Residents will decide on creating a Community Housing Fund for each East End Town, thanks to a bill signed by Governor Kathy Hochul.
State Assemblyman Fred H. Thiele Jr. (D-Sag Harbor) and Senator Anthony R. Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) authored the bipartisan bill. [Note: In 2019, then governor Andrew M. Cuomo vetoed nearly identical legislation.] The new law authorizes each Town to establish its own Community Housing Fund following mandatory public referendums.
Town Supervisor Gerry Siller said Sunday he is pleased to hear that the governor signed the bill on Friday and hopes to get the matter before voters as soon as possible. Officials await further information about when and how they are to schedule referendums, he said. The question may end up on the general election ballot next November, or on a special ballot sometime sooner.
Why create a Community Housing Fund?
According to the bill, the reasons for putting it forth are:
- An adequate supply of housing opportunities for all segments of the Peconic Bay community is critical to the region’s future
- The adverse impact resulting from the lack of housing opportunities is severe
- Local employers have difficulty hiring and retaining employees because of housing costs and availability
- Local volunteer emergency services agencies experience difficulty in recruitment and retention
- Long-time residents are forced to leave the area
- Traffic congestion is intensified by the importation of labor from areas with lower housing costs
- The lack of housing opportunities is resulting in residents being forced to live in substandard, illegal conditions.
“The combination of the Peconic Bay region’s attractiveness, proximity to the dense population of the New York metropolitan region and to that region’s extraordinary wealth, makes the Peconic Bay region a prime location for seasonal and luxury homes,” the bill says.
“While this has created a strong local economy for the Peconic Bay region, it has resulted in a housing crisis for local families.”
- The demand for seasonal homes has driven up housing costs for local families
- More than 40 percent of all housing units are seasonal
- The housing shortage has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which spurred increased demand
- The demand for housing in the region is currently at an all-time high
- This increased demand has further driven up housing costs and reduced the supply of housing units for the local workforce
How will it work?
Like the Community Preservation Fund (which Thiele also authored), the new fund is supported by a real estate transfer tax. The property buyer pays the cost. Exemptions protect some first-time buyers and buyers of lower-cost homes and vacant lots.
The proposed law would add one-half a percent to the existing two percent Community Preservation Fund transfer tax. It would increase the exemption for improved property from $250,000 to $400,000 on Shelter Island.
Some first-time home buyers are exempt from paying the current real estate transfer tax. Under the new law, on Shelter Island, the exemption rises from 120 to 150 percent of the purchase price defined by the state mortgage agency.
If voters support establishing a fund, a Town will enact a Community Housing Plan. And, it will establish a Town Board-appointed advisory board. Once in place, the fund receives proceeds from the real estate transfer tax. And additional monies that the Town Board may provide, such as federal and state housing grants.
The Town can tap these resources for a variety of affordable housing programs:
- Provide financial assistance to first-time homebuyers not to exceed 50% of the purchase price
- Produce community housing for sale
- Produce community housing for rent
- Rehabilitate existing buildings for community housing
- Offer housing counseling
- Acquire real property in existing housing units, to produce community housing for sale or rent
Community Housing Plan
Once approved by voters, the bill requires the Town to adopt a housing plan. The plan must adhere to the following “Smart Growth” principles:
- Public investment: “Account for and minimize social, economic, and environmental costs of new development, including infrastructure costs such as transportation, sewers, and wastewater treatment, water, schools, recreation and loss of open space and agricultural land.”
- Development: “Encourage development in areas where transportation, water, and sewage infrastructure are available or practical.”
- Conservation: “Protect, preserve, and enhance the state’s resources including agricultural land, forests, surface waters, ground water, recreation, and open space, scenic areas, and significant historic and archaeological sites.”
- Coordination: “Promote coordination of state and local government decisions and cooperation among communities to work toward the most efficient, planned, and cost-effective devliery of government services by, among other means, facilitating cooperative agreements among adjacent communities and to coordinate plan to ensure compatability of one’s community development with devleopment of neighboring communities.”
- Community Design: “Strengthen communities through development and redevelopment strategies that include integration of all income and age groups, mixed land uses, and compact development, traditional neighborhood development, planned unit development, open space disricts, downtown revitalization, brownfield redeveloment, enhanced beauty in public spaces, and diverse and community housing in close proxmity to places of employment, recreation and commercial development.”
- Transportation: “Provide transportation choices, including increasing public transit and alternative modes of transportation, in order to reduce automobile dependency, traffic congestion, and automobile pollution.”
- Consistency: “Ensure predictability in building and land use codes.”
- Community Collaboration: “Provide for and encourage local governments to develop, through a collaborative community-based effort, Smart Growth plans that include long-term land use and permit predictability and coordination, efficient decision making, and planning implementation.”
The Community Housing Plan may also include maps that delineate the Town’s proposed housing implementation recommendations. The Town must update the plan at least every five years. And the Town must include it in its Comprehensive Plan. Income limits for those eligible for housing under the plan must not exceed state limits.
Will Shelter Island approve the fund?
Thiele and Palumbo led a coalition of 35 East End leaders and organizations urging the governor to sign the bill. In addition, the Long Island Association and the Long Island Builders Institute endorsed it.
It’s an open question whether Islanders will vote to establish a housing fund. But many have already come out strongly in favor of doing so. Gadfly Bob Kohn spoke ardently against establishing such a fund while still serving on the Community Housing Board. To learn more, read this post about a contentious Community Housing Board meeting on the issue earlier this summer.
The Town Board has reconstituted the CHB. It now includes Cris DiOrio as chairperson and members Bran Doughtery-Johnson, Paul Cuccurullo, and Maria Magenti. Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams is the Town Board Liaison.
