Support For Sag Harbor Affordable Housing Measures At Tuesday Village Hearing

Three proposals before the Sag Harbor Village Board that are intended to address the affordable housing crisis were greeted with overwhelming support at a public hearing on Tuesday, May 10.

Since the Village Board initially unveiled the measures at the beginning of the year, they have undergone continual tweaking, and this week was no exception.

Trustee Ed Haye, who has led the effort to craft the new legislation along with Trustee Bob Plumb and Village Attorney Elizabeth Vail, said language had been tightened to make it clear the village was trying to provide housing that would be truly affordable for the year-round workers it is targeting. One addition would limit rents to 35 percent of the net income of the occupant, he told the audience that filled the firehouse meeting room.

Ella Engel-Snow, who works on a local vegetable farm, said keeping rents affordable would be key.

“I feel really strongly that if we don’t really intentionally and specifically make it clear who this housing is for in the legislation that people will take advantage of any loopholes possible and will try to make as much money as possible,” she said. “That’s not to say there aren’t wonderful community members who want to support each other, but there are also those developers and people who want to make an extra buck.”

One of the proposals the village is considering would make it easier for property owners to build accessory apartments on residential properties, while a second would allow the construction of three-story, mixed-use buildings with commercial uses on the ground floor and affordable apartments on the upper floors in the office district and village business zones. A third measure would set up a program to administer affordable housing programs in the village — a task that would be outsourced to East Hampton and Southampton towns, which already have their own housing offices.

“I can’t wait to build one on my property,” said Bryony Freij of East End YIMBY, a housing advocacy organization, of the plan to ease restrictions on affordable accessory apartments. “I’ve already had a few colleagues of mine ask, ‘When are you going to build it? How much are you going to charge? Can I move in?’ It’s going to break my heart, because I’m going to have to pick one of them.”

Freij said she hoped neighbors would also take advantage of the opportunity to build accessory units. “I hope this becomes a trend,” she said. “I want to see little homes scattered throughout Sag Harbor.”

Megan Chiarello, a village shopkeeper, also supported the legislation, telling the board the lack of affordable housing was making it hard for her to staff her store, and Christopher Klein, a Sag Harbor teacher, said providing housing for teachers would help them become more involved in the community instead of spending hours each day commuting from their homes to the west.

“Being at the bookstore now for over two decades, I’ve seen the attrition of local teachers who have lived in the area and the detriment that causes young students,” agreed Kathryn Szoka, an owner of Canio’s Books.

She said a young teacher would be hard pressed to devote 35 percent of their income to housing, and suggested the village reduce that threshold. “When I was growing up, it was 25 percent you were supposed to pay for rent for a given year,” she said, suggesting that a compromise of 30 percent might be acceptable.

Szoka said the vibrancy of the village was at stake if it did not offer housing options. “The health of the village is not strong when 80 percent of the people who own homes aren’t there most of the year,” she said.

John Kirrane, a Noyac resident and member of the Noyac Civic Council, was the sole speaker to question whether the village’s proposals were a good idea. He said his neighborhood was home to many senior citizens on limited incomes, who would struggle on increased school taxes that would come with increased density. “Little houses built all over the community might have little children using the schools,” he said.

Kirrane asked if proposed tax rebates would mean that those homes would not share equally in the cost of education.

“The hope is it will bring more people into the community, and, ultimately, into the school district as well,” responded Haye, who added that it was not clear yet what kind of impact any of the proposals would have on school taxes.

“A classic concern about increasing density is often the burden on schools,” said Freij. “We are not building big homes on big properties. These are going to be small apartments. I think most of the people are already using our services and our systems. They are just living in awful situations or in illegal units at the moment.”

Michael Daly, a founder of East End YIMBY, said the village would not be able to solve the housing crisis on its own. “We won’t be able to give everybody a space in our tiny, little village,” he said, “but we will set a tone that will that will set an example for other surrounding towns and villages.”

Trustee Tom Gardella, a longtime village resident, said he had seen the number of apartments dwindle over the years, in part, because of stricter regulations, and he said the village planned to address the need for more housing.

“The ship is turning, and I believe it is turning in the right direction,” he said. “I just want to thank the community for coming out and supporting this.”

The board adjourned the hearing until next month without taking other action.