Lengthy Island is a poster baby for New York’s housing downside. At its coronary heart is a nasty cut price: The state has bestowed it with an intensive commuter rail community, but localities cling to single-family zoning.
A 2023 evaluation discovered an astonishing 89 percent of the buildable, residential land in Nassau and Suffolk counties was zoned for single-family. One other 8.5 p.c allowed two-family houses. Simply 3.6 p.c was zoned for multifamily, that means three or extra models.
Making issues worse, Lengthy Island has greater than 1,200 zoning districts, and multifamily initiatives usually require a tax break from a politicized IDA to pencil out. It takes a Ph.D. to construct residences there.
Progress is occurring — incrementally, as a result of Lengthy Island politicians helped defeat statewide zoning reform in 2023. In April, as an example, Huntington’s city board permitted Bethpage developer Metal Equities’ plan for 110 condominium models and 290 residences on 17 acres of a light-industrial space, Newsday reported.
The undertaking, which incorporates retail, a clubhouse and a pool, was made potential by the Melville City Middle Overlay District, which was created in December 2024. Melville’s purpose: a walkable downtown.
City Supervisor Ed Smyth known as the undertaking “the mannequin of what growth ought to be in Melville,” in line with Newsday. Now he simply wants just a few extra prefer it, as do all Lengthy Island localities with LIRR stations.
Progressive politics by no means limits growth on Lengthy Island the best way it does in New York Metropolis, the place elected officers demand heavy doses of money-losing reasonably priced housing.
On Lengthy Island, it’s conventional conservatism that holds housing again: Individuals cling to large-lot, single-family zoning, and resist even modest reforms, similar to making it straightforward so as to add an adjunct dwelling unit.
Take into account Islip, which has 5 Lengthy Island Rail Street stations. To construct a single ADU, a home-owner should present four off-street parking spaces. The parking would take up extra space than the dwelling itself!
It will get worse: If you wish to reside in your ADU and lease out your own home to a household, you possibly can’t. An ADU proprietor in Islip should use the principle home as a major residence. A lot for property rights.
As if that weren’t sufficient, Islip has made it unlawful to place an ADU in a indifferent construction, like a storage, or to construct one bigger than 800 sq. toes.
Did I point out that ADU candidates should additionally endure a public listening to? Not simply to get a allow permitted, however each time they should renew it. “Sorry, Grandma, it’s important to transfer out — our allow expired!”
Islip put up a fig leaf a few years in the past, offering state grants of as much as $125,000 to create an ADU — with out altering the foundations that make it just about inconceivable to take action.
Some cities are making efforts to supply reasonably priced housing. On the North Fork, Southold City simply scrapped a complete zoning reform after 5 years to start out from scratch.
Southold officers realized that no quantity of tweaking their preliminary proposal would make a dent of their affordability downside, which has made it tough for native companies to rent workers. Wage employees simply can’t afford to reside within the space, the place half of the residences are second houses.
However don’t maintain your breath for an answer. Southold planners say the rezoning’s public course of may have 10 phases and take three to 5 years.
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