Gov. Hochul must adapt her housing proposal for Long Island

In 1988, the Long Island Housing Partnership was launched with a mission to create affordable homes for Long Island employees who otherwise would not be able to afford housing. I became its first president and chief executive.

The organization was modeled after the highly successful New York City Housing Partnership. We soon learned, however, that doing affordable housing on Long Island was vastly different from doing it in New York City. A principal reason was Long Island’s 13 towns, two cities and 95 villages, each with its own land-use policies, culture, and personalities. The Long Island Housing Partnership had to adjust to Long Island if we were to get anything done. Likewise, Gov. Kathy Hochul needs to adjust her housing proposal if it is going to have any success on Long Island.

The governor is right to address the Island’s housing crisis and do so as an economic sustainability issue. Housing has been the third rail for Long Island politicians. The governor should be praised for not being afraid to touch it. But if her compact is to have tangible results, she must understand the Island and be open to change.

For example, Hochul’s zoning proposal would require increased density a half-mile around train stations. Long Island would be divided into four tiers with mandated densities as high as 50 homes an acre in the tier closest to the city line. The desire to accelerate production is understandable because, with precious few exceptions, as-of-right multifamily zoning doesn’t exist on Long Island. But Hochul's plan treats all communities of the same tier as the same without any regard for existing land uses.

In Tier 1, Oceanside is different from Westbury and in Tier 3 Sayville is different from Ronkonkoma. The arbitrary half-mile radius lands in the middle of residential neighborhoods in some places; in others, it's underwater. The new rezoning requirement should be limited to parcels already zoned commercial or industrial, or Hochul should increase the infrastructure pot from $250 million to $800 million to encourage rezoning residential parcels. Importantly, because aesthetically pleasing density is always a function of design, architecture compatible with existing locales should be required.

Equally understandable is the idea of an appointed board that could overrule a municipality’s zoning denial, in a region where approving one affordable housing development — Matinecock Court in East Northport — took nearly a half-century. But an authority should not treat every municipality the same. Massachusetts’ 1969 Chapter 40 (B), the granddaddy of all such superseding authorities, was designed to create affordable homes. It does not treat all towns and cities the same. For example, if 10% or more of a municipality's existing housing stock qualifies as affordable, it is exempt from 40 (B). The statue withstood a referendum in 2010 and was retained with a 58% voter approval. It is still controversial, and it continues to create affordable homes.

Additional aspects of the governor’s bold proposal could be better adjusted to Long Island. Expediting land-use review, while necessary, will only work with allowances for a municipality’s existing land uses. Increasing income eligibility to live in homes aided by low-income housing tax credits shows Hochul understands the suburbs, but those incomes should be high enough for beginning teachers and nurses to qualify but not so high that landlords can charge market rents and call them affordable.

Back in 1988, few thought housing was a major challenge. Today, only flat-earthers deny it.