On Monday, Nov. 4, Brookhaven Town supervisor Dan Panico announced an initiative to strengthen illegal housing enforcement within the Town of Brookhaven by increasing fines for rental permit violations aimed at repeat offenders.
The initiative, according to Panico, is intended to improve housing safety and compliance throughout the community by increasing finds from $500 up to $2,500 and as much as $15,000. Amendments to the code include increased penalties for operating rentals without permits and failing to maintain homes with the neighborhood preservation code and increased fines for violating zoning provisions, not obtaining required permits, and non-permitted property uses with the zoning code.
“The fines and penalties are for those who simply refuse to follow the code, for those that don’t want to understand that people in the Town of Brookhaven deserve to live in a clean, safe and orderly neighborhood,” Panico said, noting that the councilmembers are inundated with calls about unsafe and illegal housing. “We are increasing those fines fivefold.”
Not only is the issue a quality-of-life problem, but also, according to councilman Mike Loguercio, who is a longtime Ridge firefighter, it’s a safety issue.
“What volunteer member fire emergency services are seeing is the illegal subdivision of residential structures; many homes put in walls illegally and won’t adhere to electrical and building codes,” he said. “Not only does this illegal electrical cause fires, but firefighters entering buildings on their hands and knees doing a search are hitting walls that shouldn’t be there. This is causing loss of life.”
During the press conference, all six Brookhaven Town Council members were in attendance, as well as Suffolk County Legis. James Mazzarella; officials from the town’s law, public safety and building departments; civic group representatives; and local community leaders from each council district.
The legislation will go into effect after the Nov. 7 public hearing.
