LONG ISLAND, NY - After several years of stalled efforts, the state Legislature is poised to pass a bill that would require 10 percent of Long Island housing developments to be affordable. The inclusionary zoning measure, which could pass as soon as next week, is sponsored by state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), and has bipartisan support. The Long Island Association, Long Island's leading business group, has long championed this bill and says its passage is a political breakthrough for the region. But some housing advocates are not so sure. In a bid to get Nassau village officials to drop their longtime opposition, they contend, sponsors have so watered down the measure that its value is mainly symbolic.
The bill, which gives builders a density bonus for affordable units, now allows those units to be built on a different site owned by the builder in the same municipality, or pay a fee that will be used to build affordable housing in another municipality by mutual agreement. Or the money can go to the Long Island Housing Partnership for housing and down payment assistance. "This has to happen before any other progress is made on workforce housing on Long Island," said Matthew Crosson, president of the Long Island Association. "You have in place a bipartisan consensus that this problem is real, and it needs to be solved urgently."
But the new language has dismayed many in the large coalition that had backed the bill. "The concern is that this will perpetuate patterns of racial and class housing segregation," said Richard Koubek, Catholic Charities coordinator for the Mobilized Interfaith Coalition Against Hunger campaign. "Wealthier villages could get around the law by negotiating a deal with less wealthy villages to literally sell off their housing obligation. There are quite a few loopholes."
So while not opposing this bill, Koubek and other advocates are now working to pass one backed by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and his chief deputy, former housing advocate James Morgo. That measure, covering seven downstate counties, would spell out how many homes should be built in each community, and offer incentives to governments that build them. "The inclusionary bill is a good symbolic message, but would ultimately only get you about 100 to 200 units a year being built," said Levy, who nevertheless believes it should pass. "The downstate bill could lead to thousands and thousands." Already, he said, several Long Island municipalities have passed inclusionary zoning laws tougher than this bill.
But while Skelos also has sponsored Levy's favored bill, lawmakers say it is nowhere near passing, because it is new, complex and would require some $87 million in support. "Compromises have to be made," insists Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), a co-sponsor of the inclusionary bill. "We're going to get one passed and we're going to move the process forward." The debate has strained relations between Morgo, who was critical of the inclusionary bill but thought both could pass, and Crosson, who had lobbied to stop the filing of the downstate bill at all.
In letters, phone calls and heated exchanges at meetings, Crosson argued the downstate bill would "derail" five years of work. He wrote to the Regional Plan Association demanding it "immediately cease" its work on the bill. In February, Crosson wrote to LIA directors saying Morgo was behind efforts to "undermine" and "misrepresent" the inclusionary bill. This month, Crosson dismissed the frictions, saying his fears have not been borne out. "That's past, and we're moving forward," Crosson said. But the LIA still does not endorse the bill Levy and Morgo drafted together with the other suburban counties. "I think the bill is complicated and difficult for people to
Source: Newsday.com