Amityville considers 6-month moratorium on apartments, condos and townhomes

The Village of Amityville wants to enact a six-month moratorium on new multiunit housing projects so it can evaluate the impact of its current housing, which has expanded dramatically in recent years.

The proposed legislation would temporarily halt the "approval or construction of new or additional multiple dwellings" in the village, which, according to the latest census data, has a population of about 10,000. Multiple dwellings is defined as any building with three or more units, including apartments, condominiums, townhomes and accessory units, Mayor Michael O’Neill said. The proposed law allows for another six-month extension to the moratorium if necessary.

A public hearing on the law will be held Monday at 7 p.m. at Village Hall.

Amityville has been working to perk up its downtown after receiving $10 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative money from the state in 2022, with some viewing more rental housing as a key accompaniment to those efforts.

According to the proposed legislation, the village has added 500 new multiple "dwelling units" in the past five years, a 20% increase over the total number.

More than 300 of those new units are part of the AvalonBay complex on Broadway that was built in 2023. The company had proposed building a second large-scale luxury apartment complex across the street before the first was even occupied, but it nixed that plan after village officials and residents voiced their disapproval.

O’Neill said the village continued to receive inquiries from developers to add more multiunit housing and, he said, workers find five to eight newly identified rental units each month. He said officials felt now was the time to take a pause and evaluate the village’s existing housing before entertaining any new proposals.

"This is to make sure we don’t oversaturate the village," he said.

Stress on core services

O’Neill said the village would put out a request for proposals to find a company to gather and analyze data about how many multiple dwellings the village had, occupancy rates and rents, as well as impacts such as traffic congestion, parking, and the stress the units placed on core services, such as from first responders.

Those services were put to the test soon after the AvalonBay complex opened when the village’s police and fire departments responded to nearly two dozen false alarms at the apartments between August 2023 and September 2024. The problem, which AvalonBay blamed on "construction-related issues," led to the village issuing summonses to the company.

Amityville’s police chief told Newsday the department was planning to implement a new records management system that would help it pinpoint areas where they receive frequent calls.

"We’re going to use our own internal staff and then put out an RFP to have a company look and do a well-thought-out evaluation," O’Neill said. "We need to have this data to move forward."

Joan Donnison, president of the Bay Village Civic Association, said she was "pleasantly surprised" to hear about the proposed moratorium.

"I think we do need to take that pause and try to evaluate what the impact has been on our resources, our quality of life," she said. "We need to take a thoughtful approach. I think we’re at a tipping point."

Donnison has been pleased with the vibrancy the village’s revitalization efforts have brought to the downtown, she said, and she hopes the existing multiunit dwellings have success.

"I hope that we can balance what’s good for the developers with what’s good for the village," she said. "I know it’s dollars and cents, but the quality of life is just so important, and once it’s gone, it’s gone."

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.