Long Islanders would trade houses for apartments

BY REID J. EPSTEIN | reid.epstein@newsday.com

11:38 PM EST, January 22, 2008

A third of Long Islanders are willing to trade their detached houses and yards for high-density condominiums or apartments within walking distance from a vibrant community center, according to the annual Long Island Index being released today.

From the time Long Island was settled by New York City residents moving east in search of more open space, detached single-family homes with cars in the driveway have been the region's staple. But as gas and housing prices rise to unprecedented levels, the lifestyle -- for many of the roughly 2.8 million people living here -- is unsustainable, the Index says.

"Virtually every problem Long Island faces is caused or aggravated by single-family sprawl," the report states. "In the face of these threats, there was always a simple answer: single family housing is what people want. Now, for hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders, that is no longer true."

The study, commissioned by the Garden City-based Rauch Foundation and scheduled to be presented today at Farmingdale State College, found that 85 percent of Long Islanders live in single-family homes, but one-third would prefer an apartment, condominium or town house in a downtown area.

Housing costs a factor

Nearly three in four people here said they could not afford to purchase their own home at today's prices. About 78 percent said they would leave Long Island rather than purchase another house here. Just eight years ago, 62 percent of Long Island homes were worth less than $250,000. By 2006 that figure dropped to 4 percent, according to the Index.

One result, according to the Index, is Long Island's well-documented brain drain. While the population of 25- to 34-year-olds declined by 8 percent nationwide between 1990 and 2006, it fell 35 percent on Long Island, according to U.S. Census data included in the Index. And the Index found 65 percent of Long Island's young people said they will likely leave the region in the next five years.

The Index's poll of more than 1,100 people, conducted by the Stony Brook University Center for Survey Research, found that:

38 percent of Long Islanders said they could imagine themselves living in an apartment, condominium or town house near a downtown. Half said they could see a family member do so.

61 percent support building high-density developments in local downtowns.

49 percent support increasing building height limits.

63 percent support an increase in the number of rental apartments in downtown areas near bus and train stations.

62 percent support building multilevel parking decks in their downtowns

56 percent back the adoption of state incentives to encourage greater housing density.

"Young workers are vital for sustaining businesses here," said Nancy Rauch Douzinas, the Rauch Foundation president. "And we're losing our future middle class."

The call for affordable, high-density housing on Long Island is not new. The Long Island Regional Planning Board has been making the case for years and last year estimated 100,000 new units are necessary to sustain the local economy.

Last June, the Suffolk County Legislature enacted a law requiring any developer who taps into a county sewer system to set aside 20 percent of new housing units for affordable housing.

The Regional Plan Association, an independent, nonprofit tristate planning organization, conducted a survey of 23 Long Island downtowns for the Index to determine, among other things, their livability and potential for residential growth. Densely populated communities like Great Neck, Babylon and Greenport scored high in the survey, while communities without residential buildings at their centers -- Hicksville, Islip and Roosevelt -- scored poorly.

Revitalization in Patchogue

Patchogue, according to the Index, is undergoing a "dynamic revitalization process" thanks in part to a new affordable housing development. Hempstead, at a transit hub for the Long Island Rail Road and bus services, and featuring one of Long Island's densest and tallest downtowns, has the potential to create a walkable, vibrant downtown, the Index states.

"There are these centers that have developed much denser housing and they've been able to retain more young people," said Ann Golob, the Long Island Index director.

Compared to New York City suburbs in New Jersey, Connecticut and the Hudson Valley, Long Island has more single-family houses and fewer apartments and homes for rent, according to the Index.

The Index found that Long Island will need to create between 7,000 to 8,000 new housing units annually just to accommodate population growth and to replace existing housing that either ages, is razed or otherwise becomes unusable. The Island's 23 downtowns, it found, could accommodate 100,000 new housing units over the next 25 years -- about half what the region will need.

The challenge, the Index's authors admit, is fostering a political environment in which communities can build high-density, affordable housing at their centers. Despite calls from business and political leaders for such developments, they often face stiff local resistance.

"You play into Long Island's stereotypes where you hear the word affordable and think bad things," Douzinas said. "We need to find a new language to explain housing and create homes for people who want to live here."