once a decade, according to Mr. Krupski.