Governor's Plan to Increase Housing in Suburbs Meets Suburban Opposition

by M.C. Millman

A plan by Governor Kathy Hochul to increase housing in the suburbs is receiving opposition from some Hudson Valley leaders, including Congressman Mike Lawler.

A roundtable discussion arranged by Lawler and attended by more than twelve local leaders yesterday at North Castle Town Hall in Airmonk met with a resounding agreement on the critical need for additional housing in the area. 

The disagreement is regarding the New York Housing Compact Plan  Hochul claims will solve the housing issue. Her budget for the plan will include $250 million to fund housing infrastructure and $20 million for planning assistance, with more funding promised if deemed necessary. Suburban leaders call the plan unworkable for a number of reasons.

According to News12, Lawler says the plan requires a significant investment in infrastructure to support new residents while taking away local control.

"It would upend the constitutional rights of our local municipalities and force a one-size-fits-all approach to housing," says Lawler. 

"As I have been saying all along," the Congressman tweeted on March 4 after a similar meeting on the same topic with 25 Mayors and Supervisors across Westchester, "localities know their communities and shouldn't have housing mandates forced on them by Albany bureaucrats who don't."

One facet of the  New York Housing Compact Plan is the requirement for municipalities in counties served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to increase housing over the next three years by 3%.

The plan includes incentives to foster development. It also allows the projects to circumvent the approval process by allowing the State authority to approve developments even if local boards have already rejected them.

Additionally, the plan calls for rezoning a half-mile radius around MTA train stations to foster transit-oriented development. This part of the plan will allow for more density and reduce the need for vehicles. 

In many cases, though, the rezoning will permit development that will increase the total number of housing units by two, three, or even four times what is already present in some municipalities, severely impacting public services such as schools, traffic, and public safety. Additionally, transit-oriented buildings would be exempt from an environmental review which could devastate communities.

The proposal still has months of agency and legislative review before it is finalized.

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