The Shelter Island Community Housing Fund Advisory Board (CH-FAB) seeks public input — at an open house or online — as it develops the Town’s Community Housing Plan.
CH-FAB is working on the document with professional planning consultants from the Melville-based firm Nelson Pope Voorhis. The plan will guide Town Board decision-making around Community Housing.
An open house is scheduled for Saturday, August 6, from 3 to 5 PM at Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. Alternately, you can see the open house materials and provide feedback using this online form.
You are also welcome to attend regularly scheduled CH-FAB meetings (they’re posted on the Town calendar) or provide feedback in writing in care of the CH-FAB clerk, Coco Lee Thuman, at cthuman@shelterislandtown.gov or Community Housing Fund Advisory Board, Town Hall, PO Box 970, Shelter Island NY 11964.
CH-FAB chair Liz Hanley says the committee will consider all public comments as it assembles the housing plan, which must be approved by the Town Board before any monies from the new Community Housing Fund can be spent. The Town Board established the Community Housing Fund earlier this year. Revenues in the fund may only be used for purposes outlined in the Community Housing Plan. Of course, those purposes must fit within applicable federal and state laws.
At Hanley’s invitation, a representative from Landed spoke at the Town Board’s work session; the company assists buyers in putting together 20 percent down payments for mortgages through share equity agreements. Read more in this Gazette post.
Community Housing transfer tax referendum
In addition, there will be a question on the general election ballot asking Shelter Island voters whether they want to apply a 0.5 percent transfer tax to certain real estate transactions.
With some exceptions, buyers would pay the real estate tax, and the monies raised must be reserved for the Community Housing Fund, in accordance with the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Act. The law, authored by our state Assemblyman Fred Thiele, won bipartisan support and was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul in October 2021.
To learn more about the proposed transfer tax, check out this slideshow that CH-FAB presented to the Town Board in April.
While CH-FAB aims to complete the Community Housing Plan prior to the vote, the referendum is not an opportunity to for the public to approve or disapprove of the housing plan. It simply asks whether voters in East End towns wish to set up a transfer tax in their town, similar to the 2 percent real estate transfer tax that feeds each town’s Community Preservation Fund.
That’s why it is important to be heard on the Community Housing Plan now, while it’s in development. CH-FAB will ultimately present the recommended plan to the Town Board, which will hold a public hearing to gather additional community feedback. Once approved, the plan becomes part of the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
Meantime, a Town Board task force and appointed committee are reviewing the Comprehensive Plan, which last was formally updated in 1994. Find information about the comp plan update on the Town webpage at www.shelterislandtown.us/comprehensive-plan-update.
