Two Tuckahoe Projects Propose New Affordable Housing Opportunities

The Southampton Town Board heard two separate pitches last week for new housing developments in Tuckahoe that would boost below-market housing if granted relief from zoning restrictions to allow increases in density on their respective properties.

The Southampton Housing Authority has proposed building nine approximately 1,200-square-foot, three-bed, two-bath homes on a 3.2-acre parcel of land off North Sea-Mecox Road that Housing Authority Executive Director Curtis Highsmith says he hopes can be sold at rates affordable to people making as little as 60 percent of the region’s median income — even less than the requirements for what is considered “affordable housing” in the region.

The proposal, Highsmith told members of the Town Board on November 7, has been reworked from the original plans for the property and has earned the support of the current residents in the surrounding neighborhood.

The nine homes would be capped in size and limited in the sort of improvements that could be made by the eventual buyers — restricting the finishing of basements, adding accessory structures or creating rental apartments — preventing the properties from increasing in value beyond what would keep them in the affordable housing realm in perpetuity. The housing authority has owned the property since 2006.

The newly unveiled plans for the project call for the homes to be arranged around a cul-de-sac, with five homes on the western portion of the site, which abuts protected open space and four on the eastern side, which neighbors a cluster of existing homes. An area of green space will be maintained at the southern rear of the property, which Highsmith said could someday be used for a playground if the housing authority can get grant funding.

The project will require the Town Board to grant a change of zone on the property, allowing multi-family development beyond the half-acre minimum lot size under current zoning, which would have allowed the parcel to be subdivided into up to six separate building lots.

Highsmith told Town Board members that he has already been meeting with Suffolk County and New York State officials on ways to secure funding support that he hopes will enable the housing authority to deliver the homes to buyers — who will be chosen by lottery — at just a fraction of the market rate.

“I’m looking for this to be truly affordable — that’s 80 percent of median area income in Southampton Town. I’d love to hit the market at 60 percent, or below,” Highsmith told. “East of the canal, it’s impossible to hack, but if we are able to get the kind of funding I believe we’re going to get for this project — I’ve already had Suffolk County and the state has been here and they are excited about real true affordable homeownership.”

Highsmith said he also hopes that the town’s Community Housing Fund will contribute to the project.

The housing authority will maintain ownership of the underlying land and sell the homes themselves under legal agreements that allow the buyers to earn a small amount of equity when they eventually sell, but will still keep the homes in the affordable range over time. The housing authority will also oversee the maintenance of the property and will create a homeowners association that will help fund upkeep through fees.

“We’ll do annual inspections, our crews will do the property maintenance, mowing the lawns — I’m meticulous about how our properties are maintained and kept because people are driving by and using that as the basis for whether we’re qualified to do what we do,” Highsmith said. “So they will always look impeccable.”

Town Planning Director Janice Scherer said that the project will need approval by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals after the Town Board grants the change of zone.

Board members were supportive of the idea and said they would advance the zone change proposal soon.

“The community loves the idea and I’m happy they support it,” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara said, noting that there were some concerns about restrictions on the ability to rent the homes out, which Highsmith said would be strictly prohibited and that all owners will be required to live in the homes year-round.

“What can we do to help you?” Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni asked.

Highsmith responded simply, “Money!”

Pitch To Remake Resort

Into New Apartments

A private development company also came to the Town Board with a pitch to be allowed to remake a former resort off County Road 39 into 36 new duplex condominiums — 10 of which would be sold at affordable housing rates and the remainder at market rate.

The property, 929 County Road 39, is a former 24-unit resort hotel that years ago morphed, unofficially, into rental apartments up a steep driveway just west of Shinnecock Hardware and the South Fork Delicatessen, and known as Quail Ridge. Most of the existing units are one-bedroom.

Representatives of a development company called Northwind Group said that they have reached an agreement to purchase the two lots that comprise the property if the town gives them the necessary permission to expand a “preexisting, nonconforming use,” as any use of a property that does not conform to current zoning but predates the adoption of the rules is known. Town code prohibits a nonconforming use from being expanded by more than 50 percent size or value.

The new development would have 18 structures, each with two residences, all with three bedrooms. Five of the duplexes would be set aside to be sold at affordable rates, an arrangement that the developers are working on with the Long Island Housing Partnership, the company’s principal, Jimmy Tsunis, told the Town Board.

Wayne Bruyn, the group’s attorney, said that the approach Northwind has taken to redevelopment plans would more than double the number of affordable units that would be created by the project over what would be required by town code for a multifamily development.

Board members were hesitant, with the complications of the property being accessed only by the chronically congested and infamously dangerous County Road 39.

“The 10 affordable units is a great feature — if this was on any other road, I would be, like, where do we sign?” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara said. “County Road 39 is an issue though … I would be very hesitant to put this kind of density on this site right now. I understand there’s currently a number of units there, but to increase it to 102 bedrooms — I don’t want to encourage this process and down the road find out that it’s too much. Any other road in the town of Southampton, I’d be all over this.”

Bruyn asked board members to consider that at some point in the future, someone is going to redevelop the property as they would have a right to do.

“We think our client has the wherewithal and the best project in mind,” Bruyn said. “We understand the County Road 39 issues,” but the project is not like a grocery store with constant trading of traffic and the residents would learn to deal with logistical hurdles of access.

Engineering consultant Chic Voorhis said that the designs for the project would restrict cars leaving the property from making left turns into the eastbound lanes of CR39.

Town Planning Director Janice Scherer told board members that if an official redevelopment application were brought to the town, closer examination of restrictions on the property may mean that the total number of units allowed would be lower, but that her department would not delve into that until the Town Board indicated it was open to considering the project.