Hempstead proposal would tighten house size limits in Levittown

The business of tearing down older houses in Levittown and building larger ones would become less profitable if a proposed zoning change that reduces allowable house size is approved by the Hempstead Town Board, according to real estate professionals.

The town board will hold a hearing Tuesday on the proposed change to the Levittown Planned Residence District. The change would reduce the permitted building area on a residential lot to 27.5% from 30%. 

Levittown is known as America's first suburb of the post-World War II boom, where thousands of homes were built to satisfy a sudden, skyrocketing need for affordable houses for returning soldiers.   

Many of those homes were modest, built to standard sizes for those times. But today, a drive through Levittown’s streets shows blocks dotted with larger homes on those lots, built after the original homes were torn down.

Town Supervisor John Ferretti, who lives in Levittown, said the change would address concerns by residents about overbuilding. “A lot of people feel it's not within the character of the neighborhood; that it is an unreasonable, onerous burden on the infrastructure in the Levittown area,” he said in an interview.

The zoning change, Ferretti said, would bring the community into line with Residence District B, which restricts building area to 27.5%. Ferretti said that about 80% of homes in Hempstead that are subject to the town's zoning are in that district, though zoning code for houses there allow accessory decking that can expand the total building area to 30%.

Building big in Levittown

Lynbrook-based architect Brian Lynch said he’s handled a large increase in new housing designs in Levittown since the pandemic, from both house-flippers looking to profit and families seeking larger homes.

“You're allowed to build a bigger house in Levittown than you can anywhere else,” Lynch said. “That's why everyone's buying these houses in Levittown and knocking them down and building these mansions.”

Lynch said reducing the allowable footprint won’t kill the market for new construction there, but it will change it. “You're still going to get a good-size house,” he said. However, “people are targeting Levittown because of that 30%, because they know that they can get more, so I think it'll broaden where people are going to move.”

Brian Gruber, owner of East Meadow-based contracting company Sound Home Improvement of Nassau, is building a new house in Levittown to sell after having demolished the previous house on the lot. He said his project is below the maximum allowable square footage. According to a listing on Zillow.com, the house, when finished, will have five bedrooms, 3,500 square feet and an asking price of $1.6 million.

“It's very expensive to do these houses,” Gruber said. “You would think that someone's selling a house for $1.5, $1.6 million, they're making a ton of money, but they're really not.”

Gruber said construction costs have gone up, and that while he’d prefer to remodel houses, those projects just aren’t profitable.

“It doesn't pay to remodel anymore,” Gruber said. “If you're in construction and selling houses, new [construction] is really the only way right now to make money.”

Predicting the effects

Mohsin Shah, a principal of Valley Stream-based real estate company Best American Homes, has made a business of buying homes, tearing them down and building new ones. One of his projects under construction, a house on Gun Lane in Levittown, near Ferretti’s residence, takes advantage of the 30% building area.

If adopted, the new zoning code would cut into his business, he said.

Homebuyers are “looking for more square feet” and a “bigger house,” he said.

Shah said he believes the restriction would cut into property taxes the town would otherwise collect. “The more square footage, they will collect more tax,” he said. “So I don’t know why they are recommending for reducing the square footage.”

Ferretti disagreed with that assessment. 

"I do not foresee this as having any impact on anyone's taxes at all," he said. 

Town spokesman Brian Devine said the proximity of Shah's project to the supervisor's home wasn't a factor in the town's consideration of the proposed zoning change. 

Shah said reducing the size of new houses that can be built also will lower what developers are willing to pay. That assessment was echoed by Jaswinder Singh, a real estate broker who specializes in buying homes for cash and selling them to developers, including in Levittown, where his ad is displayed in the yard of a house under construction on Wantagh Avenue.

“Builders will not pay the same amount of money if they cannot build the bigger house,” Singh said. “It's going to affect the market.”

Builders will still buy homes from owners looking to sell, but they won’t pay as much, Singh said, estimating that property values on smaller homes in Levittown could fall by as much as $100,000. “All these homeowners … they're just not going to be able to sell for same price anymore,” he said.