Not for Us

Over lunch in Southampton Village, a cordial but pointed conversation took place last week — and there is reason to be optimistic that an important message was delivered straight to Governor Kathy Hochul in Albany.

To the governor’s credit, her office sent not one but three representatives to the Express Sessions event held on Thursday, March 23, to discuss Hochul’s New York Housing Compact, and to evaluate its effectiveness on the South Fork in particular. One of her representatives, Kate Van Tassel, who is director of special projects for New York State Homes and Community Renewal, ably presented details of the statewide initiative meant to address a dearth in housing opportunities. Its primary mechanism: the threat of the state overriding local zoning if the desired pace of new housing is not met.

That has not been well-received in a community that has actively fought overdevelopment on its own for decades. As several panelists, most notably Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming pointed out, elected officials and most residents here do not need convincing: The lack of housing for working people and families is so dire that four East End towns have created a new transfer tax to pay for affordable housing measures. The threat of Albany stepping in to force the issue feels overwrought and even counterproductive.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has led a push in Albany for an alternative, a system of financial incentives rather than mandates, with a goal of providing funds to address one specific obstacle: infrastructure. He’s been successful — his proposal is in both the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget. Will Hochul be willing to allow her vision of a stick to be replaced by a carrot?

The message delivered to Van Tassel and the rest of the governor’s contingent last week was fairly simple: This region is fully invested in the goals of the plan and doesn’t need any threats. Zoning is part of the equation that definitely needs to be addressed, but the absence of sewers — and Suffolk County’s resulting resistance to granting the necessary permits to build or add units — can be resolved with a simple influx of cash.

Elements like the focus on intense development near train stations reveal the “broad brush” nature of the proposed compact — it makes perfect sense in commuter communities in Nassau County, but it’s a square peg for the South Fork’s round hole of a housing problem. The message last week — and, with luck, it was delivered directly to Hochul’s ears in the days since — is that the New York Housing Compact is not for us. That’s because it’s a stern command to action, when action is already well underway. It will get done, and there are other ways Albany can help, if they’ll truly listen.