[Adopted 9-24-1985 by L.L. No. 15-1985]
A. 
The Town Board finds that watercraft are being used for strictly residential purposes on waterways within the Town of Southold. The proliferation of this type of use is expected to create significant environmental problems if their proliferation remains unchecked.
B. 
The Town Board recognizes that the waterways surrounding the Town are some of the primary recreation areas on Long Island. They are used for swimming, fishing and boating by many of the local residents and visitors. Furthermore, waterways are a major commercial resource providing food and employment for the harvesters of fish and shellfish. Shellfish taken commercially from said waterways are distributed to all areas of the Eastern Seaboard. The Town of Southold has expended large sums of money to develop and protect the harvestable clam stock.
C. 
The Town Board acknowledges its duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of its residents and visitors. The maintenance of high water quality is vital to the use of said waterways for recreational and commercial purposes. The avoidance of all uses and activities which could introduce pollution in these waterways is of constant concern.
D. 
The potential influx of craft and vessels for residential purposes creates a substantial danger to water quality in said waterways. The residential use of these vessels is contrary to the established character of the Town of Southold and will severely diminish the recreational and commercial use of said waterways.
E. 
The proliferation of floating homes and marinas which accommodate them will create problems which include, in addition to water pollution, trash storage and removal, fire protection, emergency energy requirements during power failures, loss of mooring piles during winter icing conditions and damage and sinking of vessels during storms, all of which conditions impose additional responsibilities on police, fire and other emergency agencies in the Town.
F. 
The Town Board recognizes that the Town of Southold consists primarily of developed year-round residential neighborhoods and that marine recreational uses are incidental to such residential uses, and that it is in the best interests of the Town of Southold and its residents to restrict and prohibit the uncontrolled growth and burden on its waterways that would result if the infusion of floating homes is not controlled.
As used in this article, the words and terms used herein are defined as follows:
FLOATING HOME
Any vessel in fact used, designed or occupied as a permanent dwelling unit, business office or source of any occupation, or for any private or social club of whatever nature, including but not limited to a structure constructed upon a barge primarily immobile and out of navigation which functions substantially as a land structure while the same is moored or docked in or on Town waterways within the Town of Southold, whether such vessel is self-propelled or not, and whose volume coefficient is greater than 3,000 square feet. Volume coefficient is a ratio of the habitable space of a vessel measured in cubic feet and the draft of a vessel measured in feet of depth.
FLOATING HOME MARINA
Any plot, lot, block or site within the Town of Southold upon which a marina is operated, where one or more sites or locations are rented or are offered for rent, sold or offered for sale or otherwise used or offered for use for the location of floating homes.
MARINA
Any dock, pier or other facility operated for profit, or to which public patronage is invited, providing moorings, dockage or other marine services primarily for power and sailing yachts, launches or other watercraft, other than floating homes, and which may also be capable of removing any and all watercrafts moored or docked within the marina from the water for repair and/or storage.
PERSON
Any individual, corporation, copartnership, association, society or any other combination of individuals.
TOWN WATERS
All tidal waters bordering on or within the Town of Southold, including but not limited to bays, sounds, creeks, estuaries, inlets and all tributaries thereof, and extending seaward to a point 100 feet from the mean high-water line.
A. 
No person shall place, moor, dock, use or occupy or permit or assist in the placing, mooring, docking, use or occupancy of a floating home in or on Town waters.
B. 
No person shall place, moor, dock or store or permit or assist in the placing, mooring, docking or storing of a floating home in a marina in the Town of Southold.
C. 
No person shall operate or cause to be operated a floating home marina or rent or hold out for rent or sell or offer to sell any site, berth or space for the accommodation of a floating home in the Town of Southold.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this article shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of this article, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the litigation in which such judgment shall have been rendered.