Southampton Town Seeks Code Change To Create More Affordable Housing

Southampton Town Councilwoman Christine Scalera has proposed a code change that would make it difficult for residential developers to sidestep mandates for the inclusion of affordable housing simply by reducing the overall number of units.

As the law stands now, developers creating five or more residential units—or building a mixed-use development—must set aside 10 percent of the units for affordable housing, or pay into a pool to fund affordable housing projects. Developers, she noted, have legally been able to avoid the affordable unit requirements through a “loophole” in the state’s Long Island Workforce Housing Program, which exempts developments that are built to less than their full permitted density.

Ms. Scalera gave an example of a hypothetical project that, based on land size and zoning, would be allowed 10 units—where one unit would be required to be affordable under the mandate. If the developers reduced the number of units to nine, they would no longer be required to provide the one affordable unit.

Ms. Scalera’s proposed change would eliminate the provision that exempts developments with a lower density from providing the affordable units within Southampton Town.

This would contradict the loophole in the Long Island Workforce Housing Program, a state mandate that requires the construction of affordable housing units in certain larger-scale residential developments, or payments to the town for affordable housing, if those units could not be built at the site. The original Long Island Workforce Housing Program legislation was passed into law by the state in 2008 and it does not make it clear if local municipalities have the authority to make such a code change.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. recently proposed a bill in the State Assembly that would affirm that local municipalities have the authority to change the legislation, as Ms. Scalera has proposed for Southampton Town.

The assemblyman noted that he believed this clarification would be a better fit for Long Island as a whole, as opposed to getting rid of the loophole at the state level.

“What’s good for Southampton may not be good for other areas of Long Island,” he said, noting that much of western Long Island has already been developed to a greater extent. “Instead of trying to change the state law and putting a one-size-fits-all for all of Long Island, I would prefer to make it clear that the villages and towns can modify it to suit them.”

In the major subdivisions built in Southampton Town since 2008, Ms. Scalera noted, the town has missed out on 13 units of affordable housing through the loophole, which would have equaled putting $2.5 million toward affordable housing. In a press release about the legislation, the councilwoman noted that close to 90 percent of Southampton subdivisions subject to the Workforce Housing Act used the loophole to avoid the affordable housing requirement.

“Ironically, as it pertains to the town, everyone keeps saying we are in need of affordable housing and we are particularly in need of affordable housing east of the canal,” she said. “There would have been an extra 11 out of the 13 subdivisions with affordable housing east of the canal. Over time, that adds up.”

A public hearing on the proposed code change is scheduled for Tuesday, May 23, at 6 p.m. in Southampton Town Hall.